A request for a supplier agreement quotation (Supplier Agreement RFQ) is a quotation request made for recurring purchases during a specific period of time. In contrast, a request for order quotation is a quotation request made for single purchases.
A supplier agreement RFQ can be processed in two ways. You can either manually enter the request in the Request for Agreement Quotation window, or process it from IFS/Project Delivery or IFS/Project if it is connected to a project. In a request for a quotation, you can request price quotations for specific parts and quantities, and conditions for pricing for estimated amounts from chosen supplier groups. In most cases, you send requests for quotations to several suppliers before creating a supplier agreement.
The following elements are involved in the process of making a supplier agreement RFQ:
Below you will find a more detailed description of the key elements.
A supplier RFQ consists of a header and one or more lines. When the header is created and saved, the request for a supplier agreement quotation receives the Planned status. If you enter a ship via code, delivery term, or payment term, the code or term, will be valid for that particular supplier agreement. If a value is not specified, the information in the supplier agreement is retrieved according to the normal procedure.
By entering supplier agreement part request lines, you can connect the preferred purchase parts to a particular request for a quotation. You can also connect a series of purchase parts to a particular request all at once, by using the Create Part Request Lines right mouse button option. To perform this, you will need to have successfully entered and saved a request for a quotation header, and the demand parts need to be entered in the purchase part record.
Supplier assortments are used in purchase agreements for grouping parts having similar conditions regarding discounts and additional costs, including inventory registered purchase parts, non-inventory registered purchase parts, and no-number parts. A supplier assortment can only be connected to a purchase agreement and not to a blanket purchase order. One of the advantages of using the supplier assortment concept is that you can use one purchase part even though you have several suppliers for the part and the suppliers can give you different discounts and additional costs.
Selecting one supplier or several suppliers is a must in the process of creating a supplier agreement RFQ. The letter will be directed to the person who is entered as the supplier contact. To complete this process successfully, you must have a saved request for the quotation header and also the suppliers to whom the request should be sent must have been predefined in the supplier record.
You can accommodate any number of changes to a delivery address, by using the Request for Agreement Quotation/Delivery Address tab. The delivery addresses can be selected from the list of alternate addresses of the company. Each time you change the address of a supplier agreement RFQ after releasing it, a revision will be created. The alternate delivery address is only valid for this specific request.
By releasing the supplier agreement RFQ, it will be ready to be printed and sent to the relevant suppliers. The status in the header of the window will be changed from Planned to Released, and a supplier agreement quotation will be created. Later, when you receive the offers from the suppliers, the quotation information is entered in the supplier agreement quotation.
The next stage would be to print the supplier agreement RFQ and send them to the relevant suppliers. The letter will be directed to the person entered as the supplier contact. If you have entered a technical coordinator for any of the request lines, they will be printed on the corresponding line for each purchase part and supplier assortment. In addition, a summary of the technical coordinators, including their default phone numbers and e-mail addresses will be printed on the request for supplier agreement quotation report. The phone numbers and e-mail addresses will be retrieved from the person records in IFS/Enterprise. In order to complete this task, the supplier agreement RFQ must be in Released status. Also, if you are sending the request for supplier agreement quotation (as a file) to the suppliers, the output channels for Excel must have been made available.
When a supplier agreemnt RFQ is in the Released status, each time you change a critical information (the delivery address, the currency, etc.) in the Request for Agreement Quotation window, a new revision of the request is created. This allows you and the supplier to easily refer or track down any changes made in the quotation. However this is not applicable when the supplier agreement RFQ is in the Planned status.