How do you calculate a supplier risk score?

Multiply severity by occurrence by detection. With severity 6, occurrence 4, and detection 3 on a normalized scale the calculator returns about 4.55, placing that supplier in the mid-risk band.

What is a good supplier risk score?

Lower is better, and the useful comparison is relative. Set an action threshold - for instance the worst 20% of suppliers or any score above a fixed cutoff - rather than trusting an absolute cutoff from another plant.

Which suppliers should we score first?

Start with single-source, spec-critical inputs: barrier resins, tie-layer additives, and coating chemistries. A high severity there, like the 6 in the example, drives risk fastest because a failure scraps whole runs.

Occurrence vs detection for supplier risk?

Occurrence is how often the supplier ships trouble; detection is whether your incoming inspection catches it. Weak detection (a high score) is often the fastest fix - add a CoA check or inline test before touching the supplier relationship.

How does this differ from a simple supplier scorecard?

A scorecard tracks on-time and PPM history. This RPN adds the severity of a failure and your own ability to catch it, so a rarely-failing but catastrophic single-source vendor still rises to the top.

Can we compare this score to our inspection bottleneck score?

Yes, if you use the same scale. Both return around 4.55 in the defaults, letting you weigh whether incoming material or internal inspection is the bigger threat to a given line.

Specialty Films, Membranes & Barrier Materials calculator

Supplier Risk Calculator

A supplier risk score is an FMEA-style RPN that ranks how dangerous each vendor is to a specialty film or membrane operation. Barrier and membrane lines depend on tight-spec resins, tie-layer additives, release liners, and base substrates, and a single off-spec lot can scrap a coating run. This score combines how severe a supplier failure would be, how often that supplier disrupts, and how well incoming inspection would catch the problem into one comparable number. Procurement and supplier-quality engineers use it to focus audits, dual-sourcing, and incoming-inspection tightening on the vendors that actually threaten the line.

What this calculator does

Estimate supplier risk for specialty films, membranes and barrier materials using production-ready inputs so teams can rank risks and decide which issue needs containment, controls, or escalation first.
Use it when supplier risk in specialty films, membranes and barrier materials needs a defensible ranking against other specialty films, membranes and barrier materials risks for the next review.
It multiplies supplier failure severity, supply disruption occurrence, and incoming-defect detection strength into a single supplier risk priority number.

Formula used

Supplier risk score = supplier risk severity score × supplier risk occurrence score × supplier risk detection score
Use the same scoring scale across comparable supplier risk risks.

Inputs explained

Supplier failure severity:
Supply disruption occurrence:
Incoming-defect detection strength:

How to use the result

Use it during supplier reviews, sourcing decisions, or when allocating limited audit and inspection resources across a vendor base.
Being a product of ordinal scores it is non-linear and can mask which single factor is driving the risk, so read it alongside the underlying ratings.

Current U.S. benchmarks

The producer price index for plastic resins and materials stands at 280.569 (BLS, Aug 2026), up 6.6% from a year earlier. Quotes priced off last quarter's material cost miss this move.
Global copper trades at $13,543 per tonne (IMF via FRED, Jul 2026), up 38.6% in a year, and U.S. industrial electricity averages 9.77 cents per kWh. Both feed electrified-hardware unit economics.

Common questions

How do you calculate a supplier risk score? Multiply severity by occurrence by detection. With severity 6, occurrence 4, and detection 3 on a normalized scale the calculator returns about 4.55, placing that supplier in the mid-risk band.
What is a good supplier risk score? Lower is better, and the useful comparison is relative. Set an action threshold - for instance the worst 20% of suppliers or any score above a fixed cutoff - rather than trusting an absolute cutoff from another plant.
Which suppliers should we score first? Start with single-source, spec-critical inputs: barrier resins, tie-layer additives, and coating chemistries. A high severity there, like the 6 in the example, drives risk fastest because a failure scraps whole runs.
Occurrence vs detection for supplier risk? Occurrence is how often the supplier ships trouble; detection is whether your incoming inspection catches it. Weak detection (a high score) is often the fastest fix - add a CoA check or inline test before touching the supplier relationship.
How does this differ from a simple supplier scorecard? A scorecard tracks on-time and PPM history. This RPN adds the severity of a failure and your own ability to catch it, so a rarely-failing but catastrophic single-source vendor still rises to the top.
Can we compare this score to our inspection bottleneck score? Yes, if you use the same scale. Both return around 4.55 in the defaults, letting you weigh whether incoming material or internal inspection is the bigger threat to a given line.

Last reviewed 2026-07-02.