Jumpstart Your Sourcing Experience Level
How early-career engineers should consider finding new vendors
It’s your first day on a new engineering job and you have been assigned a project. You get through the design portion with the help of senior engineers and mentors, but now you have to get that “thing” made.
Now what?
You will need to find a business that will fabricate the parts. It may not seem like it will take a huge portion of your engineering time. But early decisions have a long term effect on your project. You will feel these effects all throughout the product life cycle. Let’s take a look at how you should get started when you need to find a vendor.
Trade Journals
If you work out of a larger office, trade journals will eventually end up at your work. They have even been mailed to me directly. I never asked for them, but assume I snuck onto a mailing list somewhere. Though their popularity has diminished, they still contain ads for manufacturing services. Each of these should be vetted after the fact.
Trade shows
An entertaining method of finding suppliers, namely for the spectacle and size of most of these events. Trade shows are great for seeing the capabilities of many manufacturers all at once. The drawback of shows is that you will be solicited relentlessly for your contact information. In fact, this may have been how you got on the mailing lists mentioned above.
In-house purchasing departments
While smaller companies will be dependent upon their engineers to do sourcing, larger companies have purchasing departments. These professionals, by dint of their position, may already know of all kinds of manufacturers. In fact, your organization may have an approved or a preferred vendor list, which you should be starting with. A new supplier can usually be added, but you may need to justify why you need to use this new vendor, rather than one that is already on the list. Consolidating vendors helps for price negotiations at the corporate level.
Supplier Referrals
It isn’t uncommon for a current supplier to refer you to another manufacturer if they can’t meet your requirements. For example, if a machine shop you deal with on a regular basis can’t gun-drill a long part, then they might refer you to a shop who specializes in that particular process. If they can’t do what you need and they don’t volunteer an alternative, don’t be afraid to ask.
Internet searches
Manufacturers very often list their capabilities and/or the equipment they have on their websites. The best ones show pictures of their past work and list referrals. Sometimes you can make a decision whether or not to pursue a vendor based on what you see on their site. This is partially a decision based upon how much care was put into their marketing. But marketing is a proxy for customer service.
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Start looking for organizations that are close (geographically) and expand your search from there. The ability to drive to a vendor (vs flying) cannot be overstated. Having on-site expertise and the ability to explain what you need — or what went wrong — is a valuable resource when working with a new vendor.
Aside from generic internet searches, there are networks of suppliers online, to filter for vendors who are seriously seeking new customers. Finding a list of pre-vetted suppliers can be as good as hearing about them directly from satisfied customers.
Employee Referrals
The senior engineers helping with your design have been in your shoes. They will surely have favored suppliers based upon past work. Even outside your organization, a quick email can save you hours of searching. Reaching out to your engineering graduating class helps to draw on other people’s experience. Not everyone will be allowed to share this information, but it could expand your circle of options.
In both of these cases, there is potential for backfire. Sometimes the veterans of the field have been relying on particular vendors for a long time. They may point you to a manufacturer that has not updated their technology and methods, or their pricing. As in all of these suggestions, prepare to vet any potential supplier with on-site visits and multiple meetings with them to understand their capabilities.
Sales calls
Vendors will seek you out, depending on the size of your business; small businesses have a harder time capturing the attention of suppliers than large ones. Some manufacturers have sales people that go out into the world to prospect new business. They might show up as direct representative of a company, or they might be representing a large line card of suppliers who are seeking your business.
Salespeople are often seeking to capture existing business, because finding a product in high volume production is an existing revenue stream they can immediately take over. However, you can attempt to steer these meetings towards the new product you’re looking to create. Occasionally, one of these sales calls will happen at the right time. More often, you should keep note of supplier capabilities and contact info for when you’re ready to talk about manufacturing. A rolodex (or however you store your contacts) is an important asset for a young engineer looking to build products.
Just the beginning
For a new engineer, learning how to source components and assemblies is a skill that is learned over an entire career. The best course of action will be to learn from the senior engineers and purchasing agents around you. They will likely proffer the same solutions as above. If you have hear of other methods, let us know in the comments below.
