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System and storage medium for providing an end-to-end business process for electronic supplier qualification and quality management

This application is a continuation application of U.S. Ser. No. 09/752,090 filed Dec. 29, 2000, the contents of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

This invention relates generally to a supplier qualification and quality management, and more particularly, this invention relates to a system and storage medium for dynamically providing supplier qualification and quality management information to authorized system users of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) or organization that outsources the manufacturing of its products to third parties. The invention brings together related business processes and the software that supports them into a streamlined, seamless, real-time, accurate, end-to-end supplier qualification and quality decision support model. It supports the integrated product development (IPD) process, a common methodology used by corporations to develop and introduce new products to market. The steps of IPD include: product concept, develop product definition plan, develop and verify, qualify and certify, ramp-up and launch, and life cycle management. A key component overlaying this six step IPD process is the integration of supplier technologies into an organization's final products. The current invention collaboratively drives supplier technology integration functions such as: supplier selection, supplier audit management, technology qualification, part qualification, process change management, supplier quality management, and general quality problem resolution. The ability to provide electronic end-to-end supplier qualification and quality management, electronic technical collaboration, and the management of the integration of supplier technologies into new products while maintaining high-levels of end product quality is desirable and would enhance the implementation of the IPD process.

In an outsourced world, the key to corporate success is the management of the supply base. Classic models centered on the receipt of manually or electronically sent supplier data followed by the manual analysis of the results. Purchasers of parts are generally very distrustful of supplier input which often results in the re-running of supplier tests to insure proper performance in end-user products. Current processes also result in the inability to easily share information across OEM sites or with suppliers. The purchaser is often wording with out of date or inconsistent information because of the lack of a central repository for supplier qualification and quality data. The purchaser for the OEM may not be aware of data relating to the supplier that is being tracked by a different procurement department or OEM site. It is desirable to have all procurement personnel working with the same tools and accessing the same information to ensure consistency and accuracy of information. It is also desirable for suppliers to have access to information pertaining to their own products so that they can be apprised of status and so that they can facilitate the qualification and quality process.

The business climate also dictates moving to global sources and markets to be successful. The ability to tap into all supplier sources and markets using traditional qualification and quality models is greatly diminished. An electronic method to optimize these processes is crucial to business success in today's fast paced, ever-changing world. Procurement organizations that are able to network, rapidly qualify suppliers, and monitor supplier quality will derive a competitive advantage.

A process is therefore required that can provide a means of integrating a variety of tools and data repositories in order to expedite supplier qualification and quality management. This process should also include 24-hour a day access for authorized persons situated around the globe.

An exemplary embodiment of the invention relates to a system and storage medium for facilitating supplier qualification and quality management functions. The system includes an application executing on a host system and a web-based user interface provided by the application, the web-based user interface collaboratively enabling qualification of suppliers, parts, and technologies over a network. The system also includes a shared data repository and a workstation in communication with the host system, and a supplier in communication with the host system via the user interface and network. The collaborative qualification includes acquiring supplier capabilities, part data, and supplier technology data from a collaborative source via the user interface. The collaborative qualification also includes storing acquired data in the shared data repository, and performing quality management functions via the user interface and shared data repository. The quality management functions include: managing changes to a supplier product; managing process changes proposed by a supplier; and assessing quality metrics provided by a supplier.

Referring now to the drawings wherein like elements are numbered alike in the several FIGURES:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portion of the system that includes a plurality of workstations and servers on which the supplier qualification and quality management tool is implemented;

FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a high level view of a qualification/quality business process;

FIG. 3 is a sample front-end screen for the supplier qualification and quality management application;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart describing how a purchasing organization utilizes the supplier qualification and quality management tool;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart describing how a supplier organization utilizes the supplier qualification and quality management tool.