Common HSEQ Performance Improvement Areas Among Industrial Suppliers: A Study of Audits in a Finnish Industrial Cluster Network

Supplier management is a key issue for many large industrial companies from both performance and sustainability viewpoints. In this study, a supplier audit system in a Finnish industrial cluster is examined. The cluster has created a supplier assessment procedure, and roughly 200 supplier HSEQ audits have taken place. The aim of this study is to analyse a sample of these audits to identify common improvement areas among supplier companies. Improvement suggestions taken from the audits are classified into five themes and 39 categories. The results paint a picture of the most common HSEQ improvement areas for suppliers.