What is Supplier scorecard?

If you order from several suppliers, some will reliably ship on time and some won't. A scorecard turns that impression into a simple record so you are not relying on memory when deciding who gets the next order, or who needs a bigger safety stock buffer because they are unpredictable.

For a small store, this does not need to be fancy. A spreadsheet with a few columns per supplier is enough: promised lead time, actual lead time, whether the order arrived complete, and whether anything was wrong on receiving. Review it every few months and use it to adjust your reorder timing or switch suppliers if one keeps running late.

Example

A candle store orders from two wax suppliers. Supplier A quotes a 7 day lead time and over the last 6 orders averaged 7.5 days, always complete. Supplier B quotes 5 days but averaged 9 days, and 2 of the last 6 orders arrived short. The scorecard shows Supplier A is more reliable even though its quoted lead time is longer, so the store keeps less safety stock for Supplier A's wax and more for Supplier B's.

Common mistakes

• Tracking too many metrics and never actually reviewing the sheet.
• Only noting late deliveries and ignoring partial or incorrect shipments.
• Not updating order-by dates or safety stock after a supplier's performance clearly changes.

Supplier scorecard and SteadyShelf

SteadyShelf logs each supplier's lead time and receiving history, which gives you the raw data to build a scorecard and spot which suppliers are consistently late.

SteadyShelf is launching on the Shopify App Store. Join early access to get the install link first.

Related terms

Supplier lead time variability · Lead time · Purchase order · Receiving · Safety stock

Full inventory glossary

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