Instilling a Growth Mindset: How to Ensure Your Supplier Continuously Improves their Performance

You did it. You’ve searched, identified, and selected a high-quality supplier. Your new challenge? How do you continue to get quality results and meet your customer’s expectations? In today’s world, supply chains are heartless and unforgiving. Failing to provide high-quality products on time is unacceptable and expensive. Maybe you’ve worked with the same supplier for years and have recently noticed a behavior change? Competitiveness? Perhaps a supplier that once provided quality products is now costing you valuable lead times or quality concerns? How can you identify, select, and trust that the supplier you choose to work with will continue to perform and produce high-quality, competitive products and meet your expectations year after year?

July 13, 2021

The Human Connection

Business is business, and while some companies may choose to have a hands-off relationship with their suppliers, other companies choose to invest time and energy in their suppliers to establish a human connection. Working closely with suppliers is a choice, and while there are positive aspects to both decisions, it all comes down to your company values.

By creating hands-on experiences and going beyond the production line, many businesses choose to take time to get to know their suppliers on a more personal level. In building this human connection, companies can work closely with suppliers and genuinely take advantage of in-person relationships. While this format may not be suitable for all businesses, these types of supplier relationships encourage honest, transparent, and constructive conversations.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has played a fairly significant role in distancing and separating companies with their vendors, especially within the international business world. Many businesses have chosen to continue working virtually as international travel continues to pose many unknowns. However, for those companies who continue to manufacture and grow healthy working relationships with their suppliers, production has continued “business as usual.” While COVID-19 has undoubtedly affected the global supply chain, it’s also been a time to thrive.

What Sets HB International Apart From Other Global Sourcing agencies?

Our suppliers know us, and we know them. HB International’s team of experts regularly meets with our suppliers face-to-face, as we know the importance of having healthy, human relationships. Our team values honesty and reliability, which is why we focus our attention on providing guidance, offering suggestions, and respecting our supplier’s professional opinion. While we do not hesitate to address concerns with our suppliers, our conversations are always constructive and productive. We enjoy sharing business successes with our suppliers because we genuinely believe this is how our relationships will continue to provide our customers with the best quality products, competitive prices, and positive working experiences.

Data-Driven Conversations vs. Opinionated Discussions

Sometimes we may feel that because we’ve hired someone to perform a task, closely monitoring or overseeing a job demonstrates a lack of trust or concern. Fortunately, there are ways and opportunities for companies to monitor suppliers in order to maintain constructive discussions and collect appropriate, meaningful data rather than addressing opinionated concerns.

When agreed upon by both parties, performance-based metrics provide relevant data for Key Performance Indicators (also known as “KPI”). Identifying supplier-specific KPI’s allows businesses and suppliers to work together to ensure both parties understand the expectations.

Is the responsiveness of your supplier causing concern? Perhaps you’re confronted with rising production costs without explanation, or maybe your lead times are attributing to delays in production or even late deliveries? KPI’s are a way that enables businesses to measure and monitor their suppliers with data-driven results. In sharing your areas of concern with your supplier, KPI’s invite accurately accrued data into your conversation and eliminate any assumption-based or subjective discussions. Through the disposal of opinionated discussions, you and your supplier have now created a more beneficial and valuable conversation.

At the end of the day, what is your business looking to gain? If it’s to improve or maintain the quality of your supplier’s performance, then incorporating data-driven conversations is necessary.

Routines and Predictability

If your business perceives unpredictability and time-sensitive demands unreasonable, you must be mindful of the pressure you instill on your suppliers. Establishing routines and expectations are incredibly important and necessary for ensuring supplier efficiency. Time is crucial, especially when you’re working within the international supply chain; systematic schedules and predictable routines are areas that can eliminate extra costs.

Businesses that establish long-term working relationships with suppliers may often have a Service Level Agreement or “SLA,” which states your business’s expectations of you and your supplier. An SLA is an agreed-upon document by both the company and supplier that may outline the production development, production routine, as well as vendor expectations for quality, routine audits, factory visits, and other processes and procedures that are conducted to ensure a vendor’s performance is consistent.

Routines and predictability enforce reliability on both parties. Operating with a predictable schedule has the potential to regulate production and provide suppliers with vigilance. Suppliers can use these demand patterns and in order to plan and ensure proper materials and production lines are readily available for your next order.

How Can HB International Assist You?

As an established global sourcing agency, we work every day to ensure our customers continue to have a reliable supply chain. Our selected suppliers continuously look to provide the best quality products through routine preventative audits and product inspections to mock product recall. Our team works closely with our vendors to establish positive working relationships, predictability, and honesty to ensure your projects are completed on time and meet your expectations.