Vendor management best practices for garment manufacturers

Your vendors are an extension of your factory, but most units manage them on trust and memory alone. That works until volume grows — then the quiet under-performers cost you buyers without you ever seeing the pattern.

Score what matters

Three numbers tell you almost everything about a vendor: on-time percentage, quality acceptance rate, and how often you had to take recovery action. Track them per vendor, per order, and the rankings will surprise you.

• Share the scorecard with the vendor — visibility changes behaviour faster than penalties.
• Keep a clean payment trail so disputes are settled with a record, not an argument.
• Rate every delivery at receipt, while the detail is fresh.