5 Important Questions to Ask a Prospective Metal Supplier

Are you ready to launch your metal project? Are you trying to find the perfect manufacturing partner to get the job done? Below are five important questions you should ask any prospective metal supplier. The benefit of working with a qualified, experienced contract manufacturer is that they have a wealth of knowledge to ensure your product is best produced. Guess what? They probably know more than you do. And that's the whole point.

 

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It's possible that your manufacturer will have to subcontract some processes or highly technical inspections. Ask about this up front so you know exactly what's happening, where it's happening, and who is monitoring each step. Other questions that are important when it comes to inspecting components with tight tolerances include:

• What types of equipment does your facility have?
• What are the limitations of this equipment?
• How does this affect quality inspection?
• How much of the inspection process is manual vs. automated?

2. Which material is best for my project?

This may seem like a silly question to ask, because chances are you decided long ago which material would be used for this part. But here's an important thing to remember: different supply chains do things, well, differently. This is especially the case for offshore operations. Raw material and technical specs vary from country to country, meaning your carbon steel may become a Q235 steel in China (unbeknownst to you). While most metals can be closely matched, there's a chance that chemical properties may differ slightly.

Before talking with your prospective partner, review international metal equivalents and plan to adapt to your new supply chain, rather than forcing your material requirements into a mold that's shaped differently! Find a manufacturer with strategic sourcing expertise and you should have no problem meeting your original spec.

3. Which manufacturing process is best for my project?

Your supplier will ask about the project's scope ' essentially meaning, how many do you need produced? Scope will play a key role in determining which manufacturing process is best, whether that means machining, sandcasting, diecasting, forging or otherwise. Subprocesses such as finishings, treatments, plating, painting, polishing or sandblasting can either be done in-house at your primary supplier or can be subcontracted. It's important to know where each process will be executed, as any risks associated with involvement of a third party should be recognized and assessed early on.

4. Can you meet these regulatory compliances?

As you likely know already, metal parts are rife with regulatory concerns, from product safety to material compliance. Partnering with a seasoned supplier who understands applicable compliances is the only way to go. This is an area where you don't want to cut corners, as you could quickly find yourself in not just hot, but boiling water. The moment your so-called-qualified supplier unknowingly sources tin from the Congo (in violation of the Dodd-Frank Act / Conflict Minerals Policy / 3TG) is the exact moment you cannonball into that scalding hot spring.

An example: A supplier can claim to make your product RoHS-compliant, but without proper knowledge of the intricacies of this regulation, you could find yourself in an unfavorable position. Let's take zinc-plated (galvanized) steel, for instance. Per RoHS, a trivalent chromate conversion coating is compliant, while a hexavalent chromate is toxic and, thus, non-compliant. Simply proving that the raw materials are acceptable is not sufficient in this case since the process (rather than the raw materials themselves) can send you into non-compliant territory. Therefore, parts must be tested post-production to ensure compliance. This level of knowledge and attention to detail is what you should be seeking out in your metal supplier.

5. Can I schedule a visit?

Do everything in your power to learn as much as possible about your supplier, from company history to product array to financials. If you're considering going offshore, finding a competent, trustworthy contract manufacturer is all the more crucial. If sub-suppliers will be involved, get familiar with them as well. Forging deep relationships is the best approach. Ask about planning a visit and touring the facilities. Establish a clear communication path to the support you'll need '  this should include direct access to management, as well as technical support.

Of course, there are other questions you should ask before jumping into production, but these five will ensure you're dealing with a metal supplier that can handle the complexity of your project and understands the wider scope of a sophisticated, global supply chain.

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"What Kind of Metal Do You Guys Manufacture?"

When you're ordering custom parts from an outside manufacturer, you know that your own company's ability to meet deadlines and produce a viable final product is resting on this outside manufacturer's ability to deliver a quality product to you in a timely fashion.

Because your company's reputation might have to depend on the quality and speed of the custom parts manufacturer you're dealing with, it's important to know whether or not if the other manufacturer can make a satisfactory part on time before you commit to a purchase.

With this in mind, here are a few questions to ask your custom parts manufacturer before buying parts from them:

What Kinds of Materials Will You Use?

Material choice is incredibly important in the manufacture of custom components. Your custom parts manufacturer's material choice should provide a good balance of cost-effectiveness and long-term viability for the final product.

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For example, if the parts you're ordering are going to be exposed to mildly caustic environments or moisture, then plain steel, while cheap, wouldn't be a good choice of material since it wouldn't last long in a mildly caustic environment. Grade 316 stainless steel, on the other hand, would be overkill since the corrosives that the part will be exposed to aren't that powerful, and the material is fairly costly.

Here, grade 304 stainless steel would be a better choice, as it can survive exposure to mild corrosives and isn't as costly as grade 316 stainless steel.

When a custom metal parts manufacturer uses the right material for the job, you can get the most bang for your buck.

Do You Offer Special Coatings/Finishes?

Aside from material choice, the choice of what coating or finish to use on a custom part, if any, can have a huge impact on the viability of that part for its use in the final product.

A coating of soft PVC can help a custom materials handling basket carry delicate objects without scratching them, or an electropolish finish can remove the microscopic flaws in a metal form that foreign objects may have caught in, improving the utility of the parts in applications where non-stick surfaces are a must.

Once again, it is important that the coating or finish used both enhances the utility/useful life of the part and makes sense financially.

How do You Manufacture the Parts?

Manufacturing techniques have come a long way in the last few decades. Many tasks that were once done only by hand have become automated. New technologies have been introduced to make certain manufacturing tasks faster and more consistent. For example, Marlin Steel uses the IDEAL Welding Machine to make sure every basket is precision made. Watch the video below!

Using a third-party manufacturer that relies on outmoded techniques to assemble your custom parts is, at best, a risky proposition. Manual assembly of metal parts is slow, as a manual laborer gets fatigued throughout the day, slowing down his or her productivity.

Manufacturers who use manufacturing automation don't really have this problem. Robots, unlike people, don't' get tired, so they can keep working with the same machinelike precision at the same speed all day.

In fact, manufacturing automation plays a big role in answering the next two questions:

Can You Meet My Tolerances?

When you're mass-producing a product, each part has to fall within a very specific set of measurements, or else the final product won't fit together and you might as well have a collection of worthless scrap on your hands.

If the bend in a piece of steel wire is 90 degrees on one part, but 92 degrees on another, that's a significant enough a different in the angle to potentially ruin the final product.

This is precisely why it is important to know how a manufacturer will make a part, as the precision of automated metal bending machines such as a CNC press brake can make ensuring consistent bend angles in metal easy, while relying on hand tools makes consistency nearly impossible to give in a time fashion.

How Fast Can You Fulfill My Order?

One of the basic reasons that any manufacturer goes to a third party for the production of a part is that they're on a tight schedule and cannot make the part themselves without going behind schedule. This problem is especially critical when your company has a major product release coming up.

Keeping consumers waiting for their product can be incredibly harmful to sales in this modern era of near-instant gratification where consumers are used to a two-day home delivery timetable.

So, it is important to know how fast the manufacturer you're enlisting to make a custom part or component can fulfill your order and have the parts delivered to you. You may want to do some independent research and check with the manufacturer's previous clients to ask them how quickly their own orders arrived after the work order was finalized.

Finding the right manufacturer to help you get the production of your critical components is incredibly important to meeting your company's own obligations. Find out how Marlin Steel helped other companies meet their production goals by reading the case study at the link below:

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