Your quality standards clash with a supplier's practices. How do you navigate this challenging situation?

Ante esta situación lo primero que yo realizo es analizar la que es lo que se estaria incumpliendo, si realmente llega hacer un incumplimiento o no. Si esto realmente es un estandar que se requiere cumplir es importante hacer comprender al proveedor a ver si adecua su práctica a los ajustes requerido de calidad, y si no es posible entonces se evalua otras opciones, pues la calidad no es negociable.

A clash between your quality standards and a supplier's practices requires a diplomatic but firm approach. Here's a two-step plan: Collaborative Discussion: Schedule a meeting with the supplier to discuss the specific discrepancies. Clearly explain your quality expectations and understand their production processes. Seek Solutions Together: Explore potential solutions. Can they adjust their practices to meet your standards? Can you adapt your requirements slightly while maintaining core quality principles? By openly communicating and seeking mutually agreeable solutions, you can navigate this challenge and ensure high-quality products while maintaining a good supplier relationship.

Simply, communication is the key to success. You cannot go into a situation trying to create a 'mini me'. What you need is to understand where the disconnects are and work toward middle ground. You each have unique situations, existing customers and suppliers and it will be difficult to fully adopt one or the others system. Eat the elephant a bite at a time. Pareto the issues at hand and value stream map one at a time. Use a bullet approach, not a shotgun.

Data, Data, Data that support the supplier fails to meet specifications. My mentor took a fully loaded car made at the factory and took the exterior panel with the worst defect seen painted in the most noticeable color and had it out in front of the visitor entrance, The meeting of the upper level executives stopped in the lobby and the meeting was cancelled and the supplier fixed the problem. In this case the data was an attribute as the most expensive optioned out vehicle looked like crap

Cuando los estándares de calidad chocan con las prácticas de un proveedor es necesario tomar acciones que involucren varios procesos (compras, operaciones, recepción) a fin de revisar la información requerida por la organización, cómo se está comunicando a los proveedores, qué retroalimentación le estamos dando y cómo esto contribuye a mejorar su desempeño y por ende su relación con la organización. Recordemos que los proveedores son socios estratégicos, conocer sus necesidades y expectativas nos permitirá entablar relaciones sólidas. Una buena iniciativa es incentivarlos a implementar la ISO 9001 como primer paso; así se comenzaría a minimizar el choque o las barreras que afectan la calidad.