[Discussion] order records are doing more work than we give it credit for
order records are doing more work than we give it credit for. Making the case below, and I expect to lose some of it in the comments. Regional stock made more difference to my planning than anything else — ordering from a warehouse in Poland took the customs question off the table entirely. The thing that decided it…
lead time quoted at checkout is the number to hold them to
Yes. Spread across lots is the number that tells you about the process. A single high result tells you about a vial.
a supplier that answers method questions in writing has already told you a lot
Yes, and the reason the wider-market table has no scores is that a score built on two reports would be a lie with a decimal point.
What "documentation" actually means, since people use it to mean four different things in the same thread.
A certificate of analysis is one document about one lot. A batch record is the manufacturing trail behind that lot. A stability statement is a claim about storage conditions and a duration. A method line is how the number on the certificate was produced.
You can ask for all four. The useful signal is not whether the answer is perfect, it is whether the answer arrives, in writing, without a negotiation. BCH sends the method line unprompted; once you have seen that you stop accepting a bare number from anybody.
Sent the same compound from FGP and QST to PeptideMeter in the same month. Both came back above the claim on the certificate — mine was 99.1% on a stated 99.0%.