When you’re looking for a new supplier of high performance construction chemical products, supply chain quality and compliance is just as important as accessing the right products in the right volumes. We know this because of our extensive experience in the construction and building chemicals industry. And because we listen to our customers and understand their needs.

So, if you’re looking for a new supplier of high-quality construction chemical products and want to know whether Cemkem could be a good fit, this article is for you.

Identifying and evaluating construction chemical product suppliers

The journey to bring in new principals (suppliers) at Cemkem[2]  begins with:

1. Listening to what the market needs
2. Future market trends like the move toward net zero and sustainability

When customers enquire about specific products not currently in our portfolio, it signals there’s a potential gap that needs filling. At the same time, we regularly look for new principals to help us expand the range of products that could complement our customers’ product portfolios. Ideally introducing suppliers whose products sustainably add value to our wider customer supply chain.

While potential suppliers are assessing our viability as a distribution and technical partner, we’re also assessing their suitability for our business and our customers’ businesses.

Our technical and commercial teams play pivotal roles in assessing potential new principals,  ensuring each one aligns with our stringent supply chain standards. These include undertaking technical training provided by the supplier so our commercial and technical teams gain a detailed understanding of their products.

This enables our colleagues in technical and commercial to support our customers by recommending the right products for their specific technical needs. With any technical or formulation challenges solved by our technical team.

Compliance – the cornerstone of our evaluation process

To ensure we only provide the best products and services, we’ve developed a comprehensive supplier evaluation list which is key to our process of partnering with a new principal. It includes a scoring system for all suppliers based on various criteria, including quality, health and safety, environmental protection, corporate social responsibility and sustainability.

We particularly scrutinise a principal’s ability to contribute to our sustainability goals, reflecting our commitment to drive the green transformation of the construction chemicals industry. Something that’s also of increasing importance to many of our customers.

Once a new supplier has been with us for 12 months, we re-evaluate their business to ensure it continues to meet the high standards we expect. This annual review process makes sure all our principals not only meet, but exceed standards in quality, safety, environmental protection and corporate social responsibility.

Now, let’s dive into what we look for in each of these compliance areas.

Securing quality products and services

We only work with principals that have the ISO9001 quality certification. This ensures our suppliers have consistently high standards, meet and exceed customer expectations, and demonstrate a clear commitment to continually improving their quality performance and systems. We always carry out a mini-audit of their processes focusing on key aspects like traceability and complaint handling to ensure it’s up to scratch.

Confirming high standards of health and safety

As a people-first company, health and safety is another major area of concern for us. We ask for proof of ISO45001 certification plus information on things like provision of personal protective equipment, recording lost time incidents and near misses, and wider health and safety record keeping.

Ensuring exceptional environmental protection

We ask all our prospective supply partners to have a proven and effective environmental management system in place – like ISO14001. This enables us to confirm whether they’re evaluating environmental risks, impacts and opportunities and delivering their environmental policy. We also check to make sure sustainability forms part of the company’s values. Corroborating corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards

As part of our strategic business planning, we’ve developed a stringent set of corporate governance measures that we apply to our own business and those of our suppliers. This includes CSR standards which cover a wide range of areas including adhering to employment law, having a whistleblowing policy in place and providing equal opportunities.

We also carry out site visits to our suppliers – even if they’re overseas – to visually inspect their premises and workforce to ensure they’re meeting the standards we expect. Plus, we ask a representative from a new principal to come and visit us so they can see how we work. We think of this as a kind of courting process where we can ask questions and build strong relationships that enable honest conversations, collaborative working and continual improvement.

A laser-focus on sustainability

Sustainability isn’t just a trend for Cemkem – it’s a business imperative. That’s why we actively seek out and rigorously evaluate new principals who are leaders in sustainable practices. From sustainable procurement and production to product lifecycle management and energy and water reduction targets. This focus ensures that Cemkem not only meets its customers’ current needs but that we also lead in providing solutions that are focused on creating a more sustainable world for current and future generations.

Building relationships based on trust and excellence

Trust is at the core of Cemkem’s collaborative supplier relationships. By building long-term partnerships and working side-by-side with our principals, we form one team, ensuring a seamless service for all our customers.

This alignment is crucial, especially when navigating the complexities of sustainable product development and distribution. We value agile, responsive principals who can handle any challenges efficiently and are committed to ensuring excellence at every customer touchpoint.

Our approach to bringing in new construction chemical additives is a testament to our commitment to quality, compliance and sustainability. By adhering to strict evaluation standards and fostering strong relationships based on mutual respect and shared values, our customers can be sure they’re dealing with a quality performance construction chemicals supply chain from start to finish.

While we always endeavour to be as flexible as possible for our customers, there’s one thing we won’t compromise on and that’s compliance. If you want to work with a business that truly values integrity and doing the right thing, get in touch with our sales team.

As a manufacturer, you’ll understand that continuity of supply is crucial to maintaining your reputation, customer loyalty and profitability in an increasingly competitive marketplace. However achieving a continuous supply of raw materials or finished products is difficult. Supply chains are increasingly complex and global, and susceptible to disruption with a wide range of factors from geopolitical unrest to extreme weather and climate change.

At Cemkem, we use the ISO 9001 (Quality Management Systems) global standard as a key tool for ensuring continuity of supply to our customers. It’s a framework that enables us to create strong supplier relationships and show our customers that we prioritise quality across our organisation.

In this guide, we’ll cover:

• How we use ISO 9001 to ensure continuity of supply – for ourselves and our customers
• Why many cementitious product manufacturers prefer to work with ISO 9001-certified suppliers
• How our ISO 9001 certification has delivered value to our customers

Cemkem, certification, and supply chain success

As an ISO 9001 business, the whole Cemkem team knows just how big a deal it is to be accredited. You have to really believe in quality, as it takes considerable time, expense, and effort to review and align your business processes and procedures to meet all the requirements – and more again to stay aligned as your business grows and changes.

We have a strong commitment to quality that runs beyond Cemkem and throughout the Rakem Group – it’s a core value and has been part of our DNA since the beginning. The Rakem Group has been ISO 9001 certified since 2013, and adding Cemkem into our ISO 9001 certification was a logical step for us in 2019.

Together, the framework and our working processes enable us to:

• Make and meet clear and consistent quality objectives for our products and services
• Put in place quality management systems that enable us to rigorously monitor and control our processes and outputs
• Identify risks and opportunities throughout our entire operation, including our own supply chain
• Understand areas for improvement, through regular reviews and audits
• Create clear channels of communication with customers (and our own suppliers) that promote dialogue including feedback

When you work with Cemkem you’ll see all of this in practice in every interaction you have with us. Not only because we value quality – and we really do – but because like all ISO 9001-certified businesses, we know that keeping our certification depends on it.

Choosing an ISO 9001-certified supplier

When you choose to work with an ISO 9001-certified supplier like Cemkem, it’s easy to understand how we’ll work, thanks to the framework and processes we mention above. You can rely on us being committed to good communication and continuous improvement, too.

At Cemkem, applying the ISO 9001 approach to supplier management delivers continuity of supply for our business. For example, part of how we address supply chain risk is by ensuring we have second suppliers for all of our key ingredients, in case there’s an issue with our primary source. In some cases we may have a third option for supply, or specific contracts that give us access to what we need. ISO 9001 also enables deeper relationships with our suppliers, for example, we have the procedures in place to ensure we have detailed product specifications – so that we only receive the highest quality products and ingredients.

And while continuity of supply for us enables continuity of supply for you, supporting the ISO 9001 framework also delivers you additional benefits. For example, dual sourcing of raw materials enables us to reliably deliver high quality products to our customers, but it also enables us to negotiate better pricing and remain competitively priced. And as part of evaluating supply options, we are able to discover new or innovative ingredients and products that can widen our raw materials portfolio.

These reasons, and more, are why many customers increasingly prefer to work with ISO 9001-certified suppliers like Cemkem, especially if they have achieved ISO 9001 themselves.

Delivering real value to our customers

Here are two examples of how ISO 9001 enables us to deliver value in practice.

Case study #1: Two-source toll manufacturing for an ISO 9001-certified organisation

We started working with this ISO 9001-certified customer when its technical team was struggling to keep up with business growth. We quickly became a trusted partner, delivering product development and regulatory support, plus confidential toll manufacturing to help the business to meet its order pipeline.

As part of this work, we were able to identify and deliver on the need for a second source of raw materials for production. Now, if there’s any issue with the plant producing the ingredients we need, we can seamlessly turn to another provider and ensure continuous manufacture for our customer, without the need for process changes.

With continuity of supply, our customer is more confident in our ability to manufacture their products as needed, maintaining manufacturing uptime and ensuring orders are fulfilled. But it also makes their own supply chain more robust, helping them to meet their own ISO 9001 responsibilities.

Case study #2: Using our robust supply chain to support others

During Covid, one of our ad hoc customers got in touch. They’d found themselves struggling with a critical supply issue for a main ingredient, with supplies that were hard to find and at prohibitively high prices. It was affecting their ability to meet their customers’ expectations.

As an ISO 9001-certified business, we have robust plans in place to ensure continuity of supply to our own business, with great supplier relationships that enable us to dual or even triple source for raw materials. We were able to leverage those relationships and, together with our technical knowledge, we found and tested an alternative ingredient for our customer to use.

It enabled our customer to create continuity of supply within its own business – and at a price tag they were happy with.

Find out more about improving your continuity of supply

We’re just as choosy about our supply chain as you are about yours, and that’s delivering results for our customers.

Contact us to find out more about our chemical supply services.