General quality management

Supply chain management

When manufacturing, importing or reselling products, the quality and security of supply chains are essential at every stage. For example, you cannot make consistently good products from materials of uneven quality. Investing in the selection of supply chain partners can reduce the likelihood of undesirable risks being realised and of products not meeting the requirements set for them.

You should think of criteria for the selection of partners in the supply chain to make the selection easier. The criteria for supply chain partners can be both quantitative and qualitative. The criteria can also vary according to the situation and needs, but in general, you should consider:

• the identified expertise in the industry, such as past deliveries, customer feedback, product recognition in the market, and known past quality exceptions. You can check for any previous exceptions that have caused a hazard in the systems maintained by the authorities, such as the national market surveillance register of products maintained by Tukes, the EU Safety Gate maintained by the European Union or the Global Recalls database.
• supply chain partners are familiar with the requirements related to their operations or products, and they have verified that they are fulfilled. These can be test results and documentation that demonstrate compliance with product safety requirements.
• the partners have adequate quality assurance procedures in place to detect and correct any exceptions in their processes at an early enough stage. These can include continuous or sample-based verification methods, assessments and tests that demonstrate compliance with the requirements.