Any company can benefit from taking advantage of the value-added services of a supplier. This statement is true for both large companies as well as smaller industrial companies, startups and family owned businesses in the Minneapolis area.
Often small businesses fail to take advantage of value-added services from suppliers due to a lack of understanding of how the services can provide cost and time-saving benefits. Simple and basic items like nuts & bolts in manufacturing and fabrication companies can even have value-added services that build in benefits for the business.
Vendor Managed Inventory
Vendor managed inventory is a great concept and one that can work for any size of business. The vendor (supplier) will set up a schedule with your team to come in and take inventory of the in-house supplies on hand from their company.
This is done through scanning of the bins that then automatically creates an order based on the agreed upon inventory numbers. With this option, there is no risk of running out of parts and no time needed by your staff to count, manage and order.
Custom Packaging
When your business provides kits or assembly hardware packages with your product, look for a supplier with the ability to custom package those kits. This is a great way to avoid having to buy packaging equipment, and it provides a simple solution to what can be a labor and cost-intensive task when done in-house.
Custom Machining
Custom machining for nuts & bolts is not something that every industry will need. However, for OEMS that are increasing product lines, for prototype development and even for providing fasteners for retrofits and other specialized applications, this is an essential service to consider.
Other services a supplier may offer include dock to dock free delivery, customer support with orders and the ability to respond to your Minneapolis business as a local supplier.