Management

Supplier Evaluations? How About BUYER evaluations, too?

Supplier Evaluations? How About BUYER evaluations, too?

Supplier evaluation is a frequent LinkedIn group discussion.  Since Proficient Sourcing’s business is to help identify appropriate and excellent manufacturing suppliers, these discussions are of particular interest. Our work typically involves generating candidates for new supplier situations.  Evaluation criteria are focused on price and delivery, with excellent quality.  The shops we deal with all have extensive histories of happy customers, so we are confident of a quality recommendation.  As time moves on, other factors come… Read More

Procurement Problems We Address

Procurement Problems We Address

Research revealed several common problems OEMs face when seeking new suppliers.  Proficient Sourcing exists to address most of them with success. The first item, naturally, is the time-consuming task of determining capabilities, capacity, and quality standards needed for the project.  Sorting through the various website options may not be sufficient. We can do this for you, and there’s no obligation!  Once we know what you need we’ll research our network to find an appropriate shop… Read More

Outsourcing Your Manufacturing: Pros and Cons

Outsourcing Your Manufacturing: Pros and Cons

Proficient Sourcing LLC exists to help you find excellent suppliers so your outsourcing will be successful.  There are many factors involved with outsourcing, and it’s always educational to check the internet to see the pros and cons. Fortunately, we found no new revelations.  But depending on your business there are certainly many things to consider. In most cases we know, an OEM seeks manufacturing resources not available within the company, or perhaps beyond current capacity. … Read More

OEM Standards: Should We Worry?

OEM Standards: Should We Worry?

What’s going on with large corporations these days?  Some may be your customers or suppliers, so their motivations should be significant in your business plans.  And to the extent this population includes OEM’s we are concerned. It’s probable outside forces have tried to influence corporate behavior forever.  But now, in a time of social media and instant and broad communications, perhaps this has become more important.  Such things as ESG and CEI, if expanded into… Read More

Manufacturing Outlook: Problems Remain

Manufacturing Outlook: Problems Remain

What is the near term outlook for US manufacturing?  Not particularly encouraging. There are nearly an infinite number of internet answers to this, and we found 2 good ones at the National Association of Manufacturers 4Q 22 survey and Deloitte’s 2023 Manufacturing Industry Outlook. Here’s a segment of NAM’s Summary of Findings: “While manufacturing proved to be quite resilient through the challenges of the past few years, the sector ended 2022 with weaker conditions, both… Read More

The 4 Day Work Week

The 4 Day Work Week

Recently we heard a radio report that the government was considering 4 Day work week legislation.  No further details were reported, so we can only speculate that this is a move that might happen sometime in the future.  To whom, how and when unreported. The US economy consists of a wide variety of types of work, so just how such legislation would work seems very confusing.  Just some examples:  blue collar workers in a company… Read More

TARGET PRICE: Good idea or not?

TARGET PRICE: Good idea or not?

Last year we introduced a potential supplier to an equipment OEM.  The OEM has several fairly large machine parts they want to source to new machining sources.  The desired vendor will be capable of handling thousand pound steel parts, which require complex machining operations.  Not quite 5-axis, but their parts have very intricate details. This means a complex quoting procedure, and perhaps if the OEM would provide some sort of cost parameters it would help… Read More

Need Improvements to Your Supply Chain?

Need Improvements to Your Supply Chain?

We’re all about improving your supply chain.  Whether reshoring something or any of a myriad of possibilities, if you want excellent candidates for your outsourced manufacturing, we can probably help. Key areas of success have been large metal parts, such as machine bases, fabricated and molded plastics, domesticating ferrous (and large!) castings, tanks, pressure vessels, and even micro machined precision items.  We can also offer special ISO candidates for specific industries.  Here’s a partial listing of our… Read More

ESG Scoring: Useful or… Horsepucky?

ESG Scoring: Useful or… Horsepucky?

Over the past several years many major funding organizations have become more interested in ESG scoring criteria for their decisions. We became interested in this because of 2 recent factors. One was the apparent increasing difficulty that fossil fuel producers are finding in obtaining new funding for their needs. And since this industry is capital intensive with long lead times, funding problems would surely contribute to the increase in fuel prices. So if there is… Read More

What is a Good Supplier?

What is a Good Supplier?

Several procurement consultants’ websites and discussion groups list factors that define a good supplier. This is particularly relevant to Proficient Sourcing; we provide manufacturing supplier candidates to OEM buyers and are acutely aware of the need for excellent performance. On time delivery is always among the most valued factors. With new suppliers, the buyer has only the prospective suppliers’ history for evidence of excellent delivery performance. Our network has been built with companies have that… Read More