|
A Tale of Two Sourcing Decisions
By James Dempsey
|
PTI Engineering is the partner you can trust with vital projects. Do you realize that a sourcing decision can have profound effects on your career and your personal happiness? By making the right choices you can have a stress-free work life and show company executives that you can be trusted with making good decisions. But make the wrong decisions, and your stress can go through the roof and cast a negative light on your management capabilities. I've managed both situations and prefer the "smart-hero" role! I had one difficult experience working with a supplier in China that gave me nightmares; let me tell you about it..
I was entrusted with a project to source plastic prototype assemblies for a marketing field trial. It required prototypes be developed quickly, signed off and commence running 500 sets of field trial products. We were under tight timelines coordinating with a market research firm. Under advice from my company's sourcing department, I chose to source the work with a vendor in China. I found the experience to be a complete disaster and very stressful!
The Asian vendor, claiming new product development capabilities, turned out to be extremely weak. After I traveled 21 hours to China to review and sign-off on the assemblies, I found the managers excited that they had first samples off the tools, but all parts were completely out of tolerance and unacceptable! A supposedly short trip turned into a stressful marathon trip to Asia totaling 22 days. The market research products were late, and I had to spend countless hours babysitting and on-the-fly problem solving with this vendor who was expected to be able handle this work. Needless to say this didn't look good, added a huge stress to my life and took me away from my family.
Shortly after that I was entrusted with a similar project. We were using the results of a first round of market research to create version 2.0 prototype assemblies for a second-round marketing field trial. The timeline was tighter because marketing leadership really wanted it. I wisely decided to take the sourcing decision into my own hands, declined to source with the Chinese vendor mentioned earlier and selected PTI Engineering in Michigan. This was the smartest decision I could have made! Not only was PTI Engineering supremely professional, they have a robust product development program. PTI beat an aggressive timeline, parts were all to exact tolerances and assembly went off without a hitch. Also with PTI being located near Detroit, it was only a short drive from my company's headquarters in Cleveland. I spent a total of two days with PTI - one for print reviews and one for final assembly approval. PTI finished and shipped before noon, way ahead of schedule. My company's executives were very pleased with the results and PTI made me look like a genius!
Comparing the two projects head-to-head, PTI Engineering solution appeared higher cost than the overseas vendor solution. However, when factoring in the hidden costs of trips to China, plus my time (which is invaluable!), the PTI solution became the clear winner. I highly recommend you consider your own wellbeing, both stress-wise and career-making, as you source projects. I attest you won't be disappointed with choosing PTI Engineering.
James Dempsey is a professional consultant with extensive global strategic planning, innovation and product development experience. James completed his Executive MBA from The Ohio State University in addition to bachelor and master degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Ohio University. |
| |
|
