The thought of offloading tasks and reducing stress is great when considering a middleman to make connections to a machine shop for you. In the machining industry, customers tend to use intermediaries when attempting to source manufacturers. This can be a great way to get your jobs done with ease, but will it be fast, accurate, and cost effective? Not at all. When juxtaposing the pros of using a middleman to the cons, it is obvious that using a middleman can lead to more expensive parts that may take longer and could be made incorrectly.
When using a middleman to get jobs done, customers see higher costs per part because you are not only paying the machine shop to make the parts, but the customer is also paying the middleman to source the machine shop.
Customers see more accurate quotes when going straight to the machine shop because the shop can focus on your job specifically. This can help estimate more accurate turnaround times and more on par pricing.
When working with the manufacturer directly, the customer can have confidence because they know that the people they are working with are proficient in the industry. The point of contact for a middleman may not be an engineer or someone that knows machining. This puts the customer at a disadvantage as the customer may be relaying critical information that could go over the point of contact’s head.
Depth of experience and knowledge is a large factor when considering using a middleman to source work. When communicating directly with the machine shop at hand, the customer can confidently know that their job will be understood correctly because they are working with professionals in the industry.
More efficient changes in work occur when sourcing work directly. If the customer needs to make an adjustment to the part or job, then they can communicate that directly to the manufacturer without losing information traveling through a middleman. This takes less time when going directly to the source rather than communicating through a third-party..
Generally, if a problem arises the middleman is contacted. Then the middleman has to contact the manufacturer to relay the problem. This can be like a classic game of telephone and the vital information has a greater likelihood of getting lost in translation. The solution to this problem is going directly to the manufacturer to source your job and thus communicating with them throughout the process and if and when changes to the part or job may be needed. This ensures that the information is delivered directly to the shop and they can make the changes immediately and correctly.
When deleting a middleman, this means you have a closer relationship between the customer and the manufacturer. The customer no longer feels disconnected from the manufacturer and this can lead to more beneficial arrangements long term. Not to mention, going directly to the manufacturer will remove intermediary fees which will save money.
Conclusion:
Working with a machine shop directly, particularly a small machine shop, has great benefits for the customer. In addition to lower overhead costs, quick turnaround times, and a quality product that is backed by experience and precision, small machine shops also offer the benefit of direct communication and stronger customer to shop relationships. Fair Haven Machine offers precision machining services for the aerospace and government sectors, as well as a multitude of industries. Contact us today for a quote.