How do you calculate a supplier risk score?

Multiply the severity, occurrence and detection ratings on a common scale. With ratings of 6, 4 and 3, the model returns a normalized score of about 4.55 for ranking against other suppliers.

What is a good supplier risk score?

Lower is better. There's no universal threshold, but WtE quality teams typically flag the top decile of scores for audit and treat any high-severity supplier as elevated regardless of the total.

What does severity mean in supplier risk scoring?

Severity rates the consequence if the supplier's part fails — from cosmetic (low) to a permit breach or forced outage (high). A defective baghouse or SCR component would score near the top.

Why use multiplication instead of adding the three scores?

Multiplication amplifies compounding risk: a part that is severe, frequent and hard to detect scores far higher than any single high factor, which is exactly the profile you want to surface first.

How is detection scored?

Detection rates how likely your incoming inspection or process controls catch a defect before use. High detection difficulty (a defect only visible after installation) scores high and drives up total risk.

Supplier risk score vs a supplier scorecard — what's the difference?

This risk score is a focused failure-mode metric; a full scorecard also weighs cost, on-time delivery and responsiveness. Use the risk score to prioritize audits, the scorecard to manage the relationship.

Waste-to-Energy Equipment calculator

Supplier Risk Calculator

Supplier risk scoring adapts the FMEA Risk Priority Number to procurement, ranking vendors by the product of how bad a failure would be, how likely it is, and how well you'd catch it before it hits the line. Quality and supply-chain engineers at waste-to-energy plants use it to triage which of dozens of casting, refractory and instrumentation suppliers deserve a source audit or dual-sourcing. In WtE, a defective grate casting or a mis-spec'd emissions sensor doesn't just fail — it can breach a permit limit or take a revenue-generating line offline. This calculator turns three ordinal ratings into a single comparable risk score.

What this calculator does

Estimate supplier risk for waste-to-energy equipment 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 waste-to-energy equipment needs a defensible ranking against other waste-to-energy equipment risks for the next review.
It multiplies severity, occurrence and detection ratings into a single supplier risk score used to rank vendors for audits and mitigation.

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

Failure-impact severity rating:
Defect occurrence likelihood:
Incoming-inspection detection rating:

How to use the result

Use it during supplier qualification, annual vendor reviews, or when a new critical part is being single-sourced.
Multiplicative RPN scores are non-linear and can mask a critical severity behind low occurrence — always review high-severity suppliers regardless of total score.

Current U.S. benchmarks

Industrial electricity averages 8.66 cents per kWh across the U.S. (EIA, Apr 2026), up 5.5% from a year earlier. Energy-intensive steps carry this directly into unit cost.
Steel mill PPI stands at 348.53 (BLS, May 2026), up 6.7% from a year earlier. New factory orders are up 2.3% year over year (Census).

Common questions

How do you calculate a supplier risk score? Multiply the severity, occurrence and detection ratings on a common scale. With ratings of 6, 4 and 3, the model returns a normalized score of about 4.55 for ranking against other suppliers.
What is a good supplier risk score? Lower is better. There's no universal threshold, but WtE quality teams typically flag the top decile of scores for audit and treat any high-severity supplier as elevated regardless of the total.
What does severity mean in supplier risk scoring? Severity rates the consequence if the supplier's part fails — from cosmetic (low) to a permit breach or forced outage (high). A defective baghouse or SCR component would score near the top.
Why use multiplication instead of adding the three scores? Multiplication amplifies compounding risk: a part that is severe, frequent and hard to detect scores far higher than any single high factor, which is exactly the profile you want to surface first.
How is detection scored? Detection rates how likely your incoming inspection or process controls catch a defect before use. High detection difficulty (a defect only visible after installation) scores high and drives up total risk.

Last reviewed 2026-05-12.