🚀 go-pugleaf

The discussion of quantifiable or non-quantifialble supplier metrics is
interesting, because it sheds some light on opinions and information.

Consider your customer satisfaction survey. You may have a response like,
"We are easy to work with." and expect the responder to give you a
response on a five point scale ranging from "Strongly Disagree" to
"Strongly Agree".  A natural tendency is to convert this to a numerical
scale, typically
1-5, and produce an average. The more statistically minded may produce a
bar chart and a standard deviation.

What kind of data do we have here? Is it objective or subjective? Is it
variables
data or attributes data?

Lets look at the customer satisfaction survey from a business perspective.
It is a
customer satisfaction survey sent to the CUSTOMER by the SUPPLIER.. The
respondent is the CUSTOMER. The results are typically reported to the
SUPPLIER.

Supplier surveys can be analyzed in the same way. They are "sent' to the
CUSTOMER by the CUSTOMER. The respondent is the CUSTOMER. The
results are typically reported to the SUPPLIER.

Conclusion: If we dislike subjective responses to our customer satisfaction
survey,
then we should also dislike subjective responses on our supplier survey.

Dan O'Leary CQA, CQE, CQM, CRE
Business Process Executive for Manufacturing
doleary@qbe.picker.com