When purchasing equipment and selecting suppliers, should the principle of proximity be taken into consideration, and to what extent?
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When purchasing equipment and selecting suppliers, should the principle of proximity be taken into consideration, and to what extent? For example, if we need to purchase 10 units of a certain type of equipment, and we are in Guangzhou, while the best manufacturers of this equipment are located in the Harbin area. Do we really need to travel such a long distance just for those 10 units? Do we really need to establish business relationships over such a large distance? The distance is too great, and it will likely be inconvenient in the future. There are also additional costs associated with such long distances. Another issue is that we don’t know yet how many more units of this equipment we will need to purchase in the future
Today, equipment manufacturers operate in clusters; a particular region specializes in a certain series of products, which relatively increases the chances of choosing that region as the location for production. When choosing a device, quality and reputation come first; the principle of choosing the nearest one should be the least important factor.
It’s a matter of trade-offs; it depends on the perspective from which you look at the issue, and what those who make the decision think. If you are in a purchasing relationship, it’s more about price and payment terms. Whereas for maintenance purposes, what matters are quality, sales service, the supply cycle and versatility of spare parts. Also, there’s the issue of your company’s positioning: if your company considers itself to be the best in the world, then of course you’d use top-quality equipment; or maybe you only use first-tier domestic brands. Or perhaps your boss is just cheap and is satisfied with substandard equipment. Then find a second- or third-tier brand in China
Although the equipment belongs to the same model, its manufacturing quality and inspection standards can vary. The reason why it is necessary to assess the capabilities of the manufacturer when making purchases is to determine the quality of the equipment that will be used; simply making a few phone calls to the company isn’t enough.
10 units of what equipment? If a manufacturer is well-known for producing such equipment, it usually has service centers in many places across the country. It’s by no means a problem; our factory is also in Guangdong, and we have purchased quite a number of devices manufactured in Harbin as well.
There’s no need to consider distance. Reputable manufacturers have regional service centers across the country. Factories with poor quality go bankrupt in a few years… Being closer doesn’t help at all
When buying equipment, the most important thing is that it works well; therefore, practicality is the primary consideration, followed by cost. Is distance still a problem these days?
Quality is quite important; otherwise, it will be troublesome to seek after-sales service~