The most important function of a job shop today is figuring out how to keep customers up and running. Material sourcing and supply chain problems are making life difficult for everyone in manufacturing right now, and yet the world must go on.
Now more than ever, job shops must be willing to do whatever it takes to solve problems for their customers—and Reata Engineering is up for the challenge.
The way we see it, coming up with creative and innovative solutions is an integral part of our job. Somebody needs to solve the problems that are occurring right now. . . and we want it to be us!
Here are a few sourcing problems we recently solved for customers.
3 Sourcing Problems Reata Engineering Recently Solved for Customers
Problem #1: 8-month lead time for extruded material
When one of our contract manufacturing customers needed extruded material for an extruded heat sink, our usual vendor quoted us an unacceptable 36-week lead time. They owed their customer a $700,000 order, and the long lead time put the entire project—and their business relationship—at stake. The team at Reata Engineering got on a conference call with the customer to discuss possible solutions.
We identified an alternative source with comparable properties and characteristics before proposing a solution to our customer. At the end of the day, we helped them ship $700,000 worth of equipment at a reasonable cost and reduced a 36 week lead time to 9 weeks.
Problem #2: 12-month lead time for casting
We were recently quoted a 12-month lead time when attempting to buy castings for an existing customer. Rather than sourcing the castings externally, we opted to machine the part out of a solid material.
At the same time, we connected our customer with a new supplier who could make the tooling to turn around castings even faster, going forward. We got our customer the castings they needed in 3 months and were able to keep their lines up by machining interim parts.
Problem #3: 4-month lead time for plastic material
One of our customers needed a critical medical component for an assembly we were working on, but the plastic material for the injection mold wouldn’t be available for 4months.
We knew we could easily machine this medical component instead. Since it was part of a familiar assembly, we had a clear understanding of its function already.
Normally, our first step would involve looking into alternative sources for the extruded material, since it’s cheaper to buy an injection molded part than it is to machine one. But given the current state of material sourcing and supply chain problems worldwide, we knew we’d be better off with our in-house machining capabilities.
We recommended this solution to our customer, explaining that machining the part would cut their lead time significantly. They were thrilled with our solution, and we helped them deliver the parts to their customer on time.
The world is always changing, but Reata Engineering’s commitment to customers remains steady no matter what. Request a quote and let us solve your toughest contract manufacturing challenges.