British Airways suppliers scrutinised for risk status

British Airways (BA) in the UK is the latest company to introduce a "supplier watch" scheme in what appears to be a trend for firms to increase their scrutiny of key vendors in the downturn. British Telecom took similar action late last year.

Tim Richardson, head of procurement at BA, revealed the move at AribaLive 2009 World Tour in London this month. He said BA planned to extend its essential supplier list from 20 to 200 and to monitor these closely to assess and predict risk.

The listed suppliers could include businesses used to pay vendors, as well as big strategic suppliers such as BAA and fuel companies.

The airline was considering a daily or weekly report on suppliers' operational health, to be published internally, said Richardson.

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