Purchasing Skills | How to avoid supplier delays in delivery?

In China, late delivery by suppliers is very common. At least nine out of ten orders will be delayed.

There are indeed many problems in the production process will lead to late delivery, mainly depending on whether the manufacturer has the responsibility and the ability to deal with the problem.

As long as the manufacturer does not evade or shirk responsibility when encountering problems, it is understandable to provide timely feedback and actively deal with the problem.

The principle of handling delivery delays should be: do not evade, do not shirk responsibility, communicate actively, have an appropriate explanation, propose a remedial plan as soon as possible, and show sincerity.

As a customer, you should also master some small methods to prevent the factory from delaying delivery.

1) Summarize the factory’s production habits and determine the normal delivery period. If the relationship with the factory is good, you can give the factory some suggestions for improving management. It is better to find the cause than to find the reason.

2) Choosing a supplier is very important. Don’t look for large, domineering factories, but find a medium or small scale (with support value), good quality, and high degree of cooperation.

Let the factory give the start date of order production, daily routine output, and estimated end date. If the factory regards you as its main customer, you can even ask them to make a production schedule and update it for you every few days, so that you can have a clearer grasp of the production situation.

3) Suppliers who often delay delivery will indirectly affect your costs and profits. Therefore, it is recommended to evaluate suppliers regularly.

4) Frequently communicate with suppliers to understand their recent orders and production status. When the factory is in difficulty, such as placing an order to the factory during the off-season, it may help the factory tide over the difficulties and even save the factory’s life. In this way, the factory will do its best to help you during peak seasons. On the contrary, the factory arranges your order to the end when it is busy.

5) Don’t completely trust the factory, sometimes the factory will be pressured to tell you that the goods are finished. You should ask the factory to take a few photos to show that they finished the production. Even hire a Chinese sorcing service company to help you go to the factory to check the real production situation and progress of the factory at any time.

6) For some orders with relatively high delivery time requirements, tell the factory that the delivery delay cannot exceed * days, otherwise the shipping schedule will be delayed. The consequences are borne by the factory.

7) Large orders need to be notified to the factory in advance to avoid the situation where the factory is busy and other customers have already promised delivery. Try to let the factory know your order cycle, so that the factory can consider for you in the production plan.