Capability requirements for product and process suppliers:

• demonstrated financial strength commensurate with the risk involved in becoming part of the supply chain

• ability to provide consistently high quality products and services

• effective and reliable process control systems throughout its own enterprise and throughout its own supply chains

• compliance with accepted industry standards for quality assessment and quality maintenance (e.g., IQ 9000)

• compliance with accepted industry standards for manufacturing enterprise performance (e.g., ISO 9000)

• compliance with applicable state and federal regulations

• validated process technologies appropriate for the products and services being supplied

• consistent on-time delivery

• ability to react with short lead times without incurring excessive costs or degrading quality

• ability to design and fabricate prototypes quickly and accurately to meet requirements for product realization programs

• use of appropriate data and information management systems that can effectively communicate with customers' and suppliers' systems and provide the information required to participate effectively in the supply chain.

• ability to produce the required products and/or services at competitive costs

• emphasis on employee learning and a well implemented training program

Unique capability requirements for product providers:

• ability to provide special insight into uses for their products and methods for adapting them to nonstandard applications

• product planning, design, and development capabilities that, although focused on creating and updating the supplier's own line of products, can be modified or adapted for nonstandard applications

• ability to provide after-sales support appropriate for dealing with unique or proprietary products.

Unique capability requirements for process suppliers:

• ability to guide customer product design decisions to reduce process costs and improve quality

• ability to provide process design capability to meet customer needs