How do you calculate a supplier risk score?

Multiply severity by occurrence by detection. In classic FMEA, 6 x 4 x 3 would equal 72; the scale and weighting used here produce the displayed score, so read it relative to your other suppliers rather than as a raw product.

What is a high supplier risk score?

On a 1-10-per-factor scale, RPNs above roughly 100-125 are commonly treated as high priority for mitigation, and any single-factor severity of 9-10 is escalated regardless of the total.

What is the difference between severity, occurrence and detection?

Severity is how damaging a failure would be, occurrence is how often it is likely to happen, and detection is how likely your controls are to catch it first, where a high detection score means poor detectability, so higher is worse on all three.

Why multiply the three scores instead of adding them?

Multiplying makes the score explode when all three factors are bad and stay low when any one is well-controlled, which better reflects real risk, a failure you can always catch early stays low-priority even if severe.

Should severity ever override the total score?

Yes. A catastrophic supplier failure, say a sterility assurance gap, warrants action even at low occurrence and good detection. Never let a modest total mask a high severity rating.

How do I keep scores comparable across suppliers?

Use one documented rating rubric for all three factors and apply it the same way to every supplier. Mixing scales or letting different buyers score subjectively destroys the ability to rank vendors against each other.

Veterinary Device & Animal Health Products calculator

Supplier Risk Calculator

Supplier risk score is an FMEA-style rating that multiplies how bad a supplier failure would be (severity), how likely it is (occurrence), and how hard it is to catch before it reaches production (detection). For veterinary-device makers who depend on outside sterilization, resin, electronics, and API suppliers, this single number lets purchasing and quality teams rank which suppliers get audits, dual-sourcing, or tighter incoming inspection first. It turns a fuzzy gut feeling about a vendor into a comparable, sortable priority. The key discipline is using one consistent scoring scale so scores across suppliers are truly comparable.

What this calculator does

Estimate supplier risk for veterinary device and animal health products 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 veterinary device and animal health products needs a defensible ranking against other veterinary device and animal health products risks for the next review.
It multiplies severity, occurrence and detection scores into a single risk priority number for a supplier.

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

Severity if the supplier fails:
Likelihood of supplier failure:
Ability to detect the issue early:

How to use the result

Use it during supplier qualification, annual risk reviews, or after a nonconformance to decide where to focus mitigation.
The multiplicative score can rank a high-severity, low-likelihood risk the same as a moderate-everything risk, so always review the severity component on its own, a 9-severity supplier deserves attention regardless of total.

Current U.S. benchmarks

U.S. manufacturing runs at 75.7% of capacity with new factory orders at $663B per month (Federal Reserve and Census, Aug 2026).

Common questions

How do you calculate a supplier risk score? Multiply severity by occurrence by detection. In classic FMEA, 6 x 4 x 3 would equal 72; the scale and weighting used here produce the displayed score, so read it relative to your other suppliers rather than as a raw product.
What is a high supplier risk score? On a 1-10-per-factor scale, RPNs above roughly 100-125 are commonly treated as high priority for mitigation, and any single-factor severity of 9-10 is escalated regardless of the total.
What is the difference between severity, occurrence and detection? Severity is how damaging a failure would be, occurrence is how often it is likely to happen, and detection is how likely your controls are to catch it first, where a high detection score means poor detectability, so higher is worse on all three.
Why multiply the three scores instead of adding them? Multiplying makes the score explode when all three factors are bad and stay low when any one is well-controlled, which better reflects real risk, a failure you can always catch early stays low-priority even if severe.
Should severity ever override the total score? Yes. A catastrophic supplier failure, say a sterility assurance gap, warrants action even at low occurrence and good detection. Never let a modest total mask a high severity rating.
How do I keep scores comparable across suppliers? Use one documented rating rubric for all three factors and apply it the same way to every supplier. Mixing scales or letting different buyers score subjectively destroys the ability to rank vendors against each other.

Last reviewed 2026-07-13.