Forensic Systems Engineering

18Forensic Analysis of Supplier Control

CHAPTER MENU

1. 18.1 Outsourcing
2. 18.2 Supply Chain Management
3. 18.3 Forensic Analysis of Supply Systems
4. 18.3.1 Basic Principles of Supplier Control
5. 18.3.2 The Forensic Challenge
6. 18.3.2.1 Ensure that Purchased Units Conform to Contracted Specifications
7. 18.3.2.2 Assessment of the Supplier Process
8. 18.3.2.3 Tracking
9. 18.3.2.4 Customer Relations
10. 18.3.2.5 Verification and Storage of Supplies
11. 18.3.2.6 Identification and Traceability
12. 18.4 Supplier Verification: A Case Study
13. 18.4.1 Manufacture
14. 18.4.2 V50 Testing
15. 18.4.3 V50 Test Results
16. 18.5 Malfeasant Supply Systems
17. References

Companies that make things or that provide services for sale invariably require supplies from sources external to themselves. A manufacturer of metal cabinets may purchase sheet metal from a steel manufacturer; a shoemaker purchases leather; a baker purchases flour; and a bank purchases forms and other kinds of software. Sometimes external services, too, are purchased, financial services, for example. The external sources are called by a number of names, among them “suppliers,” “vendors,” or “subcontractors.” All of these names are used here and there in this book, but for brevity in this chapter, we shall call an external source a supplier, in keeping with ISO 9000 (ANSI/ISO/ASQ, 2005), which defines a supplier as an entity that provides a product or service to an organization.

Good business practice requires that a company verify and validate the quality of supplied resources ...