Piping Supplies has been manufacturing pipe flanges and specialty machined parts for the pipe, valve and fitting industry for over 50 years. We still see things which make us shake our heads. Two situations we have a hard time understanding both come down to quick decision making (or lack of decision making). We believe quick decision making saves money for most companies. Here is why.
The first situation we see is getting the same quote from four to five different distributors. What that tells us is their end user is shopping this item around to many suppliers. If the item(s) being quoted were high dollar amounts or high quantity then we could understand. Most of the time it is one or two pieces. What the end user probably doesn’t understand is the decline in domestic manufacturers in the last 20 years. Even though they are calling many distributors, we may be the only vendor for them all. The end user does not get any cost savings from all their extra work. The customer would be better served by going to a trusted supplier, getting a price, making a quick decision, and purchase. This would free them up to do more profitable tasks.
The second type of buying paralysis is continually going out for “updated” pricing. We see this a lot with the Navy. Since 2020, raw material prices have been volatile. Our suppliers now quote pricing which is valid for one day! Waiting for prices to fall has not been a good strategy post-pandemic and usually has the reverse effect – prices are higher. If contracts were placed when we originally quoted them the Navy would have saved some serious money. Quick decision making saves money once again.
Shopping around for the best price or waiting for better prices is a bad strategy for saving money on small quantity items in our opinion. Instead, we suggest building a good relationship with distributors you can trust. Moving a purchasing task quickly from the to-do pile to the completed pile is far more important. Then you can concentrate your energy on the really big, profitable jobs. That is the way we see it.