Purchasing philosophy
Our purchasing philosophy is quite simple: We only work with the best!
You're with us from the start
This is our approach towards a win-win relationship.
You will be involved right from the start of a new R&D project. The objective of this "simultaneous engineering" is to prevent duplicating work and to avoid wasting valuable engineering capacity. You will be asked to bring your know-how and take on specific assignments. This will shorten our R&D times and significantly reduce development and material costs. We reward successful collaboration with long-term, single-sourcing contracts.
It is our goal to identify strategic suppliers for each family of parts. Besides pricing, the level of innovation, quality and logistics play a pivotal role in the assessment process. Professionalism and financial viability are also very important.
We are active in a market that is subject to intense cost pressures. Given this fact, there are constant challenges to remain competitive in the global market. We would expect that you also adapt to this situation.
In order to determine if W&H is comfortable with your ability to achieve cost targets set by the markets, you will need to disclose your pricing structure to us.Existing products will be optimized in interdisciplinary value engineering teams made up of employees from your company and W&H. It is our hope to eliminate annual price discussions in favor of an open and on-going dialog.
We are not interested in questioning your profit margins, but rather in identifying and eliminating cost-creating factors on both sides. Requirements for this are the readiness and ability to maintain open communication.
Our customers have a right to expect high quality
After all, this is the reason they bought W&H machinery.
You will need to use a current and efficient system for quality assurance. Your quality assurance philosophy should be based on a "zero defect strategy" and on the continuous improvement of cost, quality, lead time and service.
Our quality assurance agreement describes our requirements regarding quality management. This agreement is necessary for a long-term partnership. For us, quality does not end with a shipment received on spec, but rather encompasses our entire collaboration. This extends specifically to W&H global service support, which over the past few years has developed into a significant competitive advantage. Our customers rely on our ability to respond 24x7x365 and expect to have parts and service personnel on location in emergency situations.
As a supplier, you are responsible to W&H for the quality of your products and services. Defects must be avoided, deviations from specifications recog-nized immediately, and causes for defects eliminated quickly and permanently. This is to be performed in accordance with procedures established by your company, which must be carefully monitored and documented. To avoid duplication of work, we will forego inspection of incoming goods. This will reduce cost and processing times. As customer expectations regarding warranty periods and coverage are constantly increasing, these issues must be taken into account in your warranty agreements, which should also clearly state the responsibility of any incurred follow-up costs.