“Supply chain is also a fast-paced game. If you move too slowly, you cost your company time and money. However, if you go too fast, you can also experience a negative result.”
There are two examples about “Faster Production”, every buyer should take into consideration;
1- Asking from manufacturer to reduce their normal production time.
In the case study; a manufacturers’ normal production time for an ordered product batch is 25 days and a rush buyer requests for 2 weeks:
Definitely the manufacturer by planning to have a new client and with the idea; “May the things go better and we can accomplish”, Manufacturer responds; “OK, we’ll do what we can, but we are not 100% sure we can do a good job.”
In the end; the buyer gets the products around 25-30 days with lots of defects. The operators are less precise, quality control is barely done and there is no time for Final Inspection or to re-work defective goods. The workmanship is always worse in such cases.
Whenever the buyer asks the supplier about the defective products, gets the same response; “You were in a hurry so we make the products in rush.”
Pushing the factory to rush production does not work… For the timing every time make an agreement according to the supplier’s schedule. If in a hurried order search for stock products, or another supplier.
2- Accepting the shipment day and never put a flexibility:
In the second case study; think of an importer is not flexible at all. In the beginning, they agree on a fixed date for the Ex-Factory of products.
When the buyer sends a message to the manufacturer they remind the date and ask for the situation before one week of shipping. Manufacturer responds honestly there needs to be 5-7 days extra because of…….. So the buyer becomes more stricks and in an up looking way mentions the sanctions. So there is nothing to do from the manufacturer side and ships the products one week late. Buyer cancels the order (lots of costs, advance payment, time loss). Even if they accept the sanctions there is no time for quality control and other staff. Result same; lots of defective products. “we were in a rush so there was not enough time for quality control.”
“Experienced buyers would have the knowledge of production time for their products and keep 10-15 days of flexibility in their schedule.”