How Material Planning and Purchasing Affects You
As a customer, you may not think much about the role of material planning and purchasing in manufacturing. However, these two roles play a critical role in ensuring that you receive the products you need, when you need them, for the right price.
Material planning/purchasing agents and sales agents must work closely together to ensure that we have the right materials in the right place at the right time. This can be a challenging task, as manufacturers must deal with a variety of factors, including demand, supply, shipping, and cost.
However, when placing orders effectively, it can lead to several benefits for you as the customer, including:
- Product availability: By providing demand forecasts and ordering ahead of time, material planners/purchasing agents can help to ensure that products are readily available when you need them.
- On-time delivery: By communicating realistic project time frames, material planners/purchasing agents can work with the sales team and suppliers to bring in materials sooner than expected so you receive your orders when you need them.
- Competitive prices: By placing orders, especially high-volume orders earlier than needed, the material planners/purchasing agents can negotiate better prices for bulk orders, consolidate shipping, and help reduce our overall costs help to ensure that our prices remain competitive for you.
- For larger order quantities, an early Purchase Order with an expected ship date is highly recommended by the material planners/purchasing agents to avoid lag times when the product is needed.
By understanding and placing orders effectively, you can be a more informed customer and make better decisions about the products.