How to deal with a supplier who said a critical shipment would be late?

Ask him reasons and official latter reason for the delay and whether, if not under  his control. then will Cooperate with him and think about a solution to the problem until arrival of the shipment .However, if the delay and there is without really  reason will send him a warning latter  and  repeated  condition supplier,and put  him it in the black list

The most important thing is to understand the reason for delay.
Is there any way you can help out the Supplier in this situation for an early delivery.
And lastly impose Liquidated Damages on delay, no compromise should be made on that, as Supplier always builds in the cost of LDs at the time of Pricing.
This would act as a deterrent for futture

Hello Tariq, Ahmed, Indeed it is a good question.
If this is such a critical shipment, then you took some measures when you orded at this supplier.
There has been made e.g.
a contract with penalties because it is a very important shipment.
I would also ask the supplier if he can give me a sort of schedule how he thinks he can asure the delivery time.
Where does he think there could be problems and how does he think he can prevent delay? If you did this, then during the period of this order, I should have called him several times (also per e-mail so you have something written down in case of problems) asking how it is with the progressing of this order, also telling him again that it is a critical shipment.
I agree with Tariq, Always be kind and be open to discuss with him and ask if you can help.
Last I have read a quote (I do not remember where): 'If an American client has to receive goods from its supplier and there will be a delay, the American will send several lawyers to sue the supplier to court, the Japanese will sent some workers to the supplier with the question if they can help the supplier ...
Best regards, Leon Kloor

Hi Dear, In my view you can control the delay factor by considering following points before contract: Compare the offered delivery time from3 potential supplier of the same field.
If you are ordering on extra ordinary short delivery time basis, ask for justification of shortest delivery time and define mile stones for delivery like order processing time in their system, order confirmation time, production schedule time, ready for inspection for1st batch,2nd batch,3rd and onwards.
Ready for shipment date, Shipping document preparation time, export formalities time, availability of vessels/flights, shipment transit time.
For a critical shipment you must appoint a Third point agency to check and report on all above mile stones.
In this way you would get immediate report of delay on each step from TPI and you can take necessary measures to control the delay.
Regards, Anser Shahzad

Good Question and Normal in Purchasing/Procurement Department.
Chronic delivery problems are a telling sign that your vendor or supplier is struggling to meet your demands.
This problem can be sorted out in a variety of ways depending on the root of the problem.
Discuss the late delivery issues with your supplier by looking past the late delivery and figure out why the deliveries are late.
There is another answers for questions it may comes to your mind as a professional Purchasing Manger and I would like to share my experience to whom it may concern to develop there skills: Conflict Avoidance and Resolution All relationships have conflict no matter how good they are.
Always try to avoid conflict but recognize when conflict is present.
A good vendor or supplier relationship will be able to withstand some amount of conflict as long as both parties want to resolve the conflict in a productive way.
Too often, a vendor or supplier relationship will turn south when one of the parties decides to take advantage of the other.
Taking unfair advantage of a situation is a short sided approach to building a lasting business.
Again, it’s fine to negotiate hard get the best deal but it’s also wise to understand the implications.
Resolving conflict is never easy.
In fact, most of us shy away from dealing with conflict until it hits the point where the conflict becomes unavoidable.
Some of the most common vendor or supplier conflicts include: Late payments: Everyone makes late payments so don’t avoid a late payment issue by just ignoring those accounts receivable calls.
Confront any ability to pay problems as early as you can and talk with your vendor or supplier about it.
Nine out of ten times, they will understand and try and figure out a way to work with you.
Product returns: Products can sometime come to you damaged or defective.
When this happens, you vendor or supplier should be notified right away so corrective measures can be taken.
Handle any product returns with care and respect since a good vendor will want to correct the issue as soon as they can.
Specification misunderstandings: Subcontracting can be a tremendous asset to a company if the work to be performed is properly specified.
When specification misunderstandings creep in, strive to not lay blame but rather get to the root of the matter as a team.
Late Delivery: Chronic delivery problems are a telling sign that your vendor or supplier is struggling to meet your demands.
This problem can be sorted out in a variety of ways depending on the root of the problem.
Discuss the late delivery issues with your supplier by looking past the late delivery and figure out why the deliveries are late.
Poor product performance: Product performance can be affected by many things.
Most vendors and suppliers are constantly looking for ways to reduce their costs while still maintaining a high level of quality and performance.
Sometimes, they miss an important parameter that they feel is a nice to have but for your product, is critical to have.
This is why proper performance specifications should be agreed upon up front.
That way, any process change can be compared to what your requirements are.
Conflict resolution can be tough but avoiding the conflict will be even tougher.
It’s always best to avoid conflict if possible but if that’s just not going to happen, then be as proactive as you can to resolve it.
Best Regards to you all Tariq Al Farah

If a supplier is delaying with an order, I suggest the below:1.
When placing the order carry out a thorough risk assesment as you select the suppliers.
It will be prudent to do due deligency on the supplier prequalification and assess the capacity of the suppliers.2.
I feel after all the effort of sourcing and placing the order, what we want ultimatly is delivery of the goods in their five rights, quality, quantity, price, to right place and from right source, so we should manage our relations well with the supplier such that we become a customer of choice to them, hence they will always deliver as per contract.
Its all about relationship management.3.
On order placement as aluded by earlier speakers, yes it is ideal to put clauses to curb on such delays, but the delay should be avoided as much as possible.
Ensure penalty clause and have Letters of Credit or some sort of security, because a sturbon supplier can just stop the order and as a procurement manager you suffer, but as he / she knows that the customer is holding my performance bond, definatly will deliver such that he / she does not loose out.4.
The other option will be to work with your supplier to ensure a win - win situation prevails, know the challenges earlier before due date and restrategies on how best the supplier can beat the delivery due date.5.
Suggest to him / her some possible ways, for example, some cargo delay at the port of entry, negotiate with customes for preclearing to be done before the cargo is at the port, at times the supplier can pay an extra fee to deliver by the most fastest way if possible.

First of all know the reason of delay! wether it is solveable or beyond supplier's control. Ask him if he can collect your product from some other customer's reservations.

And if not possible must ask him to compensate you by offering very good discount for the delay; and you can deliver same discount or a part to your customer to save your company's repute.

1) for short term solution, we should ask the supplier to deliver the part of goods by DHL2) monitor the delivery of the first part by DHL and the rest of order in a daily basis.
We must make sure that supplier understands that they have to pay for the DHL if they are guilty.
For long term solution, the order process must by checked in details and the bugs must be clarified and modified in some meetings between supplier and our procurement team.
Sometimes, it is not supplier's fault, therefore, the solution must be decided by both parties to be shared in terms of on cost.

It is important to know the reason behind such delays.
If this id due to resource management, the supplier must be emphasized to have enough resources to make sure the delivery in time.
In the mean time the purchasing responsible can look for another source if the subject supply is more critical and affecting the milestone achievement.
The contract agreement between the parties should be consulted before any decision.
There must be a condition included in the contract applicable under such situation.
Another possibility is to support the supplier for resources if possible and the expense for such support shall be deducted from his payment with penalty if the condition exists in the contract.

I have read the suggestions of all the participants and colleagues.
I am not part of the Purchase Dept.
I am responsible of Export Dept.
They all have given very good advices about clauses in a contract but, I don't find a solution for the question.
If I have understood the question correctly, our supplier is telling us we are going to receive the material late.
And this material is so important we must receive the material on time because this will affect to our delivery time with our customers.
And we will have problems with them.
So, we must find a way to stop this chain of problems.
Because the problem comes from our supplier but our immage will be damaged.
What can we do??? I would apologise to my customer and try to compensate him with a special discount.
And, regarding to our supplier,...
it will depend on how big is our company.
First of all I would contact directly with another supplier to make the purchase of the material we need ASAP to save our company and, after, make the other supplier pay to his competitor the invoice, if he doesn't pay take him to court...
But in my opinion first of all is to find a solution to serve our customer and save our immage.
Later, we will have time for going to court, discuss, etc.
This is theory.
Because we are a small company, and we buy steel.
There are a few manufacturers all over the world so, they can do what they want.
Because when they told us we would receive the material late, or a bit damaged, we made a reclamation and they told us: you have two options: one is to wait for the material X days or send a purchase order to competitors that will deliver the material in X months and probably more expensive.
And take them to court is a waste of time and money for us.

FIRST WHEN YOU SIGHN THE CONTRACT WITH SUPPLIER , PLEASE MENTION IN CASE OF SUPPLIES DELIVERY PANALTY . NOW ACCORDING TO SUPPLIER IF YOUR SUPPPLY WOULD BE DELAY, PLEASE TAKE THE REASON IN WRITTEN BY E-MAIL FROM SUPPLIER , SO THAT AS A PURCHASER YOU CAN SHOW THE REASON TO YOUR MANAGEMENT . NOW IF THE REASON IS NATURAL DISASTER , PLEASE SUPPORT TO THE SUPPLIER AND ASK THE SUPPLY OF CRITICAL QTY BY AIR. SO THAT YOU CAN SAFE YOUR PRODUCTION FROM LINE STOPPAGE. (2) NOW THE OTHER PERSONAL REASON OF DELAY SUPPLY. YOU CAN ASK BY AIR  SUPPLY OF WHOLE P.O QTY . ALL EXTERNAL CHARGES WILL BEAR BY SUPPLIER. IF YOUR SUPPLIER SERIOUS WITH YOU IN BUSINESS , SUPPLIER WILL ACCEPT ALL CHARGES AND WILL SUPPLY YOU, IF SUPPLIER IS NEW AND NOT SERIOUS , SEND TO HIM CONTRACT COPY AND LEGAL DEBIT NOTE HIM ACCORDING CONTRACTS TERMS.