Lara GuevaraSupply Chain expert (Product and Service)

Evaluate Your Supplier Relationship with 5 Questions

15 Feb 2026 · 1 min

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Five questions to assess your supplier relationships: how many late invoices in the past year, how predictable are order volumes, how often do specs change mid-production, how fast do you respond to their inquiries, and do they warn you early or only after problems hit.

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So let's make this practical. Ask yourself honestly, how many invoices were late in the last 12 months? So looking back, let's say 20, 25, how many of those were late? How predictable are your orders? And let's say, how often do specs change mid production? And also another one would be how do you. How fast do you respond when your supplier has a question? These couple of questions would definitely come into consideration when you're thinking about these steps. So another really critical one that you need to think about is do they warn you early, or do you only hear about issues after it's really bad, so your answers tell where you stand on the list.