Understanding Supplier and Item Information Setup

The system processes an order based on the items that you purchase and the supplier from whom you make the purchases. For example, you can define purchasing instructions for a supplier so that each time you enter an order, the system retrieves default values for that supplier.

You can specify the items that you purchase from a supplier to create supplier and item relationships. For each item, you can enter information such as whether the supplier is certified to sell the item. If a supplier is not certified to sell an item, the system does not let you enter the item on a purchase order for the supplier.

You can review information about the quality of a supplier's services, including delivery performance and the condition of items upon receipt. To ensure that this information is accurate, you must set up guidelines so that the system can recognize on-time deliveries and items in acceptable condition.

You can review a summary of performance information to compare suppliers' costs and services for a certain item. Before you can review this information, you must define performance factors that might include the number of returned items, last-in costs, average lead times, and so on.