In a recent article on Supply & Demand Chain Executive titled Seven Steps to Next-generation Supplier Performance Management, Ron Dimon and Simon Tucker ask 4 key questions that provide an excellent summary of the thrust of Supplier Performance Management. They say...

To do this, you must be able to rigorously answer these questions: "What do we want to happen with suppliers, and how do we want it to happen?" and "What actually happened, and why did it happen?"

What I like about this statement is the way that they first lead with the future ('what do you want to happen') and then use the past  ('what actually happened') a substantiation.

Scorecards and evaluations can very easily get bogged down in recriminations about historical performance. To avoid this it is vital to elevate the discussion to look at ACTIONS.

Certainly these actions need to be based on what has happened, so by no means are we discounting the need to review historical performance. However, we need to keep a clear focus on Development Activities that arise from the identified issues...and both parties need to contribute to these actions to ensure that future expectations are met.

This gives to dialogue a far more constructive tone and guides the participants to future success, rather than wallowing in historical issues.

Author: Richard Benyon (Decideware)