Your automotive business has three priorities in every relationship with adhesive suppliers. You need:
- An ideal product
- at an ideal price
- within an ideal timeframe.
Since you already have one or more adhesive suppliers, it’s possible that you feel you’ve found all three traits. At least, it may have felt that way when you first picked them out of the pack. There are real reasons, however, that switching adhesive suppliers can reduce both your operating costs and price per unit. Here are a few reasons why you might want to switch automotive adhesive suppliers:
Discover New Opportunities
Fear of the unknown prevents many automotive businesses from switching suppliers. After all, there are many hidden costs associated with changing from one supplier’s product to another’s—necessary operational changes, new training, implementation costs, production delays, and more.
However, sticking with the status quo could mean that miss out on lucrative opportunities. There may even be innovative solutions that could upgrade your existing product. A focus on the big picture (and assurances of tangible long-term ROI) can make new adhesive suppliers well worth the temporary adjustment period. So don’t be afraid to explore a little and measure potential savings and service improvements.
Improve Upon an Outdated Contract
A longstanding relationship with a supplier doesn’t guarantee that you’re getting the best price for today’s automotive adhesive market. Markets change, cutting edge products become easier to produce, and your ongoing agreement could become outdated.
Ideally, your current supplier will be willing to compromise with you and rework a contract that no longer reflects the present value of adhesives they’ve been supplying you with for a long time, but this may not always be the case. Solicit bids to compare with your aging agreement and see if times have changed.
Reduce Delivery Distance
‘Cost of distance’ is a real concern. Finding a locally positioned partner is one of the mightiest supplier cost reduction strategies. The lion’s share of your savings will be in shipping and delivery, but the rest of the benefits make this kind of switch even more worth your consideration.
Focused research might turn up a supply site with the product you need in closer proximity than your current, longer-distance partner. The convenience of a local supplier is hard to overstate—quicker deliveries, accessible in-person meetings, reduced shipping costs, matching time zones, a shared understanding of your region; the list goes on.
Enjoy More Efficient Service
The quality and cost of products you currently buy from adhesive suppliers may meet spec and match the market, but can still fall short of your price goals as a result of inefficiencies in customer service. It’s always best to build a strong relationship with your suppliers by communicating issues and resolving them together, but there will be times when the best solution is to make a change.
Slower-than-desired timeframes or lack of responsiveness can rack up costs indirectly. Any additional time spent advocating for your business needs is time that you weren’t able to spend on other tasks central to revenue. There are also organizational costs when information gets lost in the cracks, and as a result, your needs go unaddressed.
Invest in yourself by signing with an automotive adhesives supplier who makes efficiency and customer satisfaction central to their relationship with your business.
