What are the best ways to diversify your supplier base?

• Understand organisational vision and mission which defines long term strategy. • Evaluate existing supplier alignment to the organisational strategy to identify categories which need immediate attention. • Selection of new suppliers aligned to organisational strategy.

Consider your organisational strategy and identify the diverse supplier groups you wish to include. These may include, and not be limited to, Women in Business Enterprises, Social enterprises, Small and Medium Enterprises, Minority business enterprises, owned or operated.

- While identifying the needs, there are lot of criteria that should be considered. However, following 4 points should also be considered : 1. Felt Needs: These are basically the needs/requirements that are provided by the Internal Stakeholders. 2. Expressed Needs: These are needs/requirements that are expressed in action by the Intern Stakeholders. 3. Normative Needs: These are needs/requirements provided by the experts. 4. Comparative Needs: These are usually considered by a team by comparing the needs/requirements. The above mentioned are some of the criteria that should be considered while identifying the needs/requirements.

Here are some of my thoughts: First, is that you need to understand your current suppliers and their strengths & weaknesses. Second, Identify market trends in terms of materials, services etc. Third, Establish criteria for evaluating potential supplierd and develop an approach to onboard those new suppliers. And lastly, You have to monitor their performance and incorporate feedback from existing suppliers.

In the retail sector, consumers are becoming more 'picky' with the ethics of the companies they chose to source from. Younger consumers are placing greater emphasis on a brand's environmental performance; use of fair trade raw materials; worker well-being; and the political affiliations of the organisation. It is important that when establishing new supply chains or augmenting existing ones, that ESG-type considerations be applied to sub-tier suppliers. Germany's Supply Chain Due Diligence Act sets-out a framework for ethical sourcing which sub-tier suppliers should be evaluated against, and supported to develop mitigation strategies.

Buyers ought to leverage their professional networks, actively seeking recommendations from fellow purchasers. In the course of evaluating suppliers, buyers should assist them in articulating their Unique Selling Proposition. Asking questions such as, ‘Who are your primary competitors, and what sets you apart?’ has personally enabled me to unearth previously unknown suppliers while simultaneously gaining insights into their strengths and weaknesses relative to other market participants.

In sectors like the automotive component manufacturing, you are always looking for a unicorn supplier - one that has a technical understanding of quality requirements; one which has an extremely lean operating base; and one that is resilient to sudden changes in call-offs. In South Africa, you have the added requirement of needing to be a B-BBBEE empowered supplier. The automotive sector is also historically not particularly start-up 'friendly'. You need to consider medium-sized firms in aligned sectors (e.g. rail, aviation) which will be more amenable to a 'pivot' into autos as they have a fundamental quality-focused mindset, and understand the importance of supply chain optimisation.

These may include, and not be limited to, Women in Business Enterprises, Social enterprises, Small and Medium Enterprises, Minority business enterprises, owned or operated.

The vendor qualifications is the best strategy in which you send an form requesting all the necessary information regarding your vendor your company is interested to know, such as in pharmaceutical industry they require a lot of authorizations acquired by your vendors the vendors needs to follow avisa rules and they must represent such certificates almost for every category of product. To apply the same strategy in any other market or area where need to choose the vendor one company can opt for vendor qualification form which will cover all your questions and answers to be covered in order to choose the right vendor.

Worthwhile to consider is to avoid once-size-fits-all solutions; ensure your processes are accessible; be willing to assist and develop supply partners in aligning to your systems and structures; and encourage your tier 1 suppliers to invest in supplier diversity in their respective supply chains.

Once you contract the vendor it is very important to continually evaluating their quality of product and service weather it is being maintained and continually improved or they have simply maintained themselves at the same level where the market has grown and already adopted further changes according to new tech available in the market this means either you ask vendor to update or time to switch to new one but ut depends on the analysis made by the professional or area of vendor management.

Supplier diversity could well provide a competitive advantage and could support and enhance your ESG objectives. The real social value-reach is often a multiply of actual expenditure involved. Interesting, Procurement leaders in one survey indicated that supplier diversity is important for several reasons such as ● Strategic alignment and stakeholder requirements ● Supporting corporate culture pertaining to diversity and social responsibility ● Regulatory and government requirements ● To retain and attract talent ● To support social and economic benefits within target markets or local markets ● To gain unique insights from suppliers ● Local sources of supply improved service and quality outcomes.

In my experience, some aspects to consider in improving success may include clearly defining your supply diversity policy; ensuring you have leadership and stakeholder commitment and participation; ensuring alignment with your organisation mission; effective communication; an integrated supply approach; and proper measures and reporting of progress.