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Evaluate a supplier against the specific work you need done—not its headcount, revenue or number of facilities. Look for job-relevant evidence of expertise, qualified people, controlled processes, suitable equipment and facilities, quality results, and capacity available for your schedule. Then verify important claims through records, references, assessment or a sample. Company size can provide context, but it does not prove that a supplier can perform your contract.
Define what successful performance requires
Start with the contract, not a generic supplier questionnaire. Describe the deliverables and the conditions they must meet, including technical standards, tolerances, interfaces, deadlines, service levels, security or regulatory obligations, and the consequences of failure. These become the criteria against which you assess a supplier’s technical capability.
Separate minimum requirements from comparative scoring. A minimum is a pass/fail condition: a supplier that cannot meet it is not suitable. Comparative criteria help distinguish among suppliers that have passed, based on the strength of their evidence or proposed delivery. Keep both sets relevant and proportionate to the purchase.
For public procurement in the UK, Cabinet Office guidance says conditions should “be a proportionate means of ensuring a supplier’s relevant capacity or ability, having regard to the nature, complexity and cost of the public contract.” The guidance also distinguishes supplier selection from evaluating the merits of bids, and cautions against disproportionate conditions that disadvantage SMEs, voluntary, community and social enterprises, or start-ups. See Module 6: Supplier selection. Apply the rules that govern your own procurement; public-sector guidance is not automatically a legal requirement for private buyers.
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Why company size is a poor stand-in for capability
Revenue, staff count and facility count may help you understand financial resilience or the scale of a supplier’s resources. They do not, by themselves, show that the supplier has the relevant know-how, process control, qualified staff, suitable equipment or time available to deliver your work.
Assess the actual delivery arrangement. A smaller supplier may have specialist expertise but limited redundancy; a larger supplier may have extensive resources but assign a team or facility that does not fit your requirements. Those are questions to verify, not conclusions to draw from size alone. Avoid unexplained size thresholds, and do not assume that one size category performs better on average.
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Request evidence that matches the work
Ask for evidence tied to the risks and requirements you identified. A focused request is more useful than a universal checklist, and avoids burdening suppliers with irrelevant documentation.
- Relevant experience: comparable completed work, its scope and dates, results, and customer references.
- Delivery team: the people expected to perform the work, their relevant qualifications and experience, and access to specialist support.
- Methods and controls: process maps, engineering methods, test plans, inspection points, change control, traceability and handling of nonconformances.
- Technical resources: equipment, facilities, software or infrastructure, along with relevant maintenance and calibration records and evidence of suitability for the process.
- Quality evidence: quality-system records, validation evidence, defect trends, corrective actions and applicable certificates.
- Available capacity: current loading, planned work, lead times, bottlenecks, subcontractors and other commitments that could affect delivery.
- Software or service delivery: relevant architecture, development and release controls, technical support arrangements and service capability.
The right evidence depends on the purchase. Health Canada’s medical-device quality guidance identifies facilities, personnel, infrastructure, product portfolio, maintenance, calibration, qualification, validation and capacity planning as possible objective evidence. The US Postal Service’s supplier evaluation practices address resources, schedule feasibility, quality control, skills, equipment and facilities. Eskom’s nuclear-sector supplier manual also discusses manufacturing capacity, codes and standards, product knowledge, quality measures, training and experience. These sources illustrate evidence categories; their legal or procedural requirements do not automatically apply to other sectors or buyers. Health Canada guidance · USPS Supplying Principles and Practices · Eskom Nuclear Supplier Qualification and Audit Manual.
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Check evidence instead of relying on assurances
For each material claim, decide what would substantiate it: an underlying record, demonstration, reference, observation or other corroboration. A polished presentation is not equivalent to evidence from actual work.
- Review relevant records. Check whether qualifications, process controls, inspection results, calibration records and capacity plans support the claims made. Focus on the requirements that matter to your contract.
- Contact references. Ask about comparable work, the supplier’s performance against its requirements, and any problems or corrective actions—not only whether the customer was satisfied in general.
- Assess the operation when risk warrants it. A qualified assessor can conduct a proportionate on-site or remote review of relevant processes, people, records and resources. Sandia’s supplier guidance describes questionnaires and site or remote assessments as supplier-assurance methods. Sandia supplier quality guidance.
- Use a practical demonstration where it answers the question. For a manufactured item, a sample, prototype, first article or first lot may show whether the supplier can meet important requirements. Choose a demonstration suited to the work rather than treating it as a universal prerequisite.
Health Canada’s guidance emphasizes defining criteria and evaluating demonstrated ability. For regulated products, follow the applicable quality and regulatory requirements in addition to this general evaluation approach.
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Assess capacity separately from technical competence
A supplier can have the technical skills and process controls to do the work but lack room in its schedule. Check whether the necessary people and equipment will be available when required, and whether lead times, bottlenecks or other commitments make the plan realistic. Include work that is pending award if it could affect delivery.
Identify where essential capability sits. If it depends on a particular employee, subcontractor, parent or affiliate, verify that the delivery arrangement secures the needed contribution for your contract. In some UK public procurements, reliance on consortium or subcontractor capacity is permitted subject to the procurement’s requirements; document the relationship as required. UK supplier selection guidance.
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Compare suppliers on the same basis
Use the same scope, evidence request and assessment approach for suppliers you are comparing. Keep pass/fail minimums distinct from weighted scoring, and choose weights that reflect the purchase’s risks and intended outcomes rather than a generic template.
| Comparison area | What to assess |
|---|---|
| Relevant track record | Similarity of prior work in scope, technical demands and results. |
| Delivery expertise | Experience and availability of the named team and specialist support. |
| Process control | Repeatability, change control, inspection and defect handling. |
| Equipment and facilities | Suitability of resources for the specification and evidence that they are maintained. |
| Quality and reliability | Relevant quality records, validation evidence, defect trends and corrective action. |
| Capacity and resilience | Realistic lead time, current commitments, bottlenecks and dependence on key resources. |
| Delivery dependencies | Management of subcontractors, security, regulatory duties and ongoing support, where relevant. |
| Evidence and residual risk | Strength of corroboration and the remaining risk, including the cost of oversight or qualification. |
Scale due diligence to risk and act on gaps
Match assessment depth to the likely consequences of failure and the difficulty of replacing the supplier. For a low-risk, standard purchase, documented checks and credible references may be sufficient. Safety-critical, regulated, novel or hard-to-replace work can warrant deeper technical review, an audit, demonstration, inspection or staged approval. Sector-specific rules may require additional qualification or recordkeeping.
Record the criteria, evidence reviewed, findings, assumptions and decision rationale. If a gap is manageable, define corrective actions and deadlines, and specify any added inspection, testing or oversight and when approval will be reassessed. Eskom’s nuclear supplier manual provides one sector-specific example: conditional approval may be paired with an action plan and increased oversight. Its rating bands—approval at 85%–100%, conditional approval at 70%–84%, and non-approval below 70%—are Eskom’s nuclear supplier criteria, not an industry-wide benchmark. The publication date is not established in the source cited here; the manual also warns that downloaded copies are uncontrolled, so users should confirm they have an authorized current version. Eskom manual, Revision 3.
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