Supplier development is a collaborative process aimed at improving the performance and capabilities of suppliers through technical and financial assistance. By focusing on strategic planning, engagement, and continuous improvement, organizations can enhance product quality and reduce costs across the supply chain. Successful supplier relationships, built on trust and information sharing, are crucial for achieving better delivery times and overall profitability.

1. SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT: WHAT & WHY?
Supplier Development is an assistance given both technically and financially. It is
provided to potential existing suppliers in order to improve quality, due date
and/or performance. It offers various benefits like improvement in supply flow
and innovation acceleration. It is a process of collaborating with suppliers in order
to improve their processes and product manufacturing capabilities.
Successful companies have incorporated suppliers into management decisions
and therefore have transitioned from a single firm focus to a supply chain focus.
This replaces the past adversarial supplier relationships and is the newest
application of relationship management. It identifies strategic suppliers providing
critical components and also ensures good partnership and relationship between
supply chain members. Suppliers are also expected to add value to the supply
chain process and just not simply engage in transactions of the components for
sale.Supplier Development can be segmented into 5 functions- 1) strategic
planning and risk definition, 2) engagement, collaboration and project
management, 3) training and facilitation, 4) continuous improvement and
surveillance, 5) quality systems, process and control. Each organization struggles
with the late deliveries, poor quality and inadequate responses to problems by
suppliers. Supplier Development program aims at achieving lower supply chain
cost, increase in product quality, increase in profitability for all supply chain
participants, and near-perfect on-time delivery at each point in the supply chain.

2. These can be achieved by utilizing strategic planning, project management,
training and facilitation to leverage supplier expertise.
Most Supplier Development program goals can’t be met by auditing suppliers
once a year. To determine whether suppliers have met the quality and on-time
delivery goals once a year does not fulfill the purpose of the program. This kind of
work can be referred to as supplier checking and verification because supplier
development requires much more work.
Suppliers need to be developed the same way employees are. To be successful,
companies provide all the training, tools and incentives to their employees. They
invest in their employees as great companies are made by great employees. So, to
make great supply chains, great suppliers are needed. The program must be
aimed at improving the suppliers’ performance by providing them the proper
training and also providing information about products, expected sales growth,
etc. Lack of information leads into additional costs but suppliers need to be the

3. extensions to their customers. More the information about the entire supply
chain, more profitable they would be and this would lead to a better quality,
lower-cost, on-time product.
To reduce cost and lower project risk, one can leverage the supplier knowledge
and technology of the commodity to be supplied through Supplier Development
with the service provider. Our objective is to identify supplier expertise and
initiatives that can benefit the service provider. To shorten the development life
cycle and increase velocity to market, there needs to be a strong collaborative
relationship between the service provider and their suppliers. The supplier
network must be capable enough to provide strategic planning, structure and
activities for a strong and capable supply chain. Assessing suppliers to determine
risk levels creates a mutually beneficial end result.
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