Resources / Solutions / Businesses Don't Compete, Supply Chains Compete

With today's aggressive sourcing strategies creating an extremely competitive, high quality and low cost sourcing environment, we believe that businesses no longer compete, it becomes the supply chains that compete.  Shift your thinking about how vendors and supply chains can affect everyday sourcing challenges. 

Take for instance Company A that offers vertically integrated services and capabilities resulting in a single source relationship with its customer base.  Versus Company B that is limited to certain services and capabilities and will need to outsource multiple operations to complete the component(s) requirements or assembly.  Company B will gather competitive bids from its network of vendors, taking time, purchasing power, human resources and not to mention profitable services and/or components being purchased to complete the product.  This results in a profit item stack-up and lead-time stack-up and it becomes difficult to compete in today's aggressive sourcing environment. 

Company B will not be able to offer a competitive finished component price due to the profit item stack-up, nor will they be able to reduce the lead-time due to vendor capacity and other restraints, plus the customer will be subject to process and quality control variation. 

This is not ideal, not recommended and not considered a solution to the customer's sourcing initiatives.

Company A definitely wins the comparison when quoting and manufacturing a multi-process component, due to valuable factors considered in the purchasing stage of the pipeline.  With vertically integrated strategies fully implemented and working seamlessly, Company A can offer a completed component with minimized lead-times and controlled processes, eliminating variation from one vendor to the next. This ultimately minimizes the liability and "blame-game" that can happen between two vendors when quality or capacity issues develop.

This solution is critical for the customer's sourcing plan.

If you believe that Company A's vertically integrated manufacturing plan is valuable and creates marketplace advantages for your products, please contact Alexandria Extrusion Company (AEC).  AEC has strategically planned and worked aggressively towards offering its customer base what was proven in Company A's example above.  AEC is not just an aluminum extrusion supplier; the company offers much more than that.  AEC offers Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM), prototypes, plastic injection molding, vertical and horizontal machining, 4th and 5th axis - robotic machining, bending and stretch forming, various fabrication processes, mechanical finishing, chemical finishing, painting and assembly.  The company developed this vertical integration map over the past 40+ years by using capital investments and proper planning to stay ahead of the curve and differentiate itself from other suppliers.

AEC developed a manufacturing flow that minimizes lead times and creates high quality parts with low cost solutions.  No profit item stack-ups, no lead-time stack-ups. Simply done right, on time and cost competitive.