Supplier quality assessment to identify depth technical knowledge of component reliability

As a result of global competition, international companies that manufacture photocopiers, printers or car navigation systems have to purchase low-cost electronic components such as semiconductors and hard disk drives by outsourcing production. However, it is often difficult for these companies to evaluate the quality of their suppliers through interviews and technical documentations. This article proposes new measures for supplier assessment and a systematic approach to select suppliers that have in-depth knowledge of component reliability and technology. The measures for selection not only include the physical quality of components but also information disclosures provided by suppliers, which consist of failure analysis, reliability data and details of the design-manufacturing process. The proposed measures are applied to real data of photocopier manufacturing enterprises. Experiments conducted show that a systematic assessment will enable selecting appropriate suppliers with a lower failure rate.