By Paul Przyby, Senior Vice President of Sales at Optimas Solutions
The Supply Chain, a term once associated with the logistics, transportation and distribution world, has become as common a term as any other in everyone’s vocabulary.
Unfortunately, due to COVID-19 and recent geopolitical events, a lot of strain remains on the collective supply chain.
Never has this been truer than with fasteners in the off-road equipment manufacturing sector. From diesel and electric engines to hydraulic systems to electrical components, supply chain disruptions have made it difficult to provide the equipment that customers want. While fasteners may seem to be a small part of the overall manufactured product, they are an important component in off-highway machines.
So, how can off-road equipment manufacturers directly mitigate fastener supply chain challenges? The answer lies in the value of one’s fastener supplier and what that partner has learned and applied to help OEMs in the off-road industry be more competitive.
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The value of one’s full-service fastener supplier has been re-invented and re-thought to help manufacturers improve the supply chain – particularly those seeking operational profits, production security and product performance.
When working with existing distributors or seeking out new ones, equipment manufacturers should evaluate a full-service fastener supplier in five key areas — risk reduction, optimization of inventory, elevating operations, quality, and electrification and environmental considerations. Getting an understanding of their capabilities and approach in each of these areas will do manufacturers well when striking a long-term supply chain relationship.
Reducing risk
Understanding how a fastener supplier will reduce risk is important. One of the first questions to probe is availability.
What is the availability of parts and how does the supplier manage inventory? What is the proximity of distribution centres? What is a supplier’s record of on-time delivery in respect to these regional sourcing capabilities?
A measurable plus is if a fastener supplier offers in-house manufacturing capabilities. Onshore manufacturing is growing in popularity as a strategy for OEMs, regardless of the region, to gain more control of the supply chain and shorten the delivery cycle.
Optimizing inventory
Inventory is undoubtedly an area that one would want to discuss with a potential fastener distributor in this on-demand era. When most talk about inventory, they often think about actual products and goods sitting in a physical plant somewhere. There’s some truth to this view, however, there is so much more to it in today’s world. Optimizing inventory isn’t about “more,” but how much of one SKU is available, where it is, how fast can it be delivered and what do we do next to get it supplied. What is critical is understanding a distributor’s capabilities in tech-enabled demand planning and replenishment automation. Are these capabilities powered by real-time data? Do they offer key insights to make inventory an operational asset? The ability of a distributor to apply predictive and prescriptive data analytics easily and accurately to inventory management can be a difference-maker for equipment manufacturers.
Enhance operations
Another area to evaluate a fastener supplier in is their ability to develop solutions that improve an application, cut manufacturing costs, add industrial engineering to reduce the number of SKUs in a machine or performing other cost-out activities. In short, a full-service fastener supplier can help equipment makers re-think fastener applications in their products to offer better production and performance as well as reduce costs.
In-house tool and die capabilities with immediate access to engineers and machine operators are always a plus. And the ability to do custom work to meet an equipment manufacturer’s demands is essential.
The key here is to evaluate a fastener supplier on their ability to be flexible and offer a wide range of services to meet an equipment manufacturer’s every need so they can eliminate complexity, save time, reduce waste, drive down costs as well as improve efficiency and reproducibility.
Improve quality
Well documented quality levels should be a must for suppliers.
Equipment manufacturers should have no qualms about asking for verifications and certification by standards bodies such as ISO 9000 and IATF. These certifications are validation that a supplying organization has top-notch quality processes in place that have been certified by the leading quality certification organizations.
While certification of quality processes throughout the organization is essential, it might be doubly important in quality lab testing as equipment manufacturers don’t want a fastener to reduce product performance. Testing parts and mitigating safety hazards by measuring them against standards are important, and one’s supplier needs to adhere to such certifications as ISO 9000, among others. It goes without saying that quality best practices by a full-service distributor and their manufacturing suppliers are essential when identifying a fastener partner that you can trust.
Electrification
As manufacturing moves toward more sustainable products, the need for fastener distributors to help equipment manufacturers embrace and figure out how to advance electrification and environmental considerations in their products is paramount. That’s why equipment manufacturers must understand the strategies of fastener makers and distributors in these areas, their technological advances, and any use cases that will provide validation for production and performance enhancements going forward.
The overall focus on sustainability best practices in manufacturing are only going to get greater.
That is why when evaluating a fastener supplier, an equipment manufacturer must understand a supplier’s strategic approach in both areas.
As there are many exciting opportunities for off-road equipment manufacturers in the coming years, particularly with a greater focus on environmentally friendly equipment and greater investments in infrastructure, it makes sense for them to start looking at how fastener partners and their technology fit into the overall ecosystem of equipment manufacturing.
When it comes to working with a full-service fastener distributor, the equipment manufacturer can gain the most from the relationship by approaching it through a holistic 360-degree lens that delivers success for the manufacturer.
The key word is partnership.
