Vendor (supply chain)

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A vendor, or a supplier, is a supply chain management term meaning anyone who provides goods or services to a company. A vendor often manufactures inventoriable items, and sells those items to a customer.

[edit] History

The term vendor originally represented property vendors^[1]. However, today it means a supplier of any good or service. A vendor, or a supplier, is a supply chain management term that means anyone who provides goods or services to a company. A vendor often manufactures inventoriable items, and sells those items to a customer.

Typically vendors are tracked in either a finance system or a warehouse management system.

Vendors are often managed with a vendor compliance checklist or vendor quality audits.

Purchase orders are usually used as a contractual agreement with vendors to buy goods or services.

Vendors may or may not function as distributors of goods. They may or may not function as manufacturers of goods. If vendors are also manufacturers, they will build to stock rather than build to order.

Vendor is often a generic term, used for suppliers of industries from retail sales^[2] to manufacturers to city organizations^[3]. Vendor generally applies only to the immediate vendor, or the organization that is paid for the goods, rather than to the original manufacturer or the organization performing the service if it is different from the immediate vendor^[4].

[edit] See also

• Vendor Managed Inventory
• Purchase order
• Purchase requisition
• Quote
• Inventory
• Supply chain management

[edit] References

1. ^ Vendor
2. ^ Vendor - Supplier: What is a Retail Vendor?
3. ^ Become A Vendor/Supplier
4. ^ Skjott-Larsen, Tage; Philip B. Schary, Juliana H. Mikkola, Herbert Kotzab (2007). Managing the Global Supply Chain. Copenhagen Business School Press DK. pp. 20. ISBN 8763001713.