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Customer vs. Vendor Relations: Here is What We’re Going to Do

Two weeks ago, I discussed PCB customers who were not happy with their vendors’ performance and last week looked at things from the other side of the issue and why PCB fabricators have a hard time being good and productive suppliers. Both sides had a lot of complaints about the other side and not much good to say. This week, in the interest of seeing a problem and solving it, we are going to talk about what we should do about it.

Here are seven things that we must do to improve the PCB vendor vs. customer relationship to make it as productive and rewarding as possible:

1. Choose suppliers you trust: The only way to trust vendors is to know them personally. Get offline right now and get your top PCB supplier on the phone and talk to her.
2. Visit that supplier. Go and see the people who are making your boards. See what their facility looks like, see for yourself how difficult it is to build boards—your boards—and most importantly, talk to the people. Learn everything you can about their company and the way they work and ask them what you can do to make sure they have everything they need to build your boards correctly.
3. Create a co-company team. This is the most important advice I can give you. Vendors and customers need to create partnership teams where they openly discuss the projects they are working on today and the projects they will be working on in the future. Get all those NDAs signed in preparation for open and productive discussions about your products and how you can work together as a team toward a successful end.
4. Bring in key people: Make sure key people from each company are on these teams, including engineers, PCB designers, operations, and quality people.
5. Use fewer vendors: This takes time and effort on both sides, maybe a little more on the vendors’ side, and more effort than is being expended now. It is important to choose your vendors carefully; if you follow these guidelines you will need fewer vendors because you will be investing time and money into developing a vendor base of key board fabricators who will be able to handle all your needs. The PCB fabricator will be able to develop special and unique processes just for you. And with your cooperation they will become the supplier you have always wanted to work with.
6. Talk about the future: Once you have found the right PCB vendors and have created partnerships, you will have the comfort and trust in them to be able to share key information about your company and some of the products of the future you are going to build. By having the trusted PCB manufacturer as your partner, you will gain valuable insight into his perspective that will help you design the best and most economical PCBs possible. Your PCB partner will be able to advise you in laminate selections and design for manufacturability. This will save you literally thousands if not hundreds of thousands of dollars in the long run.
7. Fabricators, trust your customers: Get rid of that “we have met the enemy and it’s our customers mentality.” An effective and open partnership with your key customers will make you a much better fabricator in the end. Your customer will drive your technology to a higher level. Just by listening to what your customers need you will be able to implement technologies and services that will make you a much better supplier, not only to that particular customer, but other similar customers as well. You will be raising your overall level of excellence as a great PCB supplier

And one more, to reinforce the tenet of under promise and over deliver. Customers and vendors, treat each other with respect. Create an atmosphere of regard for one another. Face facts: You need each other to make this all work, so the sooner you understand and adopt this attitude, the sooner everything will get better.

Many of you (customers) are building products of the future—products that require PCB technology far beyond the normal technology of today. You are heading in a direction that is going to require PCB technology that we could only dream about just a few years ago. PCBs of this technological level cannot be bought inconspicuously online. They cannot be bought from a faceless unknown source. They can only be bought from people you know. People whose capabilities you understand and people who, in turn, completely understand your specific high-tech needs both today and in the future. So for heaven’s sake, start talking to each other!

It’s only common sense.