Supplier keeps missing deadlines but has the lowest price

What we told them

Price the delays. Take six months of late orders, attach the cost of each — expedited freight, idle labour, the customer who left — and divide by total spend with that supplier. Almost every time this exercise shows the discount is smaller than the disruption. Bring that number to the supplier first: a real figure changes the conversation in a way that complaints never do. If nothing changes in one quarter, you now have the business case to switch.