There are many reasons why supplier evaluation is vital to organisations, in the food industry, in construction, and in general manufacturing and projects. In many instances the legislation compels purchasers of goods and services to take responsibility for and control the health and safety policies and activities of it suppliers. In many situations the process has been too difficult to control and has not been done acceptably. There are a number of reasons for this:

• The point of delivery of supply or service is too far from an existing computer terminal, so paper has to be used.
• There is no supplier evaluation system prescribed by incumbent systems
• Supplier evaluation policies don't fit incumbent accounting oriented systems
• There are simply too many suppliers
• There are too many products or services being delivered  

Using a PDA at the point of delivery of supply or service allows a complete evaluation of the quality and safety of the delivery.  Process improvements will include:

• Pre-prepared questionnaires can be run that are product or supplier specific
• An immense amount of detail can be collected, stored and analysed
• Responses can be scored for comparison between suppliers
• Inductions can be carried out on subcontracted staff, who can sign off that they agree and understand
• Cross-supplier comparisons can be carried out when procuring new work
• Supplier performance histories can be viewed
• Relevant data can be transferred into corporate systems

Vendor assessment is an important function in the modern business.  Buy the best, by relying on your own evaluations - evaluation techniques based on fact, measured at the point of delivery.  Improve quality, safety and performance from your suppliers by reporting to them and let them know what more you want!