During the past couple of years, I’ve worked with several medical device companies. In today’s climate, it’s rare for a medical device company to have everything needed under their own roof. Selection of suppliers is very critical. The Medtech Decision Maker Reports recently had an article on the 12 questions to ask when selecting suppliers. I’m relisting the questions here:
- What Am I Looking For?
- What Phase Is the Project In?
- Who Will Size Up Suppliers?
- How’s the Fit?
- What Else Does the Supplier Bring to the Table?
- How Was the Visit?
- What Did the References Say?
- Do You Want to Go Offshore?
- Is the Low Bidder Really the Best Option?
- Is the Supplier You’re Looking For the One You’ve Already Got?
- How Do You Evaluate All of the Information?
- Did You Take Enough Time to Make the Right Choice?
In my opinion, supplier selection can make or break fragile medical device start-ups. I’ve seen several start-ups choose suppliers with little or no criteria or process defined. Sometimes low price is the deciding factor.
Supplier selection can be very tricky when there is no wide choice (eg. low profile city, developing country, very restrictive industry).
I’ll add this question:
- Do you want to deal with one supplier or multiple suppliers (when the first supplier has everything you need)?
- What will you do if the supplier goes out of business? (this relates to the previous question).
Of course there is no “one size fits” answer–it’s all dependent on the situation. But I do think that many suppliers over advertise their capabilities. For example, a supplier specializing in manufacturing may sometimes claim they are also strong in design. When this happens, the relationship is painful on both sides. The benefit of being virtual is that (in theory) you can select best of breeds in all categories. Of course this assumes those suppliers are within reach (e.g. location, cost). Having been a supplier and having the responsibility to manage suppliers, it’s always easier to manage one relationship instead of many.
Thanks for your comments!
j