In the customer audit session held yesterday, a rather thought-provoking question was raised: What kind of coping strategies should be adopted in the face of a powerful supplier? When this question was presented to me, I fell into deep thought. As I pondered, my thoughts drifted away, and memories of similar past scenarios emerged in my mind. As I was thinking, a faint smile involuntarily appeared on my lips.
Let me trace the time back to the last customer audit. During that audit, the same problem was mentioned again. At that time, out of good intentions, I shared all the coping skills I had mastered with the customer. I thought I could help the other party, but who would have thought that this customer actually used these skills on us without any changes. This really made me not know whether to laugh or cry, with a sad feeling of "lifting a rock only to drop it on my own feet". Later, I explained to this customer that this situation actually did not fall within the normal control scope of supplier quality management and had exceeded the established procedural framework. Fortunately, this customer was reasonable and agreed with what I said.
Next, let's delve deeper into why suppliers are so assertive. The answer is actually not complicated. Suppliers can be assertive because they must have the capital to support their assertiveness. Generally speaking, if a supplier is in a leading position in its industry, it is very likely to show an assertive stance. This is because enterprises in the leading position of an industry often have a relatively high level of management and a mature system.
Take a German supplier I encountered before as an example. At that time, the customer returned the goods. We didn't dwell too much on which party was specifically at fault and directly returned the goods to the supplier. After receiving the goods, this German supplier demonstrated a rigorous work attitude and professional handling methods. They used laser cutting to disassemble the goods. After meticulous inspection and analysis, they found that there was burn damage inside the goods. Through a series of scientific judgments, they determined that the customer was responsible. Subsequently, they also sent us a formal 8D report, reasonably and justifiably asking us to assume the corresponding responsibility. Facing such conclusive evidence, we naturally had nothing to say and could only assume the responsibility as required.
From this case, we can see that large suppliers are relatively standardized and mature in management. If the problem is indeed caused by their own reasons, they generally won't shirk their responsibilities. In this situation, as long as we have appropriate communication with them, many problems can be properly resolved. However, if the problem is not their responsibility, it's very unlikely that we can impose the responsibility on them or try to make them take it by being unreasonable. Because in the management systems of these suppliers, there are clear responsibility definitions and handling procedures. Whoever is responsible will bear the responsibility and it won't be easily changed due to external pressure.
After I shared these analyses and viewpoints with the customer who raised the question, he thought for a while and finally nodded, agreeing with my opinion. In fact, when dealing with powerful suppliers, we should analyze and handle problems with a rational and objective attitude, respect facts and rules, so as to achieve win - win results in cooperation.