How suppliers are admitted to Swiss Precision Suppliers, what we verify, and why a seat cannot be bought.
Why there is a gate
Sourcing engineers do not compare suppliers first. They eliminate first. A missing certificate scope, an unclear business role, a “Swiss” company with no Swiss production site: any one of these ends the evaluation before it starts.
Most directories list every company that pays. That pushes the elimination work back onto the buyer, which is the work the buyer came to the directory to avoid. Swiss Precision Suppliers does that work before a listing goes live. Every published listing has passed an editorial gate, and every claim on it is labelled with what we checked and what we did not.
This page sets out the criteria. They apply identically to every supplier, whether admitted as a Founding Member before launch or at the standard rate afterwards.
Who qualifies
All four conditions must hold.
1. Supplier side of the market. Component suppliers, contract manufacturers, CDMOs, and hybrids of these. Companies that only manufacture and sell their own branded devices are OEMs, not suppliers, and are not listed.
2. Swiss production. At least one production site in Switzerland. A Swiss head office with production abroad does not qualify. Foreign plants of Swiss companies appear as additional locations, clearly labelled; the Swiss-made positioning attaches to the Swiss site only.
3. Precision relevance. Machining, micro-mechanics, injection moulding, additive manufacturing, or adjacent precision processes serving medtech or precision-tech OEMs.
4. Verifiable identity. Active registration in the Swiss commercial register (Zefix).
Who does not qualify
- OEMs of own-brand devices only
- Distributors, brokers, sourcing agents, and consultancies
- Swiss head office without a Swiss production site
- Companies whose certification claims cannot be confirmed in a certification body’s public database and who do not provide the certificate on request
- Dissolved entities or companies in bankruptcy proceedings
- Any company found to have misrepresented a capability. This leads to immediate delisting; re-entry only after a full editorial re-review.
The editorial gate
Every candidate receives one of three verdicts before publication.
FAIL. Violates an inclusion criterion or triggers a disqualifier. The reason is recorded. The listing is not published.
CONDITIONAL. Right side of the market, credible profile, but gaps in the data buyers treat as disqualifiers (see below). This is the normal starting state for most companies: public information alone rarely covers what a sourcing engineer needs. A CONDITIONAL candidate receives our supplier questionnaire and stays unpublished until the gaps are closed. If we receive no response after two follow-ups over six weeks, the candidate is parked, not published.
PASS. All required fields filled, verified or plausibility-checked, and an editorial review completed.
The test every listing must survive: a sourcing engineer at a medtech OEM lands on it and finds decision-grade data, not marketing. If there is doubt, the listing is not ready.
The data buyers treat as disqualifiers
These fields must be complete for a PASS. They reflect what sourcing engineers, supplier quality engineers, and commodity managers at OEMs are hired to check.
- Business role (component supplier, contract manufacturer, CDMO, legal manufacturer, or hybrid)
- ISO 13485 status, or a credible path to it
- Audit readiness and quality system processes (CAPA, SCAR)
- Structured machine park data
- Achievable tolerances, stated in numbers
- Materials processed
- Validation capability (IQ/OQ/PQ, PPAP, FAI)
- Capacity statement and lead times
- New product introduction support
What we verify, and how we label it
Every field on a listing carries one of three labels. Trust comes from being precise about what was checked, not from implying everything was.
Verified. Confirmed by SPS against the commercial register, a certification body’s database, or a document we have seen. Certificate scopes are shown verbatim from the certification body where available.
Spot-checked. Reviewed by SPS for plausibility against at least one independent source.
Self-declared. The supplier’s own statement, shown as such. Permitted where no public verification exists, for example tolerances, capacity, and lead times.
Suppliers’ own descriptions may be quoted and are always marked as self-declared. They are never adopted into our editorial text.
The Verified badge
A listing receives the Verified badge when all required fields are verified or spot-checked, the questionnaire is complete, and the claims are coherent with each other (a company claiming five-axis micro-machining needs a machine park that shows it).
The badge is assigned editorially. It has one form. It is not for sale, it is not part of any package, and a paid listing without the badge is not a defect in the package; it means the verification is not yet complete.
What a published listing contains
Each listing is written by SPS in four sections: an editorial summary, the supplier’s capabilities in context, what working with them involves, and a curator’s note. Listings run 400 to 650 words and include a claims table showing the source and verification status of every material statement.
Listings contain no superlatives and no marketing adjectives. “±2 µm on turned parts under 20 mm diameter, ISO 13485:2016 since 2018, scope confirmed via SQS” is the register. “Highest Swiss precision” is not.
Staying listed
Admission is not permanent by default.
- Every listing is re-checked every six months; changes go to editorial review.
- Certificate validity is checked monthly. An expired certificate downgrades the field to self-declared and triggers contact with the supplier. No response within 60 days removes the Verified badge.
- Commercial register status is checked quarterly. Dissolution or liquidation leads to delisting.
- Supplier-submitted updates are welcome at any time. They enter as self-declared and are verified per the ladder above.
- Buyer complaints about accuracy are logged. Two substantiated complaints trigger an editorial re-review.
Founding Members
Swiss Precision Suppliers launches with 30 Founding Member seats. They are offered to suppliers that show the directory as it is meant to be seen: complete data, responsive, and a mix of sizes. Small specialist workshops are as welcome as large CDMOs; they are the part of Swiss precision manufacturing buyers cannot find anywhere else.
The order is fixed: admission first, seat second. A company applies, passes the editorial gate on the same criteria as everyone else, and only then is a Founding Member seat offered. Payment never precedes the verdict, never influences it, and never affects the Verified badge or a listing’s position.
What a seat covers. A Founding Member listing is CHF 2’970 per year, and that rate never changes for as long as the company remains admitted. It includes the full listing built with an editor rather than from public data alone, the annual verification cycle described under “Staying listed”, presence in the directory from launch day, and the permanent Founding Member mark.
The standard rate. Suppliers admitted after launch pay CHF 3’970 per year for the same listing and the same verification. The standard rate can be adjusted in later years. The Founding Member rate cannot.
What the rate does not buy. The Founding Member rate is a price, not a status. Certificate checks, register checks, and the misrepresentation rule apply to Founding Members exactly as to every other listing. A Founding Member that is delisted loses the rate with the listing.
Our guarantee. One party always carries the risk in an arrangement like this, and we choose to carry it.
- You pay nothing until your listing has passed the gate. A FAIL costs you nothing. A CONDITIONAL verdict costs you nothing until it becomes a PASS.
- If, within twelve months of publication, your listing has not produced a single documented buyer contact through Swiss Precision Suppliers, we refund the first year in full and your listing stays published.
- Billing is annual, in advance. There is no long-term contract. A listing that is not renewed stays published to the end of the paid year and is then removed; a Founding Member that later returns is admitted at the standard rate.
What we will not do. We will not list a company to fill a seat. If fewer than 30 qualifying suppliers apply before launch, we launch with fewer Founding Members. The number is a ceiling, not a target.
Applying
If you believe your company meets the four conditions above, request the supplier questionnaire. It takes about 45 minutes to complete with your quality manager, and it is the same document we use to close CONDITIONAL verdicts.
You will receive a verdict with reasons, in writing, whether or not your company is admitted. If admitted, you decide whether to take a Founding Member seat. There is no obligation attached to applying.