I’ve recently been doing research at a mid-market food packaging and distribution company, working with the team qualifying suppliers and maintaining supplier relationships. This team has an employee we’ll call Jack who is in charge of procuring and onboarding new suppliers, and another employee we’ll call Jill who is qualifying, maintaining, and renewing supplier and vendor relationships.

Now, Jack is the pumping heart of procurement. His supplier relationship management skills are off the charts, and he understands how important it is to get the best suppliers onto the price list, all while keeping costs down for clients. Jack is also great at gathering prospective supplier application documentation. Meanwhile, Jill has to review all Jack’s supplier application documentation and keeps track of supplier certifications, expiration dates, performance, and more. But Jill also feels bombarded with admin work, including digging through an incredible amount of emails, spreadsheets, and file storage in the cloud in order to update other complex spreadsheets regarding supplier quality status.

I was floored to find out that between Jack and Jill, they spend 10 to 20+ hours every week manually gathering supplier onboarding documentation, reviewing new suppliers to be qualified, and managing/renewing expiring supplier documents. They both work overtime everyday just to get the rest of their basic jobs done.

But Jack & Jill deserve better and so do you.

Here’s how you can break up with old manual processes and leverage supplier relationship management to improve your work life and your brand protection.

Forget AI, Blockchain & ERPs

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by the industry’s focus on the “future of supply chain.” There is a ton of great discussion around artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, but neither in their current state seem exactly viable for most companies. Instead, I think back to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs — we all need to take care of the basics, one level at a time.

For many small- and mid-sized companies, it’s too much to take on an AI, machine learning, and blockchain-supported platform when the on-the-ground reality is that you simply aren’t ready for that kind of tech, both operationally and cost-wise. You need more agile and practical solutions that are accessible now to help you manage onboarding and maintain supplier relationships.

However, you still need to turn to tech for help. After all, your vendor programs can be complicated and you need to scale them in times of growth. The good news is you don’t need the same, expensive enterprise resource planning (ERP) software as the distribution giants. Instead, most companies simply need flexible software that helps them save time by transitioning away from outdated, manual processes. (More on that software solution later.)

Adopt a “One Level Up & One Level Down” Mentality

“Full supply chain traceability” as promised with blockchain is a fantastic idea and an awesome aspiration for the food industry. However, the ambitious goal of farm-to-fork traceability for food is not there yet. So what can you do right now when it comes to your supply chain and supplier relationship management? The answer is simple: “one level up and one level down” traceability. This means that during an audit by a client, regulator, or supplier, you need to be able to provide current certification and other quality documentation on demand of (a) where you purchased raw materials or product from, and (b) who you sold it to.

That simple concept is all that’s required to meet the traceability standards of the Food Modernization and Safety Act (FSMA) and most global standards, including the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). But that concept isn’t quite so simple when you’re in the trenches.

For small- and mid-sized food industry companies, you can’t afford to take a hit from a foodborne illness accusation or worse. You need to do your due diligence and have all your ducks in a row to show any auditor or regulator proof that your products are what they say they are — organic, BPA free, kosher, responsibly sourced from a GFSI approved facility, etc.

Ditch Outdated Manual Processes

If your operations are mostly manual, you probably rely on complex and massive spreadsheets to manage your suppliers and vendors. And keeping those spreadsheets as up-to-date as possible means that every day, week, and month, you’re spending a lot of time digging through email chains, deep folder structures in online document storage, and perhaps even physical files faxed or mailed to you (if this is you, you aren’t laughing).

Frankly (as Jack and Jill know), this is a total time suck that steals hours away from the rest of the important tasks you need to do in order to support and grow your company’s quality and supplier relationship management initiatives, not to mention your own career. Additionally, manual processes have several downsides in the modern market:

• Manual-heavy processes are more open to human error and risk.
• Scaling manual processes in a meaningful way is difficult and costly.
• Hiring additional, qualified employees is costly, and hiring less-qualified employees increases risk.
• The speed of information is slow, so you may be acting on inaccurate data.
• It’s time-consuming and difficult to comply with auditor/FDA/USDA requests.

Embrace Proven Tech Solutions

There are several quality management software (QMS) companies on the market that help companies manage their quality programs. However, the choices become fewer when you’re looking for a tool that’s both configurable and competitively priced to help you manage supplier relationships. Yes, ERP solutions can manage everything you could ever need, but they are expensive, complex, and difficult to work with. Conversely, there are many basic point solutions that may solve one or two of your needs, but they can’t address all your needs, and they aren’t flexible to your process.

When you’re looking for a QMS that helps you manage onboarding and maintaining suppliers specifically, there are several initial questions to ask about the software:

1. How do I collect qualifying information from suppliers?
2. How do I store and organize supplier information, documents, and certifications, and is that information searchable?
3. Is the onboarding process clear for suppliers?
4. Can I easily renew and maintain supplier relationships?
5. Do I gain visibility into the health of my supplier programs?
6. It is easy to use for me and my suppliers?
7. Do I have to conform to the software, or can I configure the software to my process?

These questions are important because if the functionality in a QMS can sufficiently address them, you’ll see a number of benefits. These include, but are not limited to:

• Time-saving automation
• Seamless onboarding & renewals
• Increased data accuracy
• More visibility
• Better supplier communication and collaboration
• Searchable “single source of truth” for all data & documents
• Proactive risk mitigation
• Easy basic and complex supplier relationship management

 

Figure Out What to Do with All the Time You Saved

Whether you use the time you save in your career, your personal life, or both, get ready to start making decisions about leveling up.

 

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RizePoint offers a QMS that empowers people just like you collect, organize, and manage data around quality assurance, corporate social responsibility, and supplier quality management. The software is highly flexible and configurable to your specific needs, giving you the value you need from an ERP-type solution without the huge price tag. Learn more about our supplier quality management solution here.