The supplier’s basic obligation is to deliver on time! Why is delivery always rushed？
The first priority of purchasing is to ensure delivery!
A supplier who needs to expedite is not a good supplier. And a purchase that cannot expedite is definitely not a good purchase!
Procurement that only expedites goods is not a good purchase!
Good procurement requires understanding of production management
1.How to become a good purchaser? What skills are needed for good procurement?
What I’m talking about today is that good procurement requires an understanding of production management!
Why does procurement need to understand production management?
2.Maybe many people don’t agree. Why does procurement need to understand production management?
Some people feel that it is not easy to do procurement. There are so many things.How can there be time and energy to study production management.
Some people say that procurement is not a panacea. And is it too much to ask me to understand production management?
Some people also say that purchasing should do a good job in purchasing. And study production management issues. Isn’t it not doing business properly?
3.If you do not understand production management, production scheduling and production planning. It is impossible to determine. Whether the delivery date given by the supplier is accurate and reliable. Anyone who has done procurement of raw materials, external processing, etc. May have deep feelings.
I believe that everyone who has done procurement should have experienced expediting.
And some people even say that purchasing without expediting cannot be considered a complete procurement.
Why do purchases always have to be expedited?
Why can’t the supplier consciously deliver the goods on time and in accordance with the quantity?
4.According to common sense, since the supplier has confirmed the order. He should be conscious and must deliver the goods on time according to the delivery date of the order.
However, in China’s manufacturing industry. There are many things that cannot be said according to common sense.
That’s right, there are still a lot of suppliers who can’t deliver on the promised date. And he will find you a lot of reasons. For example, the equipment is broken, the environmental protection is checked. There are not enough workers, or the difficulty of production is not expected, and so on.
The real reason may be:
- The production plan is ineffective, and workers choose simple, skilled. And high-yield products to make (driven by piece work efficiency).
- The supplier has no production plan at all. And does not know how to plan.
- Suppliers do not know their own production capacity. And customer demand is higher than production capacity, which cannot be met.
- Delay in production timeliness due to long material procurement time from suppliers.
- The new order is profitable, or the customer is more important. And the supplier puts other orders in front of you.
Except for the fourth issue of material procurement and the fifth issue of integrity. The others are all issues of production management and production planning.
If we don’t understand production management.We can’t find out the supplier’s problems in time and find solutions.
No matter how much we complain about our suppliers. We can’t solve their problem of not delivering on time.
1.We also need to confirm the delivery date with the supplier.
1)Whenever we ask suppliers to quote, in addition to the price. We also need to confirm the delivery date with the supplier.
2)Some people like suppliers who can quote the delivery date at a fixed price. And this is often a problem.Because the supply salesperson of the dealer. Even the boss. Often does not understand the arrangement of the production plan. And the availability of materials. What they report to you is only an approximate and estimated date.
3)The salesperson takes the order as their responsibility. No matter what, first Let’s talk about the order next. Try to meet the customer’s requirements for delivery time. And find a solution if there are problems later.
Unfortunately, many of our purchases are accustomed to this. We usually trust the supplier’s promise. And the delivery date given by the supplier without thinking. We usually require the delivery time to be fixed and short. But we do not have the supplier’s production capacity.
2.The analysis did not conduct an on-site inspection of the supplier's production process.
The analysis did not conduct an on-site inspection of the supplier’s production process. And did not leave enough lead time for procurement. As a result, the supplier delayed the delivery date. And was complained by the company’s production department. And blamed by the general manager.
A few years ago, when working with a German supplier, the supplier was a well-known multinational company. But the delivery date was a headache.
3.The problem was not that the delivery date was delayed
The problem was not that the delivery date was delayed. But that the delivery date was not fixed. Suppliers will spend one to two days to confirm the delivery date. They need to confirm the time of material procurement with the company’s purchasing department. And they need to confirm the planning schedule with the production department.
It depends on how many production orders are currently planned. When is the queue. The delivery date calculated in this way is reliable. Once the supplier confirms the delivery date. And tells us what month and date it will be shipped. It will never be delayed by a day, which is quite accurate.
I have always complained that this German supplier cannot give a fixed delivery date. And asked them to give a fixed delivery date according to our requirements. But the other party replied that they could not.
4.In fact, this is because the German company’s production scheduling method is different from ours
1)In fact, this is because the German company’s production scheduling method is different from ours. They schedule in advance, and calculate the date. When the new order can be completed according to the current order status according to the arrangement plan.Which is very accurate.
2)And we usually use backward scheduling to calculate. When to start production according to the delivery time required by customers. At present, most of China’s manufacturing industry is backward. Reverse scheduling is not bad.
3)Whether the delivery date is accurate or not depends on the company’s ability. And integrity in production scheduling and planning.
We not only need to know the supplier’s production plan. But also go to the supplier’s site to observe how the on-site production process is like, where there are problems. And help the supplier put forward suggestions and methods for improvement.
In fact, the production time of each product in each process includes：
- Queuing time (the time spent waiting in line before starting to tune in)
- Machine adjustment time. (die change time or the time required to adjust equipment parameters. Or procedures for the production of this product)
- Running time. (the actual time required for this batch of products to be processed in this process)
- Waiting time. (the time between waiting after processing is completed and being moved to the next process)
- Transportation time. (transportation time to the next process)
Among these times, only the third item is real production time. And the others are waiting time.
1.To improve the accuracy of the supplier’s delivery date. And help the supplier shorten the production tim. From the perspective of lean production. It is to eliminate all waste and minimize the time of other items. But how to do it?
2.This requires the use of the TOC (Theory of Constraints, also known as bottleneck theory) tool. For example, if we find that the most semi-finished products are accumulated in front of a certain process on site. It is likely that this process is the bottleneck.
3.There are two kinds of bottlenecks. One is caused by insufficient physical performance. Which is called a physical bottleneck. Whether it is production capacity greater than sales capacity (market bottleneck). Or insufficient production capacity where there are many orders. But cannot be completed on time, it is a physical bottleneck.
3.The other is that the policy and management methods of the enterprise hinder. The realization of the ultimate goal of the enterprise. Which is called the policy bottleneck. As mentioned above. Driven by piecework wages, workers give priority to producing orders with high output but not urgent delivery. This is a typical policy bottleneck.
Use TOC founder Dr. Goldratt's five-step method of focusing:
- Find the bottleneck of the system.
- Decide how to exploit the potential of the bottleneck.
- Everything else is subject to the above decision.
- Untie the bottleneck.
- If step 4 breaks the original bottleneck, then go back to the first step, and never let inertia cause system constraints.
Through this method. Helping suppliers to effectively solve the bottleneck problem of production management. Will be of great help to procurement professionals in controlling. And tracking suppliers’ product delivery dates.
Maxtop Tech is a China sourcing company and supply chain assistance management company. Our service for buying office is help our customers to import goods from China more smoothly, more simple. more time-saving.