Western Growers recently met with Walmart leadership to discuss Walmart’s Supplier Quality Excellence Program (SQEP). Walmart’s team is interested in learning more about how they can improve the quality of pallets that are entering the system before they make it to suppliers. They are also open to hearing more about the dispute resolution process for SQEP fines and how the process might be revisited or better communicated.
Our team is currently looking for information to help the industry lessen SQEP issues down the road and better educate Walmart leadership to the real-world supplier scenarios and issues that are occurring. To facilitate further discussions, Western Growers is asking for your input. (Please note, all answers will be kept confidential and aggregated with other shipper feedback.)
Western Growers will meet with Walmart again to discuss these questions in early January. Our goal is to have all answers compiled by December 15th.
1. Can your team perform inspections using Walmart SQEP specs to determine the percent of issues upon pallet delivery? What are the top issues seen in pallets at delivery?
a. We want to help Walmart determine the percent of pallets you would normally want to send back to CHEP because they don’t meet specs and might lead to fines. Any information by region or about demand affecting quality at certain times of year would also be helpful.
2. Can you detail the SQEP fine notification process within your company? Please detail who gets (1) notifications and (2) fine summaries, and what your team does with each once they are received. Do you feel that the information Walmart has provided allows for a satisfactory resolution to your issues?
b. We are trying to determine if these issues are getting sent to the right employees for resolution and how to best help with disputes.
3. Can you share examples of lessons learned or best practices from your team related to Walmart’s SQEP?
All feedback can be sent to Bryan Nickerson by email at [email protected] or by phone at 949.885.2392.