Recently we visited a large food manufacturer. Their high speed manufacturing equipment was made in Europe, and spares and changeover parts were ordered from the OEM in Europe. Most of the time this has worked well, but they need to maintain a parts inventory because it takes about 2 weeks to get resupplied.
In other situations we were involved in a project to supply parts for a project out of production and another similar to the European example above.
If you are not required to buy parts and spares from your OEM we might be able to save you time, money, and a hair-on-fire emergency international flight for some part needed in a crisis.
Proficient Sourcing’s network consists of more than one shop that competes directly for this sort of work. There are several advantages to considering these suppliers. One is that often the price of the parts is less than that charged by the OEM. We speculate that OEM’s may believe their parts are unique, but often they are easily duplicated, even if reverse engineering is required.
Beyond costs, the local supplier can deliver spare parts in less than one hour in one case (so long as inventorying is part of the deal). Compare that to two weeks during some breakdown or emergency.
Another advantage is that the local supplier may have ways to make the parts perform better! While they do not have the engineering capability of the OEM, they are only concerned with the performance of those few parts being supplied. The local supplier also knows a good way to demonstrate value is to improve the performance of the things they supply.
If you have these situations, you might find consideration of a high performing local company to supply spare or changeover parts to be to your advantage. We are ready when you are.