A Scorecard for Lighting Suppliers

Buyers select lighting suppliers on price, sample quality and a factory visit, then discover that the relationship is decided by something else entirely: how the supplier behaves when something goes wrong. A scorecard makes that behaviour visible before it is expensive.

The six measures

Score each from one to five, quarterly, with evidence rather than impression:

Weight documentation higher than it feels

A supplier who cannot produce the certificate for the exact model being shipped creates a risk that no price advantage can offset, because the cost of a lost listing or a rejected container is a multiple of the entire margin on the order.

Score the change, not the fault

Suppliers make mistakes. What distinguishes them is whether the substitution, the delay or the defect is disclosed before the shipment or discovered after it. That single behaviour predicts the next five years of the relationship better than any other measure on the card.

Two suppliers, always

The scorecard has a second purpose: keeping a qualified alternative alive. Buying a low-volume trial from a second factory each year costs very little and converts a single-source dependency into a decision.

Use it in the conversation

A scorecard that is never shared is a private grudge. Send it, explain the weighting, and review it once a year. Most suppliers improve on the two measures they can see being counted.