Vetting of Factories
All global suppliers used by NP are carefully vetted by the company's management by a combination of personal visits, technical inspections and careful prior qualification processes.
The vetting criteria include:
- ISO approved
- Serious management
- Technical sophistication
- Export focus, Western experience and service orientation
- Long term thinking
- Expansion strategy
- Financially stable
- Product warranties (stand by their products)
- Commercial flexibility (not just "their" way)
- Good relations - the test is not in the soft markets
- Strengths - utilize them for what they do best
- Regular visits (both ways) - face to face business