Operating within YKK’s integrated manufacturing vision, its Machinery and Engineering Group supplies internally manufactured equipment to factories throughout the world. Despite making much use of purchased parts, in the past the group lacked a strategy for improving the procurement process; most procurement changes were motivated purely by the cost of the parts. Under recent conditions of unanticipated delays in the supply of parts, reviewing procured materials on the basis of cost alone appeared unwise, but the procurement personnel lacked knowledge of the functional evaluation strategy found in quality engineering. To introduce them to functional evaluation, a case study was carried out on the procurement of general-purpose bearings, issues and effectiveness were noted, and this information was shared with the personnel. In particular, the process of choosing among proposed purchases was studied, and a summary of the points that should be considered by the procurement department was prepared. This had the effect of raising the level of awareness of functional evaluation throughout the Machinery and Engineering Group, which began using functional evaluation to confirm the quality of all procured parts. The procurement department also undertook a restudy of the procurement process flow.
https://ror.org/04ftb9f20 
