The Supplier Survey with a Twist

This blog suggests that your supplier survey form need be only one page to contain pertinent supplier data information.

I must admit, the first supplier survey I ever used was copied from another company, and we just changed the header. You might think this is entirely unethical, but get real. I have seen that same survey form during at least a dozen audits I have done over the past decade. I have also had to fill out that document.

You know the one…it’s Twenty-nine pages long and asks you a bunch of inane questions that nobody will care about.

Supplier Survey Suggestions

To fix the mess we have all created, I have a few simple suggestions:

  1. Don’t copy another supplier survey form. Make your own form instead
  2. Cut your survey down to ONE page
  3. Focus on collecting supplier information first
  4. Require suppliers to update this form at least annually, or when they change something
  5. Ask open-ended questions

Twenty-nine pages are insane. Who thought that was a great idea? I think the theory behind this approach is that we will screen out the inferior suppliers that don’t want our business in the first place. In reality, management delegates the completion of this form to a subordinate that they want to punish. I don’t think I need to explain the theory behind a one-page document.

You need supplier contact information, size of the facility, number of employees, shifts, website, software capability, etc. This is obvious information that you need to know about your supplier.

Make sure you give the supplier this form in MS Word format so that they can fill it in with minimal effort. Next year, when you want them to fill it out again, give them the original in MS Word format so that they can redline changes. This makes it easy to see what changed and reduces the effort required to update this annually. Why do you need a signature and date on this stupid form? I do not know. If you can think of a good reason, go ahead and make your supplier sign and date the form. If you can’t, don’t require a signature and date just because everyone else does.

You should have a supplier agreement that requires notification of changes. This should include significant changes to the QMS. Updating the supplier survey is a great way to do this—especially if the supplier can redline the previous version.

Closed-Ended and Open-Ended Questions

My last suggestion is probably the most valuable. Remember the difference between closed-ended and opened-ended questions. “Closed-ended” questions ask for a response of “Yes” or “No.” It makes it easier to complete 29 pages in less than a day, but it’s also easy to identify the answer that the customer wants to hear.

For those of you that have Canadian Medical Devices Conformity Assessment System (CMDCAS) certification, take a look at GD210 sometime. The back of this document has a checklist with clause-by-clause questions. 100% of these questions are “closed-ended.”  Here’s an example: For clause 5.6.2, the GD210 checklist asks, “Is a review of new or revised MDR part of the input to management review?” Examples of “open-ended” questions related to clause 5.6.2 would be:

When was your last Management Review?

  1. What were the new or revised regulatory requirements discussed in the last Management Review?
  2. Who was in attendance at the last Management Review?
  3. How many action items resulted from the last Management Review?

You should notice that not only are these three questions open-ended, but these are also all non-proprietary questions that a supplier should be willing to answer.

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