What is a Good Vendor in 2022?

The other day, I got a call from the President of a large industrial company and long-time customer. His manufacturing team had identified that CheckSum’s test systems were the final piece that would allow his company to grab a piece of new business. He was determined to win the business and needed my assurance that we would do whatever was necessary to help.??

What a great call to receive! Yes, Yes, and Yes! Most companies love responding to this type of direct ask. Fortunately, we reacted quickly to early parts shortages and purchased a full year’s worth of inventory to make sure that we could help in situations like this. It was expensive, but obviously better than not having testers to sell. The call got me thinking:?What does it mean to be a good vendor in 2022????

Every company in the electronics industry is suffering from supply chain disruption and labor shortages. These challenges mean that many vendors are unable to meet their customers’ needs. This upheaval causes customers to look for new vendors who can meet their needs – Crazy Pandemic Needs, I mean, not the kind of planned out, logical needs of our pre-pandemic, functional supply chain world.” When the President is calling suppliers of test equipment about an expedited order, it’s clear that they’re not going to let anything stop them from winning that new business.?

I understand the feeling and have made several of those calls the past months when our ability to ship was imperiled by a lack of Mac valves or Lexan or FPGAs. Sometimes, our vendors came through and sometimes we went elsewhere, because we couldn’t let a vendor get in the way of us serving our customers.???

Every company is a vendor and a customer at the same time, so we’re all pinched between pandemic created opportunities for our customers and pandemic created disasters for our suppliers – a high risk and high reward tightrope act. We’re all trying, but are we succeeding through these challenges??

Looking in the mirror, I must admit that we have not met all the requirements of our customers this past year. Our fixture lead time was too long for much of Q4 and Q1. Like many companies, we suffered from labor shortages, a significant increase in sick days, and productivity challenges related to pandemic malaise. We also saw a dramatic increase in customer requests to switch chips in their existing product designs. This is a completely understandable strategy to deal with the chip shortages. The increase in fixture orders created a challenge for our fixture production team, and as our backlog grew, it exposed processes that needed improvement.????

While our shortcomings and lead times were not unique, they were completely unacceptable, and we applied the same urgency to fix them as we did to deliver The Genie Company’s order on time.?These challenges have made us a better vendor, more capable to react to our customers’ needs.?We invested in our people, systems, and supply chain.???

We increased our minimum starting pay by over 25%, to ensure we attract and retain the best employees.?We have invested in physical and process automation.?These tools embody a digital path to continuous improvement.?We are finding opportunities to streamline internal and external communication, ensure accurate information and avoid surprises that would impact customer delivery dates.?And, most of all, we hired like crazy to make sure we have the capacity to handle any ask that comes our way.??

So, are we a good vendor??Most days, the answer is YES.??And yet, as the supply chain disruptions continue, we must remain vigilant and adjust our strategy to meet the needs of our customers.?And, who knows what opportunities will present themselves next week??

But, enough from CheckSum.?What does Michael Kridel, President of The Genie Company think makes a good vendor in 2022??Mike and I met when he called me a month ago to see how fast we could ship some testers so that he could win some new business.

"Quality and service are two of the most important values that we have at Genie. CheckSum products help us to uphold our unwavering goal of producing the highest quality product possible. So yes, I reached out to CheckSum myself to ask them to expedite some equipment for our plant. They responded the way that I respond when I get these calls “You bet, when do you need it”. Not only did they give me the answer I wanted to hear – they made good on their promises. This is the culture of The Genie Company, and we like partners who share in the can-do service and quality attitude. This is clearly part of CheckSum’s DNA – I like it!"

Michael Kridel - President The Genie Company