A sixty question spreadsheet from a new customer
A new customer wants to approve you as a supplier. Their questionnaire arrives as a spreadsheet: company details, insurance, quality system, certification scope and expiry, calibration control, material traceability, FAI capability, subcontractor control, cyber security, environmental policy, conflict minerals, business continuity. Each answer needs evidence attached.
Your quality manager answered almost the same questions for another customer three months ago. The wording is different, the order is different, and the old answers are in an email somewhere.
Why the same work is done again and again
Each questionnaire is treated as a one off. The answers exist, but they are not kept anywhere reusable, and the evidence documents such as certificates and policies go out of date without anyone noticing until a customer asks.
- Past replies are in sent emails and customer portals.
- Answers are written fresh each time, and vary between customers.
- Evidence documents are in several folders, in several versions.
- Certificate and insurance expiry dates are not tracked for reuse.
- Only the quality manager knows where everything is.
What it costs
Days of the quality manager's time for each new customer, when that time is needed on the shop floor. Delays in getting approved, which can mean the work goes to a supplier already on the list. Inconsistent answers to different customers, which look careless if anyone compares. And out of date certificates sent by accident.
The answer library we build
- Your approved answers are collected into a library, organised by topic: company, quality system, traceability, inspection, calibration, subcontract control, environment, security and so on.
- Evidence documents such as certificates, policies, insurance schedules and the quality manual are stored once, with their version and expiry date.
- A new questionnaire, in spreadsheet, Word, PDF or copied from a portal, is read and each question is matched to the closest approved answers.
- An AI step drafts a reply for each question from the matched answers, in the customer's wording where needed, and lists the evidence to attach. It does not invent answers where the library has none.
- Questions with no good match are flagged for the quality manager to answer, and new answers are added to the library once approved.
- The completed questionnaire is produced in the customer's format with the evidence pack, and stored against the customer.
| Question type | What the library provides |
|---|---|
| Certification scope and expiry | Current certificate with its dates |
| Traceability and FAI | Approved description and example records |
| Calibration control | Procedure summary and register extract |
| Subcontractor control | Approved supplier list process |
| Insurance | Current schedule with expiry |
What you say about your quality system is your quality manager's decision. The tool reuses what they have approved; it does not decide what is true.
After the library exists
A new questionnaire starts with most answers drafted from ones you have already approved. The quality manager spends their time on the questions that are genuinely new. Answers stay consistent across customers. Expiring certificates and insurance show up in advance, so you do not send an expired document or find out from a customer.
It also helps with annual re-approvals and customer audits, where many of the same questions come round again.
Sales benefits too. When a prospect in a new sector asks whether you can support their requirements, the estimator or managing director can see what you have already said to similar customers, and which certificates and procedures back it up, before promising anything in a meeting.
Are questionnaires eating your quality manager's week?
- Each questionnaire is answered from scratch.
- Past answers are hard to find.
- Evidence documents exist in several versions.
- Approval with new customers has been delayed by paperwork.
- Only one person can complete them.