Seven carefully scrutinised criteria: SNCF has raised the bar. A warning to the best of you…

Today SNCF has 60,000 listed suppliers - and that is just too many. To optimise its portfolio and induce suppliers to improve their services, SNCF is introducing a new evaluation system.
It starts with the Stock product family, the heavyweight of the purchasing department.

Criteria are defined in 7 strategic areas:
• Quality
• Cost and competitiveness
• Logistics
• Finance
• Management
• Product or project development
• Sustainable development

To be seleced the supplier has to attain:
• An overall grade in all 7 areas
• And the minimum required level for certain criteria

They still have to prove their worth!
The selection of suppliers can be questioned at any time. Continuous assessment of performance is carried out based on the allocated contracts.

New process: the schedule
After the Stock family, the process will be extended to include all Rolling stock families as of 2007-2008, followed by industrial infrastructure products and services.