With ever-more demanding customers, shifting markets, and fast-changing technology, machine and job shop leaders are seeking ways to increase and sustain their competitive advantage. Fundamental to achieving this is keeping their machines’ green light on. Increasing the time machines are running and producing — rather than sitting idle waiting for a new tool or undergoing a complex changeover — means these businesses are producing more components at less cost. Supply chain management offers much potential for improving machine utilization. Forward-thinking machine and job shop leaders are seeking stronger partnerships with machine and tool suppliers so they can meet today’s challenges while continuing to reduce cost, speed delivery, and improve quality. How machines and tools are used has a direct effect on costs. By partnering closely with solution providers, machine and job shops can gain the additional expertise necessary to identify optimal solutions for the tooling, logistics, and stock. Many machine shops turn to suppliers to help them:
1. Choose the best machinery and tooling
2. Maintain equipment for peak efficiency
3. Train operators on the best way to use equipment

No matter your current sourcing approach, the following supply chain best practices will ensure that closer collaboration with your suppliers will keep you at the leading edge of technology and productivity improvement techniques.

Consider strategic supplier consolidation:

Common supply chain thinking is to consolidate suppliers by concentrating your purchases, so you can increase your purchasing power and drive down tool cost. The better, more strategic, reason to consolidate is so you can build trusted relationships with solutions-focused partners. First though, be sure you are working with suppliers that understand your operations and can make recommendations for process improvements, new tooling that could save money and time, and improvements to your shop’s quality and efficiency performance.

Streamline tool management

Taking the supplier partnership further, forward-thinking machine shops work with their preferred suppliers to streamline tool management. By ordering all solid round tools - milling, drilling, tapping, reaming and threading - from the same supplier, you gain easy tool accessibility. This means that when you have several orders a day for different products, your supplier will combine and deliver the separate orders in one single package, reducing your handling and administration. Your supplier also will be able to meet your needs with reduced inventory, which will improve your cash flow.

Coordinate logistics

Working closely with your supplier will help you take control of your inventory by reducing administrative work, such as invoicing, ordering, managing deliveries, etc. This will allow your staff to focus on their core functions, because they’ll know a trusted supplier understands your tooling needs. Also, with such a close partnership, the supplier has more visibility into your downstream demand and will be better able to help you quickly respond to unexpected changes.

Use supplier support services

When you work with suppliers that are well-known for their technical and operational knowledge, you’ll augment your on-staff expertise. For example, support services could include process improvement consulting, training, and education. The best suppliers can help you optimise operations, make suggestions for how to remove unnecessary steps, stop bottleneck formation, and reduce waste.

Practice single-supplier sourcing

for cutting tools When you develop and continuously deepen your relationship with a strategic supplier, they will learn your processes and operations—and will deliver the best new solutions to your shop’s unique challenges, today and in the future. An added bonus of working together in a win-win relationship with an innovative tooling supplier is that you’ll get to participate in beta tests of their new technology—before your competitors have access to it.

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