Supplier Evaluation Checklist

Buyer logs the supplier legal name, D-U-N-S, primary contact, and the commodity or part family being sourced. Tie this to the originating sourcing event (RFQ number, NPI program, or second-source initiative) so the qualification is traceable in the AVL later.

Issue the SAQ covering quality system, capacity, ownership, ITAR/EAR exposure, and conflict-minerals posture. Set a 10-business-day return SLA — suppliers who delay the SAQ usually delay PPAP too.

Confirm the W-9 (or W-8 for foreign suppliers), state registration, and any required NDA execution before exchanging drawings or technical data. ITAR-controlled programs require a separate TAA review at this stage.

Tier the part: Critical (safety, regulated, single-source, or high-spend), Standard (catalog or dual-sourced), or Low (MRO, off-the-shelf hardware). The tier drives whether a full on-site audit is required or a desk review will suffice.

Pull the certificate from IAQG OASIS (AS9100) or IATF database (16949) rather than trusting a supplier-supplied PDF — expired certs sometimes circulate. Note the certification body and surveillance schedule; a supplier mid-recertification is a yellow flag.

Confirm the supplier can deliver the PPAP level your program requires — most automotive runs Level 3, aerospace requires AS9102 FAI in lieu. Walk through a sample PPAP package: control plan, PFMEA, MSA, dimensional results, capability study (Cpk > 1.33 on critical characteristics).

Sample a current PFMEA and the matching control plan. Check that high-RPN failure modes have a control method (poka-yoke, SPC, 100% inspection) and that the control plan references the same characteristics. PFMEAs that haven't been updated since launch are a common signal of a paper-only quality system.

Ask for the last 12 months of NCRs and CARs with disposition. Look for closure SLAs, effectiveness verification, and recurrence — a CAR closed with "retrained the operator" and no effectiveness check is the most common closed-loop failure mode.

PAYDEX below 70 (slow-pay) or a deteriorating Failure Score warrants a deeper financial review. Note any UCC liens, judgments, or recent ownership changes — those drive supply continuity risk far more than a single bad quarter.

For privately held suppliers, accept reviewed (not audited) statements with NDA. Compute current ratio, debt-to-equity, and revenue trend; flag any going-concern language from the auditor. Be cautious about awarding more than 30% of a supplier's revenue — concentration risk cuts both ways.

Identify whether the supplier itself relies on a sub-tier sole source, a single facility without disaster recovery, or a single piece of capital equipment for the part. Capture the BCP/DR posture; one tornado in a single-plant supplier can stop your line for months.

Request a current COI naming your company as additional insured. Minimum limits typically run $1M/$2M general liability and $2M product liability for standard parts; safety-critical or aerospace programs require $5M+ and a waiver of subrogation. Confirm the COI lists the correct legal entity, not a DBA.

Critical-tier commodities require an on-site audit before AVL approval; standard and low tiers can run a desk review with photos and video walkthrough. Block a full day on-site so the audit team can shadow a real production run, not a staged demo.

Quality engineer leads the audit using a VDA 6.3 or AS9101 process-audit checklist. Key elements: gauge calibration currency (red-tag rule on past-due), traceability from raw to FG, FAI rigor at changeover, and floor evidence of layered process audits. Score Pass / Conditional Pass / Fail with named findings.

Walk the work center the part will run on. Compare cycle time × forecast volume against the work center's available hours after PM and changeover. Suppliers booked above 85% utilization rarely hit OTD when your forecast jumps.

Pull the last 6 months of PM completions on the work center serving your part. Deferred PMs, run-to-failure patterns, or a CMMS that's only updated retroactively predict downtime risk. Ask to see MTBF and MTTR for the critical machine.

Pick a finished-good serial at random and trace backward through the traveler to raw heat number and supplier mill cert. If the supplier can't reconstruct the chain in under 15 minutes, recall response will fail when it matters. Critical for aerospace, medical, and pressure-rated parts.

Issue an 8D for each major finding with a 30-day response SLA. Conditional Pass becomes Pass only after the 8D shows root cause, containment, and effectiveness verification — not just "we'll fix it." Re-audit critical findings before AVL approval.

Request the current CMRT (RMI template) covering 3TG sourcing for any part containing tin, tungsten, tantalum, or gold. "DRC conflict-free" or "undeterminable" determinations both need the smelter list — "unknown" is not a valid response if your customer files an SD form.

For parts shipping into the EU or to OEMs that flow REACH/RoHS down, get a substance-level declaration tied to the part number, not a generic boilerplate. SVHC list updates twice yearly — confirm the supplier's declaration references the current revision.

Compare the supplier's TRIR and DART rates to the BLS NAICS benchmark for their industry. A TRIR more than 2x the NAICS average signals a safety culture problem that often correlates with quality and on-time-delivery problems too. Ask for the EMR if the supplier handles your installation work.

Customers increasingly flow down Scope 3 emissions and EMS expectations. ISO 14001 is the bar; for non-certified suppliers, capture their environmental policy, hazardous-waste generator status (VSQG/SQG/LQG), and any open EPA enforcement actions.

Roll the inputs from quality, finance, operations, and EHS into a single weighted score. Typical weighting: quality 30%, capacity/OTD 25%, total cost 25%, financial health 10%, compliance 10%. Document the rationale — this scorecard becomes the baseline for ongoing supplier performance reviews.

Buyer, quality manager, manufacturing engineering, and EHS sign off jointly. "Conditional" approval means the supplier is added to the AVL with a defined re-evaluation trigger (first-three-shipment audit, 90-day OTD review). "Rejected" requires a written debrief to the supplier so the relationship survives a future requalification.

Create the vendor master in the ERP with payment terms, ship-to/bill-to, default lead time, and incoterms. Add to the AVL with the part-number scope of approval — suppliers approved for one part family should not auto-clear new commodities. Schedule the first 90-day performance review at onboarding.