Purchasing

Companies send “request for quote” messages to vendors and receive quotes from vendors and pick the best price, value and delivery. If they have a good relationship with their vendors and the vendors know these companies don’t want to see price increases, they will sell the material for the same price they charged with the last order. They will do this if they value the volume of business the customer offers.

Customers don’t like errors, reject material or late delivery. They try to order their material to arrive “just in time”. Having components manufactured overseas has its problems.

The best CAD systems use “schematic capture” of the “bill of materials” for each product iteration. This allows for the automatic entry of component part numbers into the Material Requirements Planning MRP systems

The best MRP systems read new sales orders and finished sales orders and subtract component inventory by part number when orders are built. This ques up an order list and turns it into “request for quotes” going to vendors.

Purchasing is a critical component in manufacturing and successful companies have automated the process with “just-in-time” ordering. This helps companies manage cash and creates the efficiency companies need to succeed and grow.

Norb Leahy, Dunwoody GA Tea Party Leader