Efficiency in the Heart of the UK
According to the Office of National Statistics, in 2017 the value of UK manufacturers’ product sales was £380.7 billion; a 4.1% increase on the 2016 final total of £365.7 billion. When it comes to choosing a supplier, not everyone can afford to buy from British suppliers due to the price of raw materials, labour and renting premises, which all tend to be more expensive here in the UK. Especially when compared with Asian countries, such as China.
China is known for being the biggest exporter of goods in the world enabling raw materials to be secured at the cheapest price due to the sheer volume of factory demand. This coupled with significantly cheaper labour costs contributes to keeping prices down.
The result of working with overseas suppliers? Whilst your supplier fees may be lower and your profits may have increased, the chain of communication is often broken, resulting in quality issues for you or your customer, as well as lead times being missed.
The Problem
A customer was struggling with inconsistencies in product quality received from their overseas suppliers. The products received were not good enough to be sent to the production line for the build, resulting in a long backlog of customer orders.
Due to the unusable, sub-standard parts, the internal management team attempted to contact the overseas factory to discuss the issues they were having. Not only was it difficult to contact the supplier due to differing time-zones, but communication was extremely brief and dismissive due to a national holiday, meaning the communication wouldn’t happen for at least another week. Alongside minimal communication was the time in which it would take to send the parts backwards and forwards overseas to be re-worked, resulting in further delays and additional costs in terms of shipping.
These issues were happening far too often, money was being lost and customers were getting impatient with no news or updates on their orders. Tensions were getting high. They knew their only option would be to source these parts from here in the UK, whatever the cost.
The Solution
Looking closer to home this customer decided it was no longer appropriate to spread the suppliers for its most important product parts across the world, especially core product parts which are consistently in high demand.
Having worked with this customer on multiple products before, Maximum Precision was invited to view their most high-demand parts and submit quotations accordingly.
Having presented our quotations, we were chosen to lead the charge on the UK manufacturing of parts. Our elite customer service and superior quality was a driving factor for the win of the business, making us the preferred supplier for this customer.
The Outcome
Whilst making changes in your supply chain can be disruptive, choosing the correct supplier makes all the difference to customers. Maximum Precision are now supplying over 20 Kanban parts to this customer, as well as spot orders every week.
Working in the same time zone as the supplier has made all the difference to this customer, we are on hand every day to take their questions should this be required and can maintain an on-going, productive communication channel.
A major outcome of switching to Maximum Precision as the UK supplier has seen the quality issues decrease tenfold. Any issues which may arise are dealt with quickly and efficiently, which is a great piece of mind for the customer.
