Supplier Sourcing and Evaluation Questions

Covers the end to end approach for identifying, qualifying, evaluating, selecting, and onboarding suppliers. Candidates should be able to describe sourcing channels and strategies, supplier qualification steps, and how to design and run a structured supplier selection process. Assessment criteria include cost and total cost of ownership, quality and defect rates, on time delivery performance, capacity and scalability, financial stability and risk profile, innovation and technology capability, cultural fit and responsiveness. Familiar methods and tools include supplier scorecards, multi criteria decision analysis, capability assessments, risk scoring, supplier audits, and request for proposal and request for quotation processes. Candidates should also discuss weighting criteria differently for commodity versus strategic components, make versus buy tradeoffs, supplier diversification and concentration management, when to consolidate for leverage versus maintain multiple sources for resilience, and mechanisms for ongoing supplier performance management and continuous improvement.