The Manufacturer-Supplier Working Relations Index (WRI) is a numeric ranking of how suppliers rate their working relations with their manufacturing customers. The WRI, which ranges from zero (very poor) to 500 (exceptional), is based on the suppliers’ perceptions of the interfacing activities with the manufacturer in five areas:

• the quality of their overall Relationship, ranging from partnership to adversarial;
• the extent to which manufacturer Communication is open and honest;
• the amount of manufacturer Help provided to suppliers in meeting buyer price and quality demands;
• the degree of manufacturer Hindrance that impedes the suppliers’ ability to do the best possible job in providing products to the manufacturer; and
• the supplier Profit Opportunity at each buyer.

What is particularly significant about the WRI is that manufacturer price reduction demands are not factors in determining the Index, for it is not the pressure, but rather the manner in the pressure is applied that impacts the manufacturer-supplier working relations. Subsequently, the Index provides manufacturers a highly accurate measure to gauge their supplier working relations based on how suppliers candidly perceive their interactions with the manufacturer.

Over the years, manufacturers have launched numerous programs to improve their working relations with suppliers. Now, manufacturers have a means to determine whether their programs are working, the quality of their supplier working relations, and whether their purchasing and engineering staffs are in sync with top management’s public messages about how they want their supplier relations to be. This knowledge is critical to the manufacturer’s success, since Planning Perspectives’ exhaustive studies have shown that good supplier working relations directly affect a supplier’s willingness to share technology and willingness to work toward helping their manufacturing customers improve quality, cost, and competitiveness, regardless of the industry.