Essential Questions Procurement Managers Should Ask Before Selecting a UK MRO Supplier Across the Midlands, Scotland's industrial heartland and North West England, manufacturing plants all depend on the right procurement managers to be able to confidently answer the following questions before contracting with UK MRO supplier candidates. In many organizations, procurement managers are likely to be spending around 15-40% of their total spend on indirect procurement, so the questions they ask UK MRO supplier teams during the evaluation process directly impact the availability of stock, downtime and total cost. It provides the essential questions, KPIs and risk factors procurement teams need to ask before signing a supplier and the evaluation frameworks that need to be applied. Looking for assistance to assess and find MRO suppliers? Request a Quote Why Supplier Evaluation Matters in MRO Procurement An MRO supplier supplies the maintenance, repair and operational products and services which are used to help businesses keep equipment, facilities and daily operations working but are not used as part of the creation of a finished product. Poor UK MRO supplier evaluation decisions have an impact on many departments, affecting maintenance schedules, downtime rates and indirect cost control throughout the facility. Core Questions About Inventory and Stock Availability Approximate fill rate for the categories we need? What practices do you have for dealing with slow moving or difficult-to-obtain spares? Are you able to offer us real time inventory update across our locations? How much safety stocks do you keep on our critical components? Questions About Lead Times and Delivery Performance How long does it take on average to lead you to a product? What has the percentage of your deliveries that are on time been for the last year? How to deal with urgent orders or ordering for the same day? Do you provide Multi-Site delivery co-ordination for the UK sites? Evaluating Supplier Pricing and Cost Transparency In the price structure, the clear MRO procurement checklist questions help to avoid any hidden costs when the contract is signed: Are the prices transparent; do they include breakdowns, no bundled markups? Do you have volume pricing with a framework for consolidated volume, by category? How are price increases communicated and negotiated throughout the contract period? What is included and what is not included (freight, packaging, rush fees)? Questions About Vendor Managed Inventory Vendor managed inventory (VMI) is a supplier-managed inventory where the supplier replenishes the stock according to an agreed level, thus minimizing the internal administrative task. Factor VMI Traditional Replenishment Ordering responsibility Supplier monitors and replenishes stock Internal team places each order Stockout risk Lower, proactive replenishment Higher, dependent on manual review Administrative burden Reduced for procurement team Higher, requires ongoing tracking Best suited for High-volume, predictable consumption items Low-volume, specialized components Supplier Risk and Business Continuity Questions How much money do you have and how is it proven? Are there geographic and single source risks in your own supply chain? If your main distribution center is affected, what are the plans to have another one? How do you manage cybersecurity for connected inventory and ordering systems? Technology and ERP Integration Questions Does your ordering system support our ERP or CMMS product? Do you have spend visibility and reporting analytics dashboards? How does punch-out/e-Sourcing catalog integration work? What is the time frequency and format of reporting on procurement KPIs? Compliance, Certifications and ESG Questions A comprehensive MRO supplier assessment questions checklist should verify compliance with ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and ISO 45001 as well as industry-specific compliance and increasingly, ESG and Scope 3 emissions reporting, in line with the expectations of the UK supply chain with regards to sustainability. Questions About Service Levels and Support What SLAs do you promise with regards to fill rate, delivery, and response time? How do you assess and communicate the performance of SLA? What happens if the levels of services are not met? What technical assistance is made available for selection and troubleshooting? MRO Supplier Scorecard Framework A structured scorecard, which looks at fill rate, delivery on time, cost competitiveness, SLAs and risk exposure, will enable a UK MRO supplier candidate to turn ‘no’ answers to a procurement manager to ‘yes.’ This provides an objective measure for supplier comparison, as opposed to subjectivity from sales discussions. KPI What It Measures Fill rate Percentage of orders fulfilled completely from stock On-time delivery Percentage of orders delivered within agreed lead time SLA compliance Adherence to agreed service level commitments Cost savings / TCO Total cost of ownership versus…