Worked examples · What a number is actually made of · SUP-003
A tier is a claim about your data
Supplier tiering across six dimensions, where availability tracks who owns the data rather than what matters. Spend is 97 per cent complete because Finance holds it. Substitutability is 22 per cent because nobody owns it at all.
OpenSynthetic dataFixed seed
This run
400 suppliers · 6 dimensions · fixed seed
What the simulation shows
Every figure here is generated from a fixed seed, so the numbers on this page are the numbers in the simulation.
The entry
The problem
A supplier is tiered critical or routine on the strength of whichever dimensions happened to have data. The tier then governs assurance effort for a year.
Why it matters
A tier assigned on two of six dimensions is a claim about the assessor's data, not about the supplier. The dimensions that are missing are the ones nobody owns, which are frequently the ones that decide whether a supplier can be replaced.
The approach
Score six dimensions independently and show the completeness of each alongside its result. Where a tier rests on partial data, say which dimensions were absent when it was assigned.
Judgement calls
Availability is modelled on ownership rather than importance, because that is how it behaves in practice. A dimension with no owner is shown at its real completeness rather than imputed from the others.
Where else it applies
Any scoring model assembled from data held by different departments: vendor risk, asset criticality, application rationalisation, data classification.
The data
Entirely synthetic, generated from a fixed seed. Supplier names are generated and categories are generic.
Open the simulation
It asks for your name and email, then opens. The page carries a watermark with the name of whoever opened it.