Supplier quality monitoring, also called supplier performance monitoring, is the ongoing, systematic observation of how suppliers and service providers perform between formal evaluations.
Purpose. Spot deviations early, before they become a problem, and avoid flying blind between periodic evaluations.
What is observed. Agreed metrics and SLAs, complaints and defect reports, acceptance results, stakeholder feedback, schedule and budget deviations.
Where it sits. An audit is one-off and deep. An evaluation is periodic and judging. Monitoring is continuous and oriented to exceptions. The action that follows belongs to supplier performance management.
Thresholds. Beyond a defined deviation, a conversation or a corrective action plan with an owner and a deadline follows.
Cadence. The rhythm follows how critical the service is, from continuous to annual.
Scope note. This entry covers the monitoring of external suppliers and service providers. It is unrelated to quality monitoring of call-centre conversations.