E-Sourcing Forum » Those Elusive Engineers

Those Elusive Engineers

June 5th, 2007 at 06:30am David Bush - Iasta

Purchasing recently ran an article entitled Tech talk:A buyer’s guide to working with engineers that I believe might be of particular interest to our readers since procurement types and engineering types tend to be like oil and water in some organizations.

The fundamental problem was summed up in the first two paragraphs of the article. Purchasers have the bottom line as priority number one whereas from an engineer’s perspective, specifications are everything. Furthermore, engineers are typically evaluated by their managers on the efficacy of products they’ve developed - how well it performs, if it meets specifications, and if it is on schedule.

Anything that might impede getting the optimal product out on the engineer’s schedule causes frustration, especially if purchasers come in significantly later to the design process and make massive changes and engineers can get frustrated when they talk to purchasers, because purchasing folks don’t understand the technical tradeoffs that have been made. It may be that the purchaser can get another part for less, but there may be a sound technical reason for the part specified by the engineer and engineers often feel they can’t delve into a detailed technical explanation of their design choices because purchasers might not have the expertise to understand, especially when its not a purchaser’s job to be an engineer.

That’s why the article put forward the following three recommendations to help purchaser’s and engineers understand each others’ objectives.

Get Involved in Product Design Meetings Early
Early, regular collaborative meetings help both sides understand each others’ objectives. Since most of the product cost is locked in during the first few weeks, early purchasing involvement is critical.
Err on the Side of More Information
Engineers look for details, so providing more information, even if some of it is unnecessary, is better. This information can also help engineers understand how purchasing works.
Built Up Trust
Actively seeking engineers’ input on technical questions can be a big boost to building relationships.

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Entry Filed under: General, Supply Management Best Practices

3 Comments Add your own

1. Tony Poshek | June 5th, 2007 at 9:54 am

Excellent topic David. As someone who has also previously served as a sourcing practitioner for a large global corporation, I can certainly attest that having a strong relationship with your engineers is invaluable. An engineer can single-handedly either make or break many of the cost-saving sourcing initiatives you may dream up. They can also bring to light additional projects that you may not have thought of. Something as simple as setting up regular lunches with some of your engineering counter-parts can go a long way in building trust.
-Tony
2. Eric Strovink | June 5th, 2007 at 12:09 pm

I agree strongly with Tony, and I’d add that on the Engineering side (I’ve managed many an Engineering organization, both hardware and software) the best friend an engineer can have is a procurement professional working side by side and sitting in on early vendor meetings, before design-in.

It doesn’t take too much guidance to train engineers to think more deeply about procurement, and that can make an enormous difference in cost and procurement flexibility. And, procurement people also learn some engineering along the way — I’ve actually heard the following conversation in the hallway between a hardware engineer and a procurement guy: “Do we really need a UART here, or can we bit-bang using an I/O port, the way we did with the XYZ unit?”

The Bose Corporation in Framingham, MA (the “Wave Radio” people) is a good example of an organization that performs procurement-oriented reviews of engineers’ designs very early in the process. That’s one reason why Bose has managed to stay competitive and profitable despite the collapse of most of the other American radio and TV makers.
3. David Bush - Iasta | June 5th, 2007 at 3:05 pm

Here is another article that draws attention to this issue:

http://wardsautoworld.com/ar/auto_achieving_alignment/

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