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Relationships between an organization and its suppliers have traditionally been characterized by adversarial activities and posturing in which at least one, and often both, parties lose. Rather than working together to find ways to create a win-win outcome, buyers use their leverage to force suppliers to absorb costs to obtain lower prices, and suppliers look for ways to minimize their losses by barely meeting the buyer’s specifications. Unfortunately, in a highly competitive marketplace, dysfunctional relationships like this do nothing to support the long-term success of either party.

Ideally, the goal of a vendor/supplier relationship is to create and maintain a reliable and trusting partnership that allows both parties to win while also promoting their mutual objectives of continuously improving quality, productivity, and competitiveness. In this article, we’ll discuss how the quality management principles in ISO 9001:2015 can help organizations develop effective and profitable working partnerships with their suppliers.

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