You can’t ask just any manufacturing supplier to produce your design ideas for you. If you did, it would almost certainly end in disaster for one reason or another.
Keep reading to learn more about why you need to consider manufacturing suppliers carefully and some of the advantages of having reliable working relationships with your chosen supplier.
Protecting Your Intellectual Property (IP), Trademark, Or Copyright
If you’ve come up with a design for a product and gone through the proper channels to get it registered, you want to be sure that you have airtight legal protections. Without the proper protections in place, the things that make your product unique from others on the market can be lifted by shady companies that misuse your intellectual property.
While this kind of theft can occur anywhere in the world, it is certainly more common in foreign countries where you might not be able to monitor your supplier as closely as you might like.
May Not Manufacture Your Type Of Product
Not all manufacturing suppliers have the equipment and resources to be making every product that businesses come to them with ideas for.
You need to look carefully into the machinery and techniques that a supplier uses, ideally by visiting their on-site locations. This will also help give you an idea of how much of your product can be automated to bring costs per part down.
You may have found a highly specialized supplier that is confident that they can produce what you need to then turn around and sell on to end-users.
This is great news, but you need to verify that the production house can follow through if demand for your product sharply increases. Because the supplier is highly specialized, it is also likely that they are a relatively small company that cannot produce a high volume of items within short deadlines.
Ethical Labor Standards
No matter the size of your business, if you broadcast to the public that you care about your employees then you should also extend this idea to your business partners, including your manufacturing suppliers.
You risk a huge PR debacle if you don’t support ethical labor practices and standards overseas while toting that you are a champion for worker’s rights domestically. Choose to partner with suppliers that properly compensate their workers for their time. Make sure that they have working conditions free from recognized hazards in compliance with regulations.
Fraud prevention
Similar to protecting your IP, making sure that a supplier is free from corruption is vital to receiving the correct products in the correct quantity promptly.
When investigating a manufacturing supplier’s integrity, ask to look at their finances so that you aren’t accidentally part of money laundering schemes.
References from other partners of the supplier can help you feel at ease knowing that you only work with professional suppliers that act in everyone’s best interests.
3 Benefits To Having Good Supplier Relationships
If you have finally found a reliable and trustworthy manufacturing supplier for your business needs, it is likely in your best interests to establish a constant stream of communication. This communication will go on to form a strong working relationship with your new business partner that may afford you unique benefits.
Reduced Costs
Setting up new deals with suppliers is usually a costly ordeal for businesses. Managing your relationship with your supplier over the long term means that you have a chance to save on some costs.
A good business relationship can not only save your business part of its overhead costs, but it can reduce problems with product availability, delays in delivery times, as well as quality assurance issues.
Improved Efficiency
The longer that a company and its supplier are in a working agreement, the more they will develop together. Regular communication becomes commonplace and the supplier learns more about the organization they are partnered with.
This allows them to increase the efficiency of services back and forth. Problems with orders are minimized over time but if they do happen, the relationship that has been built up makes solutions easier.
Stronger Supply Chain
Working together for the financial benefit of both parties involved leads to a greater understanding of how both organizations operate. Sometimes, adapting working practices to accommodate each other leads to increased efficiency within the supply chain.
More efficient and reliable supplies for things like fasteners & fixings means that businesses sourcing from multiple suppliers can reduce who they work with down to their most trustworthy partners. Budgeting and the sourcing process become much easier and potentially cheaper thanks to a business’ loyalty to their supplier.
