MAPS – A Checklist When Sourcing Chemical and Ingredient Suppliers
Read Time: 3-minutes
If you’ve been following me for a while now, you’ll know I like to put processes in place.
Arguably, the biggest part of my job is sourcing chemical raw materials for consumers. So, it only makes sense that I have a system in place to do that.
I call it MAPS.
With the CLEAN framework, once you have gone through the clarify stage, identifying exactly what you need, what you’re looking for, and your priorities, you move onto stage two – locate.
Going out to the market to find the right partners.
Begin with the primary aim of identifying a source from the East, West, and locally. This begins the process of building in risk mitigation from the get-go.
MAPS is a helpful checklist to help me achieve this:
Marketplace & Directories
Approved Supplier lists
Peer Recommendations
Screening
"The secret of success is to do the common thing uncommonly well." – John D. Rockefeller Jr.
Marketplace and Directories
Over the past decade, I've built a global database of suppliers, categorized to allow quick contact with potential partners based on clarify call outcomes.
As mentioned above, you should always be looking for a minimum of one option East, West, and locally (i.e. within EU). To start building in risk mitigation from the beginning.
The biggest difficulties at this stage are, finding manufacturing suppliers from the Americas, and confirming any EU re-sellers are not sourcing the same material as we can find through other channels. That’s due to my pet hate, opaque supply chains.
We can also utilise two sourcing platforms to see if there are any suppliers we've potentially missed, but I’m yet to find a particularly good one!
(There is no real Amazon for finding chemicals!)
Approved Supplier Lists
If it’s a product I have worked on previously, I can go back and check my own database for previously approved suppliers.
Or, if you have your own history and approved suppliers, they can be immediately thrown into the process too.
Naturally this can speed things up a lot.
Peer Recommendations
Because I consider transparency non-negotiable, I can have very open and frank conversations with long-term suppliers and customers.
I don't know everyone (of course!!) but often what we need is only on the other side of a conversation.
Many supply options, therefore, may be suggestions from some of my other partners.
These conversations also help when shortlisting suppliers too. I can go to partners and ask them if they have experience with a supplier, and if they’d recommend them (or not!).
Screening
Finally, I always include a screening questionnaire when I’m vetting new suppliers. Doing a deep dive into ethics and sustainability initiatives is a bit more involved.
To save time, if someone is interested in/capable of supplying you, then send over an initial screening questionnaire around these topics.
Although it shouldn’t always be a deal breaker, it helps to have a bit more knowledge when finally shortlisting the supply options for the evaluate stage.
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So, there you have,
Sourcing products can be challenging, but a checklist like MAPS helps streamline the process and ensures thorough evaluation.
"The best preparation for tomorrow is doing your best today." – H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
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Thanks for reading, and see you next week.
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