Interested in Becoming a Supplier to 3M?

Thank you for your interest in becoming a supplier to 3M. We appreciate engaging and collaborating with quality suppliers to help us meet our needs in increasingly competitive global markets. As a 3M supplier you would be expected to meet certain key requirements as outlined below. 

Contact Us: Introduce Your Company 

Our Business Relationship

As a 3M supplier, you would be expected to provide value-added products and services, which help our business: 

• Differentiate 3M products and services
• Meet or exceed 3M customer expectations
• Better meet the challenges of our global markets

Our supplier relationship needs to help support organic 3M growth, reduce costs, improve 3M productivity and either reduce 3M’s working capital demands or increase 3M’s cash flow. If you are selected as a 3M supplier, you will be expected to demonstrate consistent improvement in each of these areas and to follow very specific guidelines to help deliver lower total cost.

Our suppliers are also expected to comply with all applicable laws and to conduct business ethically. These and other expectations are more fully outlined in both our standard Purchase Order Terms & Conditions and our Sourcing Agreements. We have also developed various business conduct standards for our suppliers in areas such as the environment, workplace health & safety and human resources. Those standards continue to evolve in response to rapidly changing social views on the proper role of transnational corporations and their role in shaping global supply chain performance. 

As a matter of corporate policy, 3M Sourcing Operations is responsible for managing the entire purchasing process working with both internal clients and our suppliers, and must approve all contracts for the purchase of goods or services. 

Payment

In order to be considered for selection as a 3M supplier:

• Each invoice must match the corresponding 3M purchase Order, including 3M specified payment terms. Changes to Purchase Orders must be reported using electronic Purchase Order Acknowledgements. Invoices not matching 3M Purchase Orders will be returned unpaid.
• Source to Pay transactions (i.e., purchase orders, advanced ship notices, purchase order acknowledgements, invoices, payments, etc.) must be processed electronically (Ariba, Electronic Data Interchange [EDI], Supply Network Collaboration [SNC], etc.) or per the signed contract between supplier and 3M.

Supplier Selection

Suppliers are selected based on their ability to meet 3M requirements including technical capability, product and service quality, innovative product and service improvements, responsiveness, timely and accurate delivery, total cost, financial strength and best overall value. These are consistent with 3M’s own expectations for service to its customers and reflect the spirit of partnership we expect with our suppliers. 

Consistent with 3M’s Corporate Energy Policy, 3M is committed to continual energy performance improvements. One key initiative in support of this policy is that energy performance is a factor of our purchasing decision process. 3M may select suppliers partly based on energy performance gains for any procurement that can have a significant impact on energy use.

Supplier Management and Development

As a 3M supplier, you are expected to participate in 3M’s Supplier Management Process. This Process has been developed to help assure continuous supplier improvement and better communications between 3M and its supply chain. Depending on the goods or services you provide to 3M this process can take various forms, such as the TQRDC (Technology / Quality / Responsiveness / Delivery / Cost) improvement model or jointly developed continuous improvement plans that take into account the unique challenges in specific supplier relationships. Regardless of the supplier management and development tools used, this process also involves regular meetings between 3M and key suppliers.