Supplier Evaluation Scorecard

When to Use

• During quarterly or annual supplier performance reviews
• When selecting vendors for new sourcing decisions
• When consolidating or rationalizing the supplier base
• When a supplier's performance triggers a review

Procedure

Step 1 — Define Evaluation Criteria

Criterion	Weight	Measurement
Quality	30%	Defect rate, inspection pass rate, returns
Delivery	25%	On-time delivery %, lead time variance
Cost	20%	Price competitiveness, total cost of ownership
Responsiveness	15%	Communication speed, issue resolution time
Sustainability	10%	ESG compliance, certifications, carbon footprint

Adjust weights based on industry and strategic priorities.

Step 2 — Score Each Criterion

Score	Level	Description
5	Excellent	Exceeds expectations consistently
4	Good	Meets expectations with occasional excellence
3	Acceptable	Meets minimum standards
2	Below Average	Frequent issues, requires monitoring
1	Unacceptable	Consistent failures, action required

Step 3 — Calculate Weighted Total

Weighted Score = Σ (Score × Weight)

Step 4 — Tier Classification

Weighted Score	Tier	Relationship Strategy
4.5–5.0	Strategic	Long-term partnership, innovation collaboration
3.5–4.4	Preferred	Stable relationship, volume commitment
2.5–3.4	Approved	Transactional, competitive bidding
< 2.5	Conditional	Improvement plan required, phase-out risk

Step 5 — Action Plan

For Conditional and low-Approved suppliers:

1. Issue corrective action request (CAR)
2. Define improvement targets with timeline
3. Schedule re-evaluation in 90 days
4. Identify backup supplier if no improvement

Inputs

Input	Required	Format
Supplier name and category	Yes	Text
Performance data	Yes	Metrics per criterion
Contract/spend data	Recommended	Annual spend, contract terms
Previous evaluation	Recommended	Prior scorecard if available

Output

## Supplier Evaluation — [Supplier Name] — [Period]

### Scorecard

| Criterion | Weight | Score | Weighted |
|-----------|--------|-------|----------|
| Quality | 30% | 4 | 1.20 |
| Delivery | 25% | 3 | 0.75 |
| Cost | 20% | 4 | 0.80 |
| Responsiveness | 15% | 5 | 0.75 |
| Sustainability | 10% | 3 | 0.30 |
| **Total** | **100%** | | **3.80** |

### Tier: PREFERRED (3.80 / 5.0)

### Improvement Areas
1. Delivery: OTD dropped to 88% (target: 95%) — root cause: warehouse capacity
2. Sustainability: No ISO 14001 certification yet — expected Q3

### Action Plan
| Action | Owner | Deadline |
|--------|-------|----------|
| Improve OTD to 95% | Supplier ops team | 90 days |
| Submit ISO 14001 timeline | Supplier quality | 60 days |
| Re-evaluate | Procurement | Q3 |

Definition of Done

• All criteria scored with evidence
• Weighted total calculated
• Tier classification assigned
• Improvement areas identified for scores ≤ 3
• Action plan with owners and deadlines for Conditional/low-Approved

Examples

Prompt

Evaluate our packaging supplier FastPack Ltd for Q1.
Quality: 96% pass rate (4/5), Delivery: 88% OTD (3/5), Cost: competitive (4/5),
Responsiveness: excellent (5/5), Sustainability: no ISO 14001 (3/5).
Generate the scorecard and improvement plan.

Quality Criteria

• Data sources and assumptions are explicitly stated
• Calculations are reproducible from provided inputs
• Visualizations or tables have clear labels, units, and time ranges
• Caveats and confidence levels are documented for estimates

Verification (4C)

Check	Question
Correctness	Are formulas, aggregations, and statistical methods applied correctly?
Completeness	Does the analysis cover all requested metrics and time ranges?
Context-fit	Are the chosen metrics relevant to the business question being answered?
Consequence	If this data were used for a decision today, what blind spots remain?

Edge Cases

• Missing or incomplete data — Document gaps and their potential impact on conclusions. Provide ranges instead of point estimates.
• Outliers skewing results — Report with and without outliers. Document the decision to include or exclude.
• Changing data definitions mid-period — Split analysis at the change boundary and note the schema difference.

Changelog

• v1.0.0 — Initial release