Supplier, preferred selection

Companies today are looking for ways to reduce raw material costs. Some companies still believe that demanding reduced prices from suppliers is the way to control costs. A more effective way of controlling costs is by doing a supply base reduction process and a preferred supplier selection. When this process is completed successfully the best suppliers are found and real financial benefits as well as many intangible benefits can be obtained by both companies. 

Some of the steps in the validation fife cycle will not be needed in some validation projects. For instance, the use of preferred suppliers for software and hardware products or services removes the need for repeated supplier appraisal and selection. Life-cycle steps, however, cannot be eliminated for packaged systems with embedded computer system systems purchased from, or subcontracted to, a vendor. The degree of redundancy in the life-cycle model used for validating existing computer system systems will be specified in the Validation Master Plan. 

Postal Audits are usually used as part of the supplier selection shortlisting process. They may recommend an audit on a supplier s premises where extra detail is required, but typically such Supplier Audits are reserved for the preferred supplier in order to confirm their acceptability from a compliance perspective. 

Of course, this is not to say that costs should not be minimized and potential complications, such as impurity profiles, etc., avoided by working with potentially commercial sources as early in the development process as possible. The problem is that only approximately 10% of phase I candidates will eventually be launched, and, furthermore, estimates of ultimate commercial demand will usually only become available toward the end of phase II. Suppliers may incur significant development costs before having any idea of the potential return, if, indeed, there is to be one at all. Obviously, this situation is not unique to chiral compounds and has lead to customers working with a selected number of preferred suppliers who gain access to a continuing number of opportunities. Speed of response will be one very important factor in making this selection. 

Business should be moved to the selected preferred supplier as soon as possible. If the preferred supplier is an approved supplier, they should be given... 

A special plaque should be designed to give to the selected (preferred) supplier. Remember, this plaque will probably end up on the wall in the supplier s lobby so it should look as nice as possible. 

Taking the time to investigate and select a supplier can provide a good preferred supplier. Building a relationship with that supplier is what makes an excellent supplier. 

More specifically, the models assume multiple products are offered. The materials needed in assembling end-items are grouped into different component types. The manufacturer may have multiple suppliers to provide materials of the same type, which differ in features such as quality, price and technology. The authors denote the combination of a component type and a supplier as a component instance, which represents the very basic material element in the models. Each customer order has an associated BOM that specifies the quantity of each component type required to build the customized product. Furthermore, for each selected component type, a customer can specify a set of preferred suppliers. The manufacturer is allowed to take advantage of this customer preference flexibility relative to components. This implies that the models only allow component substitution at component-instance level. However, the manufacturer has to take into consideration the incompatibility between certain pairs of component instances. This further complicates the formulation of these advanced pull-based ATP models. 

To illustrate the LWP method, consider a simple supplier selection problem with two suppliers and five criteria (Quality, service, capacity, price, and risk) as shown in Table 6.3. Each criterion is measured over a scale of 1-10, with higher numbers preferred over lower ones. Note that Supplier A has higher quality, service, and capacity but costs more and has higher risk of supply disruptions. The ideal values in Table 6.3 represent the best values for each criterion. However, the ideal values are not achievable simultaneously for all the criteria, because the criteria conflict with one another. 

Most of the supplier selection practices involve the participation of multiple DMs and the ultimate decision is based on the aggregation of DMs individual judgments to arrive at a group decision. We have aggregated the preferences of the four DMs using different group decision making techniques discussed in Chapter 6, Section 6.3.9 ... 

The industry trend of forming close working relationships with given food companies (select or preferred suppliers) has resulted in some flavor companies having creation/evaluation laboratories isolated from the daily activities of the company as a whole, where the food company may send product development staff to work with the creative flavorists/application staff on flavor development. This laboratory must assure confidentiality both to the visiting company and other chents. The laboratory typically offers creation/evaluation facilities, office space, plus access to the outside world via phone and the Internet. 

The selection of appropriate or preferred suppliers should involve alternative and complanentary attributes between the suppliers and the receiving organization. Slack et al. (2006) suggest four basic capabilities to make sensible tradeoffs, viz. ... 

Because of the wide diversity in PUF manufacturing processes and likely contaminant chemistry, users are cautioned that sorbent quality control is more critical than with other synthetic polymers such as the Amberlite XAD series. Every effort should be made to procure PUF products consistently from the same manufacturer, preferably in each instance from the same production lot. Moreover, because of inconsistencies in manufacturing practices, first-time foam users should solicit the advice of other satisfied and experienced users in the selection of a sorbent supplier. 

Ideally, the sponsor chose the vendor because it offers expertise in a particular field. This is often forgotten when the stress level increases. All vendors prefer to be asked what is possible rather than be told what to do. The politics of the relationship between the vendor and the supplier must be carefully examined and managed by thoughtfully selected individuals within the sponsor organization. 

Excipient and vendor selections can greatly influence the new drag development timeline, product performance, and acceptance of final products. Compendial excipients have composition consistent with monographs published in compendia such as USP-NF these are the better-characterized excipients. These excipients most likely possess desirable qualities and are preferred excipients for pharmaceutical formulations. Non-compendial excipients can also be used for drug products if they are supported by Type IV dmg master files (DMFs) in regulatory dossiers. Overall, a good excipient supplier should 29... 

Interfaces in the control loop must be standardised. Different suppliers normally have proprietary control systems, thus it is vital to select a standard communication protocol in the early design phase, preferably based on industry standards. 

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