The evolution of the supply chain in a globalised world has seen various businesses come to depend on extended supply chains. Globalisation has allowed businesses and manufacturers to hyper-specialise on the production of specific products or component of products. Other manufacturers then purchase these components and use them for the production of goods that they can then sell on the consumer market. While this process has received negative press, one clear advantage of the new system is that smaller operations are now able to produce complex products to a wider range of specifications without a significant upfront investment in expansive productive capacity. This means more products, at cheaper prices. For this to work effectively, however, we need to be able to purchase components quickly from trusted vendors, and this article will provide key information for new manufacturers to separate the wheat from the chaff.
To fully explain the process, let’s look at the example of plummer block bearings. These devices are a bearing option used to house rotating shafts for a variety of engineering applications. They can play an essential role in the production of mechanised products, which often see the highest potential profit margins due to the high level demands for expertise for their research and development. Anyway, as these components can play such a key role in the production of mechanised products, sourcing high quality components such as plummer block bearings is essential.
The first thing that you need to do is find a vendor that can deliver these items to you and cover your requirements. Typically, this will mean that you will be conducting business with either the producer directly, or a vendor that they have elected to act as an intermediary. The latter possibility is a common solution for companies operating in foreign countries, as it allows them to access markets that they would otherwise have difficulty accessing due to red tape or even just because of language barriers. These are the most likely potential suppliers you should approach as they are the ones who will be able to meet your order requirements, and help you to scale up should that become necessary for the development of your business. When looking at vendors of manufacturing components, it is important that the vendors are transparent regarding the materials used in building whatever you’re purchasing, as well as what kind of QA testing that they undergo. QA testing is an essential part of any manufacturing quality assurance, and should be a prerequisite of any product you do end up purchasing, particularly when purchasing in bulk. This QA testing can come in many forms, such as stress testing for the earlier example of plummer block bearings. Depending on your location and the type of product you’re looking at, there could be accrediting organisations or government agencies responsible for guaranteeing that such testing has taken place, and if that is the case, you should make sure that your supplier has met their legal obligations and QA standards are at the highest level. Any such product should have the results of any testing it has undergone so that you have a clear understanding of the product’s quality and reliability.