The world of purchasing is exciting, varied, and challenging – today more than ever. Digitalization presents opportunities and risks, and the global shortage of raw materials presents us with new difficulties. A look behind the scenes.
The tasks of purchasing are many and varied: Our team is responsible for determining the right purchasing channels and suppliers for the various Montech products – from searching for them to evaluation to approval. The suppliers then handle deliveries from the prototype phase to the zero series phase, and series supply to the delivery of spare parts.
The secret lies in a good partnership
Our suppliers must meet our high requirements. For day-to-day business, it is therefore extremely important to establish a partnership with the various suppliers – but this is anything but easy to do. It requires communication skills, loyalty, empathy, and constant understanding, as the situation on the markets is constantly changing. We also need to take into account the approaches to different cultures; our suppliers are in many different places around the world, most of them in Europe.
Different countries, different customs
The purchasing of different articles in Asia is especially problematic, because the cultures and their understanding of the need for precision and mechanical tolerances are very different. Communication with Asian partners must also be learned; different situations require different approaches. Last but not least, the great fluctuation of contact people during the various project phases creates problems again and again. Thanks to our many years of experience and our keen “sixth sense,” we can minimize or eliminate these.
Price, quality, replenishment time
Our focus is also on the continuous improvement of purchasing channels in terms of price, quality, and replenishment time. With our high quality standards, we want to continue to inspire our customers in a positive way. We ensure quality by sampling the prototypes and the zero series. In addition, suppliers are qualified twice a year. If the results are outside the specified performance zones, new measures are defined. If these cannot be complied with, the cooperation may be terminated.
Thinking and thinking ahead
It is also important that we work and plan ahead so that purchasing of the necessary products can always be initiated at an early stage. Replenishment times must be re-evaluated constantly in order to avoid possible express shipments. For customer-specific projects, we rely on suppliers who are flexible and can guarantee deliveries with short replenishment times.
Shortage of raw materials and digitalization
Nowadays, the shortage of raw materials on all continents makes purchasing more difficult. The shortage means that replenishment times are increasing constantly and can fluctuate drastically. Because this reduces quality, many additional controls are needed. Just-in-time purchasing is almost impossible. This also has consequences for decisions about optimal shipping routes. Sea, road, rail, or air freight? It is becoming increasingly difficult to make the right choice. Digitalization has certainly also resulted in change. On the one hand, it simplifies many steps, but on the other hand, there can be an increase in the work involved in certain processes.
Satisfaction through challenges
At the end of the day, it is precisely these challenges that make purchasing so exciting. They bring variety and require good communication with different cultures in different languages – contact with internal and external players. Every day, we take great pleasure in the challenge of obtaining all items on time and in the appropriate quality at the correct prices for our customers. In addition, we are constantly striving to devise new measures that will ensure that we can always make on-time deliveries to our customers. We want to remain flexible in the future.
