Course Overview
Continuous improvement in all aspects of the supply chain is necessary to remain competitive in today’s global economy. The traditional adversarial relationship and transactional focus of buyers and vendors cannot meet this demand for continuous improvement in lead-time, quality, and overall vendor performance.

As a result, significant changes are occurring in the philosophies and approaches that define the relationship between purchasers and sellers in world-class organizations. Simply put, vendor relationship management provides an organizational focus on communicating and collaborating with vendors throughout the vendor management process.

This focus reduces lead time and total cost of acquisition, transportation, and possession of goods and services for the benefit of both the buyer and seller. Consequently, vendor relationship management offers a competitive advantage and improved profits.

The program also takes into account the recent ISO 20400 guideline on sustainable procurement.

Target Audience
Managers and professionals involved in purchasing, projects, contracts, supply management, operations, maintenance, engineering, quality, and other activities that involve dealings with vendors.

Overall, this program is essential for those who want to improve vendor relationships for the benefit of their organization.

Learning Outcome
After this course, participants will be able to:

• Comprehend the characteristics of vendor relationship management
• Describe the criteria for vendor selection, evaluation, and re-evaluation processes
• Identify the critical vendor relationship management processes
• Understand the impact of ISO 20400 on vendor relationship management
• Identify the relevance of the ISO 9000 series for vendor relationship management
• Outline tools and techniques to create win-win partnerships
• Identify contractual terms to improve vendor relationship management

Course Outline

• Introduction to vendor management
• Different types of vendors
• Levels of vendor relationships
• Lifecycle of a vendor relationship
• Vendor relationship management introduced
• Managing risk in vendor management
• Sourcing and selecting vendors
• The sourcing process
• Researching possible vendors
• Request for information / pre-qualification questionnaire
• Assessing and filtering responses
• Request for proposal (RFP)
• Detailed response assessment
• Non-disclosure agreements
• Establishing the working relationship
• The implications of culture on performance and relationships
• Assessing organizations
• Using emotional intelligence in customer/vendor relationships
• Influencing and leading vendors
• Stages in the vendor relationship
• Styles of leading and managing
• Organizing and managing vendor reviews
• The purpose of vendor reviews
• Vendor reviews and the contract
• Using reviews for proactive risk analysis and management
• Managing changes to scope and requirements
• The inevitability of changes
• Map for change requirement
• Preventing vendor complacency
• Changing and evolving vendor relationships
• Handling disputes and conflicts
• Assessing vendor attitudes and behavior
• Stages of relationship breakdown
• An approach to manage conflict
• Escalation and dispute resolution

Vendor Management and Sustainable Procurement

• The impact of ISO 20400
• How to apply ISO 20400 to improve vendor relationships