You may have already heard that “the cheap ends up being expensive”, right? Well, this sentence fits perfectly when it comes to vehicle production. As it is a productive chain that involves many people, choosing an automotive supplier with market experience is essential; more than a low price, the right choice can ensure a high profitability for your automobile manufacture.
Once you buy from an experienced supplier, you are not only buying parts: you are acquiring years and years of research, development and tests with raw materials and new products. Obviously, a high amount of years in the market is not the synonym of excellence in work. However, a long history can be the gateway to find a supplier that delivers good quality, good price and cost-effectiveness that keeps your company competitive.
In order to help you identifying experienced market suppliers, we listed five points that you must check before closing a deal. These tips will ensure that you can rely on the competence of the professionals you hired. Keep tuned in this article and check them!
1 – Time on the market
Again, being on the market for a long time brings experience, but does not necessarily ensure anything. Here we are talking about an experience more connected to the company’s development and growth than to its lifetime. After all, what would be the point of having fifty years of experience, but with only six kinds of parts produced and zero actual innovations created at all?
That said, while checking the company time on the market, make sure what it did throughout this period, from the number of offered products to the certifications and awards received. The more positive information you get about a supplier, the more its experience will meet your needs.
2 – Search for innovation
Nowadays, innovation is not an option – it is a must. The study Global Innovation 1000, performed by PwC, pointed out an increase of 11.4% in the investments in R&D for 2019 when compared to the previous year. In addition, when it comes to the automotive market, investing in innovation is an essential task, since the competition is no longer local.
In other words, an automotive supplier with market experience must also be up-to-date with the state-of-the-art technology. And we are not talking about research and development or more efficient raw material only. That involves management and work culture too, since the more aligned the buyer and the supplier are, the easier the relationship will be.
3 – Quality assurance
The automotive supplier must also be able to ensure the quality of the supplied products, and this is only possible when it has time to research, develop and test the parts that are on the market. And, of course, when the supplier has a multidisciplinary, qualified team that can see the creation process as a whole, from the raw materials to the final evaluation of the modules, going through development and prototyping.
When it comes to quality assurance, the time on the market influences a lot: only a deeply consolidated company can go through all the creation steps without affecting its daily tasks. Being able to keep the production, while meeting requests, creating prototypes and testing new product shows that the supplier is not only constantly looking for quality, but also respects its clients’ business.
4 – Partnership
There are plenty of companies willing to work on a win-win system, which everyone involved in the business benefits from it. And we are not talking about increasing profitability, but rather of a real partnership that faces all the challenges the market could bring.
The automotive field is very competitive, and as we have already stated, there are countless suppliers all around the world. What makes each one of them unique is which products they can offer exclusively to their industry, and things like that can only be found in partnerships. Alliances have the power of making the experience and knowledge exchange processes easier and more reliable. That also leads to better results in projects development and creation of new products.
5 – Certifications
An automotive supplier with market experience must have a good reputation and earn certifications throughout its journey. As obvious as it may seem, there are a lot of companies that use powerful marketing campaigns to cover its failures, such as lack of quality, client service problems and poor quality products. As experienced as the supplier might be, it’s not always able to ensure anything else.
One of the best ways to ensure the reputation of a supplier is checking its qualifications and knowing its certifications. In the automotive field, national and international certifications are essential, as well as being a supplier for companies similar to yours, recognized by the field’s competent agencies. Having a good reputation in the community is one of the most important points – those who have a closer relationship with the supplier can give the best references.
Get to know Riosulense, an experienced supplier.
With over than 70 years on the market, Metalúrgica Riosulense is a company that is proud of its ability of meeting all positive points of this article. Our experience is proven by the time we have been producing and delivering original automotive parts both for Brazil and other parts of the world, such as the USA, China and Europe. Another important evidences are the national and international certifications we have been awarded with, such as ISO 9001:2015, IATF 16949:2016 and Transportation and Power Generation Accreditation Program.
Based on the demand of our clients, our professionals are able to research, develop, prototype and test the products before delivering them to the market – this is why we created our own Prototype Factory, a specialized structure made for the support of the development of new products that provide engineering solutions to turn ideas into models to be tested.
Would you like to know more about Riosulense, an automotive supplier with proven Market experience? Contact our team and get to know our specialists!
