[PnP-Focus] customer vs. supplier

That is a good question.  A customer can also be a supplier.  The 
difference is in the process perspective that we are talking about. 

Your farmers are customers for your finance product (loans) and they are 
the suppliers of farm products you in turn sell.  You really have two 
processes.  A lending/finance process, where the farmers act as 
customers, and you have a distribution or wholesale process where the 
farmers act as suppliers.  The fact that the proceeds of the wholesale 
process are used to payback the lending process just mean the processes 
are coupled and you have a dependent system of process.  It is common to 
find dependent processes in a system.

ISO 9000 requires that you define who the customer and supplier are for 
your system.  They can be the same physical entity.  You just need to 
describe the sequence and interaction of the processes.  The rest will 
take care of itself.

Chris Anderson, CQA
Bizmanualz, Inc.

Rainal Lasumin wrote:

>Our Contract farmers supply us the products (poultry, raw honey, mushroom)
>for processing or sell directly to the market. They are our partners in
>production. But at the same time we provide them loan and kept thier land
>title(customer property) as collateral. We deduct thier loan via sales of
>thier products, and we kept 5-10% of thier income in financial institution
>as compulsary saving. We kept thier bank pass book(customer property).
>
>(a) Can they also considered   as customer, thereby providing processes as
>required by 7.5.3?
>
>(b) What are the practical ways to distinguish between customer and
>supplier?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Rainal Lasumin.
>Sabah.Malaysia.
>
>
>----- Original Message -----
>From: "Chris Anderson" <chris at bizmanualz.com>
>To: "PnP-Focus" <pnp-focus at lists.bizmanualz.com>
>Sent: Sunday, October 23, 2005 11:56 PM
>Subject: [PnP-Focus] the product in education
>
>
>  
>
>>Some people have asked for more clarification regarding the "product" in
>>education.
>>
>>Consider a factory that makes a product.  The factory worker uses work
>>instructions, methods, and tools to create the product.  The system the
>>worker uses consists of the work instructions, methods, and tools used.
>>Problems or defects with the product require a change in the system.
>>The product is not the work instructions, methods, or tools.
>>
>>Now lets take the teacher in a school.  The teacher uses work
>>instructions, methods, and tools to create the product we call
>>learning.  If the product has problems or defects (i.e. learning is not
>>occurring as expected) then the teacher must change their work
>>instructions, methods, or tools in order to decrease the defect rate.
>>Teaching is to a school as working is to a factory.
>>
>>People don't create defects, systems do.  People use the system to
>>create products.  Neither teaching nor working are the product.  They
>>represent the system used to create the product.  The consumers consist
>>of the students, parents, and society whom all consume or benefit from
>>the learning.  The effectiveness of any system is a function of product
>>flow.  Variations and defects obstruct the product flow causing rework,
>>delays, and unsatisfied customers.  The work instructions, methods, and
>>tools need to be aligned to deliver maximum learning at a maximal
>>product flow (progression through the grade levels).  Effectiveness
>>occurs when the two are aligned to produce the highest composite result.
>>
>>I hope this clears up the confusion.
>>
>>Chris
>>
>>--
>>simplifying consistent results through policies, procedures, people and
>>processes <http://www.bizmanualz.com>
>>
>>
>>Chris Anderson, Managing Director
>>7777 Bonhomme Ave STE 2222
>>St. Louis, MO 63105
>>314-863-5079 x11 314-863-6571 fax
>>www.bizmanualz.com <http://www.bizmanualz.com> simplifying consistent
>>results
>>
>>__
>>PnP-Focus mailing list
>>PnP-Focus at lists.bizmanualz.com
>>http://lists.bizmanualz.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pnp-focus
>>    
>>
>
>__
>PnP-Focus mailing list
>PnP-Focus at lists.bizmanualz.com
>http://lists.bizmanualz.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/pnp-focus
>
>  
>


-- 
simplifying consistent results through policies, procedures, people and 
processes <http://www.bizmanualz.com>
	

Chris Anderson, Managing Director
7777 Bonhomme Ave STE 2222
St. Louis, MO 63105
314-863-5079 x11 314-863-6571 fax
www.bizmanualz.com <http://www.bizmanualz.com> simplifying consistent 
results