How to Select a Weighing Technologies Manufacturer

As a sourcing manager, the most difficult part of your job is not finding a component manufacturing company, but is finding a reliable component manufacturer who builds quality products, provides accurate lead times, and offers excellent customer service, all at a reasonable price. While the manufacturing field is filled with a large amount of competing firms, few of these companies offer the sort of customer service experience that turns customers into long-term business partners.

When selecting a manufacturer, it is important to assess the company’s reputation among their fellow customers, competing manufacturing firms, and the larger industry in general. This article will provide you with an in-depth guide on to select the best component manufacturer for your business.

Quality & Performance

When you compare multiple OEM weighing technology vendors, the most important characteristic to look for is the quality of the company’s finished products, their components in-the-field performance, and the reliability of their products when exposed to brutal conditions and heavy use in the field. Keep in mind that your weighing technology is integral to the success of your business. Failure of a mobile weighing platform in the field, while weighing livestock for a client, could cause extreme embarrassment, damage your reputation, and even lead to lost business. That’s why finding a quality component manufacturer is so key to your business’s success.

Transcell Technology understands how important quality weighing technology, such as wireless weigh scales, are to your business. That’s why our team is committed to beginning all of our manufacturing projects with the best starting materials, and ensuring that our entire component process, from design to manufacturing, is overseen by the top engineering and technical team in the industry. In addition, our weighing beams and platforms have consistently outperformed the competition in real-world testing conditions, providing quicker, more accurate readings to our clients even in the most brutal physical conditions. That’s why Transcell’s technology is utilized not just by our customers, but also by our OEM competitors in their own weighing products.

Reputation

Online

Since the advent of the internet and its widespread adoption by businesses and consumers, the easiest way to assess the quality of a component vendor is by searching the business’s name online for reviews and comments. This is especially important once you have narrowed down the list of potential suppliers and are trying to assess the positives and negatives associated with each company.

The first investigative step is to take a close look at the prospective company’s web page. Look for customer testimonials, case studies, and even industry awards. Also, take a look at the company’s web page design and writing. Is the design streamlined and easy to use? Is the text easy to read and free of major spelling and grammatical errors? These are all signs that the company cares about its reputation and image, which is important.

Another great way to assess the quality of a company’s components is to search for Yelp, Angie’s List, and Google+ reviews. These, in addition to actual webpages dedicated to industrial manufacturing reviews, will provide you with a great deal of insight into the company’s reputation.

Offline

Another great way of assessing the quality of a manufacturing firm is to ask your contacts in the industry for advice. Many of the top OEM and weigh beam manufacturers do very little advertising and rely on word-of-mouth to grow their business. So, make sure to ask any of your professional connections who work with the weighing technology field for recommendations.

Quote

Another key source of information when assessing potential weighing beam manufacturers is to take a close look at the quote of several competing companies. These quotes should provide you with information on the cost of the job, hidden fees like taxes and surcharges, the company’s shipping, fuel, and delivery costs, and more. Make sure to create a bullet point list of exactly what you need, so that each company provides a quote for the same project.

Look Beyond Price

When many companies receive a set of quotes from manufacturing companies, the first thing that they look at is the price estimate. While the cost of a job is important, and it is your job to ensure that the project remains under budget, it is important to remember that price is just a small piece of the larger picture.

One of the most important factors to consider beyond price is the reliability of a company’s weighing components. Weighing technology failure in the field can bring your business to a halt, costing you money and taking hours or days to resolve if your weighing scale is located far away from replacement supplies.

Another key to remember is to judge all competing products by the same standards. Take two pieces equipment: both weighing scales have 10,000 lb capacities and are have excellent reputations in the industry. However, one scale has a two-year warranty and requires a wired connection to transmit information. The other comes with a ten-year warranty, is wireless, and comes with free cloud storage to save that information. If you looked at the two products and chose option A because of its more competitive price, without looking at the other factors, you may have made the less cost-effective solution in the long-run. That is why it is so important to assess all factors beyond price when comparing multiple OEM vendors.

Warranty

In addition to learning more details about the weighing technology itself, it is important to make sure that you thoroughly understand the company’s warranty policy. While a cheaper company may seem like an attractive option, if they only offer a one-year warranty when most competitors offer a ten-year warranty, that may be a sign that something is off.

Customer Service

Lastly, do some research to learn more about your weighing supplier’s customer service policies and reputation. In the unfortunate event that something goes wrong with your components or their delivery, you want to know that you can resolve any outstanding issues with little hassle. Things to look out for are their industry and customer reputation for customer service, their dispute resolution policies, and how well they addressed their customer’s initial concerns.