Newsletter November 2021:
By: Xiuguo Dong
bdp Mechanical Components’ activities and solutions for project monitoring and management
Sourcing from abroad can be an attractive option for many industrial companies to achieve further cost advantages and innovative solutions. However, when customers and suppliers are located in different countries, language, time, and cultural differences can cause non-transparencies in project management. Not every company can manage project management efficiently, which is a foundation for a successful business.
With the experience of bdp Mechanical Components in international sourcing since 1982, we can support you with the following solutions:
Following the project from the sourcing and offer phase
As an extension of our customers’ purchasing and quality departments, our responsibilities begin with choosing the most suitable supplier for an inquiry and making the best offer to get nominated for the project.
Due to our international positioning with locations in Europe and China, we have colleagues in the same countries as our customers and producers. Our local colleagues visit potential producers on-site at the sourcing phase and execute technical and cost analysis together according to our standard procedure. We know European, German, Chinese, and other international norms and standards and their relevance for customers’ quality assurance. Together with the producers, we analyze the drawings and quality guidelines from the perspective of material, technology, production processes, quality, and inspection to obtain the optimum scheme for your cost reduction. Despite price negotiations with sales managers who speak English very well, there is no guarantee for the best deal and price. Therefore, it is best to talk to influential people, such as the general manager or the owner. Even if they don’t speak English, they are the key people who determine the actual price of the products. As a foreigner, there is a high risk that you will pay more for the products, besides wasting your valuable time. Our expertise in the Chinese and European procurement market helps our customers to achieve fair market prices.
Regular on-site visits
For mechanical components, suppliers are responsible for the entire process of prototyping and manufacturing. Thus, customer’s technical and quality engineers shall constantly be on site to control the status of each process and identify problems in time to prevent major difficulties that could lead to prototype failures or delivery delays, especially for essential steps such as mold making, casting, and process monitoring.
The producers and customers need to be regularly visited on-site to solve complex issues that can arise during the process. Recently due to COVID-19, phone calls and video conferences are mostly preferred. However, if there are technical or qualityrelated issues, and if the circumstances allow, a personal visit will be helpful to clarify the doubts so that all parties can work together on a solution. Our sales teams in Germany and Spain are personally taking care of local customers.
Production monitoring
Production and shipping delays belong to the most common frustrations customers experience when working with overseas suppliers. And one of the leading causes of delays is a general lack of transparency. To help our customers, our local teams will do the early product inspection since the start of production, giving insight into the status, such as the quality of materials and parts used. Besides, we also inspect every production stage and make sure that factory workers produce the quantity and quality according to work instructions at workstations.
Examples of our customers (1)
We are delivering safety-relevant valve components for a German customer. To ensure tightness, the requirements for dimensional accuracy are even stricter than in the automotive industry. The producer is located in China. During the entire development and subsequent production phase, our Chinese colleagues in purchasing and QA were at the producer plant weekly to ensure the producer understood the customer’s requirements and that appropriate implementation was carried out in production. It was also a matter of communicating suggestions and questions from the producer to the customer to find the best solutions. Together with the producer and the customer, we had five rounds of major meetings to clarify all principal guidelines before the project could take off. In between, we also kept fluent communication to solve running issues. Currently, we supply to this customer in serial production. The customer has expressed his confidence in us and, in the meantime, places further production orders to us.
Keep communication inflow
With bdp Mechanical Components, both our customers and producers can communicate directly in their respective native languages. Thus, we overcome language barriers and minimize the risk of misunderstanding due to different ways of thinking. Even if our customers source internationally with us, we ensure that communication is transparent and free of misunderstandings.
Examples of our customers (2)
We are producing machine components for a German customer of machinery industry. Last year we started the first cooperation. The customer nominated us because we could offer a competitive price for the inquiry. The producer for this project is in China. Because this was the first project between our companies, the customer was cautious about product quality. The main challenge of these parts is that some of them are quite old, so there is no digital drawing of these, and specifications regarding dimension and tolerance were quite vague. So firstly, we set our focus on analyzing the drawings more in detail at the project kick-off and creating 3D models for the parts. We communicated each step of development, feedback, and solutions with the customer. As soon as we had received info from the producer, we checked with him to make sure we understood all the details. As a result, we gained more and more customer trust, and now we have started the first serial production.
Arrange regular multi-discipline meetings to solve tricky technical problems
Technical meetings must be organized between your technical team and the producer’s technical team to clarify drawings and requirements and confirm whether all requirements have been included in the offer. We must also assist the supplier in identifying drawing risks, including dimensional and tolerance control, casting defect risks, inspection difficulties, and machining risks. These risks must be identified as much as possible during the offer phase, and their impact on the prices must be determined. In addition, a detailed project kick-off meeting must be held at the beginning of the project to discuss the risks and difficulties and confirm them promptly. Try to clarify risks as much as possible before starting project development.
Examples of our customers (3)
Currently, we are cooperating with a German customer to supply him with gearbox components. The chosen producer for this project is specialized and experienced in this type of product. Through nomination to us, the customer achieved a cost advantage of ca. 20%. During the initial technical analysis with the producer, we discovered that the material required in the inquiry was obsolete. We presented the material currently used for these components and has better performance than the obsolete ones in our offer. Due to the strict approval procedure of the automotive industry, even before nomination, several rounds of multi-discipline meetings were held together between customer and purchasing, engineering, sales of bdp Mechanical Components, and the final customer to confirm the material and other foundations for the cooperation. After nomination, again, various meetings were held by different parties to specify further technical and financial topics. By using conference tools such as Zoom, etc., multi-discipline meetings can be enabled despite differing locations and time zones.
Quality control
Quality control is an integral part of the whole product sourcing process. At bdp Mechanical Components, our local quality inspection teams will visit the factory through the entire production process. We use Gantt Chart to track production, take photos, record potential problems, determine root causes for quality issues, and update our customers on production status.
Examples of our customers (4)
For a Spanish customer of the machinery industry, we are delivering diverse kinds of products. There is a wide variety of product types. So, it was crucial to clarify the characteristics and requirements for each product. Thus, we can ensure that the producer has the proper guideline to produce this immense variety. Especially during the development and sampling phase, our sales colleagues in Spain visited the customer intensively. Communication with customers is all about understanding customers’ requirements and making sure that we produce accordingly. On the other hand, however, there are requirements in the drawings which cannot be achieved or controlled stably in serial production. These issues need more intensive communication with the customer to find the best compromise solution, enabling the fulfillment of requirements and stable production. To this customer, we have been delivering for 20 years now.
