Use a search engine, any search engine, and type in Vendor Scorecard or Supplier Scorecard.  The results will include hundreds of hits on the Internet.  What I find a bit surprising, however, is the hundreds of hits result in very little subject matter diversity.  There are vendor scorecard templates, software, samples, developing successful scorecard articles, and some organization specific vendor scorecard criteria.  This was far from my preconceived notion of what would appear in my search results.  Scorecards are very much a part of supply chain practice these days. World class organizations are utilizing them; but it seems very few are discussing them openly.

"Both sides would get what they wanted; that has always been our mantra." That sounds like a worthy goal in any relationship. How successful in real-world practice, though, is cultivation of the retailer-supplier pairing?

Your worst case scenario is finally happening. You’ve received the dreaded ‘EDI Compliance’ letter from your largest customer. You don’t use EDI now because you're ‘too small’, and even though you signed a contract that said you’d support electronic trading, you never thought the customer would follow through with it. Now what?

To my surprise, when I arrived home from work the other night a nice brown box was sitting on my porch next to the front door.  It was addressed to me!  When I examined the box more closely, I didn’t recognize the shipper’s name; hence, I opened it with curiosity wondering what was inside.  It was my new watch!  But wait a minute, I didn’t order it on-line from the company on the ship label or packing list; I ordered it on-line from The Watch Company.  It then occurred to me…..I was the victim of the drop ship process!  So of course, this encouraged my mind to run amuck.  What are the pros and cons of this purchasing engagement I just encountered?