This is to teach suppliers who could only continue supplying based on their long-term commitment and involvement to the implementation of basic 5S good housekeeping and process flow or layout.

Under this type of partnering, the suppliers are constantly educated, monitored and measured by their clients a.k.a. big companies. If there is ever any confrontation between client and supplier in this relationship, it must take place in the factory where it matters the most.

There is an inescapable logic to this. Education is best learned in the factory, not in the air-conditioned boardroom. It is the best way to survival. Not only teaching their own workers, but their suppliers as well.

Supplier partnering is the key to quality and productivity, and eventually towards competitiveness.