SNECI supports a French manufacturer of public works equipment in its international sourcing

December 13, 2022

Thanks to our 70 years of existence, our 450 experts throughout the world and our 10 subsidiaries, our agile and qualitative local approach allows us to offer our customers efficient international sourcing solutions.

To this end, one of our customers, a French leader in the construction of public works equipment, asked us to help them find new international suppliers who would meet their qualitative and quantitative requirements while maintaining the cost and time aspect.

We therefore provided a team of experts to meet its needs.

Context and presentation of the client :

In a context of development of its digital section, the French leader in the construction of public works machines, lifting machines for people and loads called on SNECI to identify, qualify and control suppliers allowing them to produce their own touch screens to equip their public works machines and/or lifting machines.

In addition to the technical expertise on the specificities of the suppliers and components for the production of touch screens, our experts identified the best suppliers in terms of costs, delays, quality and safety.

Our client, the French leader in public works equipment, people and load lifting machines, designs, manufactures and markets a wide range of aerial work platforms and other public works equipment. The group is established in 6 countries and is looking to improve its range of vehicles in the short and medium term.

Our customer’s need:

Our client wanted to find “touch screens” for its various machines, aerial work platforms and vehicles.

This manufacturer has a project on two different types of screens:

A large screen for 7 to 10.000 units per year.
A smaller screen for about 15.000 units per year.

Our mission in details :

As a sourcing expert, SNECI has developed a robust multi-step sourcing process that was used for this mission.

Step 1: Sourcing & RFI process:

The identification of suppliers took into account the “quick win” objective with the possibility of finding suppliers with the ability to provide “off-the-shelf” parts (at the request of our customer) even if it required our customer to adapt the part.

The first step took place in several stages:

Preparation meeting: allows the definition with the customer of the supplier selection criteria.
Request For Information: consolidation of RFI feedback & presentation of our recommendations with SWOT analysis of potential suppliers

RFI is generally conducted with our own form, based on information provided by the customer or requested by ourselves to the customer.

We help suppliers to understand the RFI content, the way of answering, analyze the answers and discuss them with the suppliers.

We sum up the answers in a chart.

Deliverable: consolidation of RFI answers & presentation of recommendations for the pre-selection Big list)

Duration of this step: 1 month

Step 2: Confidentiality Agreement and Request For Quotation (RFQ)

Once the supplier was chosen by our client, we sent a confidentiality agreement to the supplier in order to be able to communicate technical documents on the part to be produced, the technical and commercial specificities.

NDA process: Send NDAs to the suppliers to be ready to exchange technical documentation

Our NDA form can be adapted to the customer’s need prior to start the process if requested.

RFQ process: Send RFQ package to the suppliers and assist them in answering the RFQ while respecting the devliverables and the client’s expectations.

Deliverable: consolidation of NDA & RFQ answers. Presentation of our recommendations for the preselection (short list), with competitive analysis of the suppliers based on TCO (Total Costs of Ownership)

As the supplier may have complementary questions, SNECI remains the privileged interface between the supplier and our customer.

Duration of this stage: 10 weeks

Step 3: Evaluation of suppliers

At this stage we send our experts to evaluate certain criteria previously established concerning quality, costs anddelays.

We use our I.S.A© reference system, our 360° audit tool that can be customized to your needs!

Our I.S.A© tool allows us to design supplier audits based on our clients’ requests. Our assessment tool covers the different aspects of a company and is based on SNECI’s experience in the industry as well as on our own assessment methodologies allowing us to evaluate 6 industrial improvement areas

Research and Development: R&D resources, technology watch, process control and validation, process development, etc.
Sustainable development: environmental management system and future plan, carbon footprint, downtime risk, supplier development, etc.
Corporate social responsibility: employee relations, human rights, business ethics, corruption, etc.
Supply chain management: capacity, production planning, receiving, packaging, shipping, …
Quality & Production: FMEA, control plan, workstations, …
Financial analysis: profitability, leverage analysis, working capital, …

I.S.A© is a transversal and customizable tool that covers all the fields necessary for the complete evaluation of a manufacturing organization, where each criterion is analyzed in detail.

Duration of this step: 2.5 days / assessments

Step 4: Parts and Process Development – Coaching to Production Start-up (SOP)

Analysis of all required quality documentation sent by the supplier
Support for the improvement of the quality documentation
Meetings with the customer in the factories to submit all quality documentation, including initial samples
Follow-up on EMS validation at the customer’s plant
Follow-up on confirmation of process qualification at the factory.

Results :

We were able to identify several potential suppliers with high potential among a list of 30 new potential candidates.

Negotiations are underway with 2 suppliers to satisfy our client’s request, all in less than 6 months.

Our client did not have to bear the costs of travel, resources and the complexity of a supplier in another language without forgetting the technical aspect of checking the suppliers in terms of specifications and compliance with its requirements: costs, delivery, quality, safety.

SNECI supporting manufacturers all around the world :

Thanks to our presence in the four corners of the world and more than 450 technical experts within the SNECI Group, we are able to provide tailor-made, responsive, local and agile support, thus improving our customers’ industrial performance.

Our expertise in Sourcing & Audit includes :

Sourcing of suppliers & Management of tenders (RFI, RFQ)
Supplier evaluations and audits with follow-up planning and support
Preparation to audits and realization of internal audits for certification according to industry standards (ISO 9001, IATF 16949, VDA 6.3, OHSAS 18001, ISO 26262, those of your customers (for example, the QIP standard of Stellantis, which includes NSA “New Supplier Assessment”, …) to enter their panel of suppliers without forgetting I. S.A©, the audit framework developed by SNECI, which is 100% transversal and customizable, allowing the evaluation of production, R&D, purchasing & logistics, sustainable development (CSR, carbon footprint) and financial criteria of any company.
After each assessment, SNECI provides action plans to ensure sustainable improvements.
Quality resident on site to ensure product compliance.
Support in managing customer-supplier relations in crisis situations.

Our advantages are multiple :

10 subsidiaries for a local & agile approach without the language barrier and regulatory or legal constraints
Costing and local integration tools
Long experience of local integration in emerging countries
Proven expertise with experienced teams, robust and proven processes and methodologies (Monozukuri, Poka Yoke, PDCA…)
Mastery of ISO standards requirements (SNECI is ISO 9001 & Silver ECOVADIS certified)
STELLANTIS recommendation: agreement since 2015 to audit (NSA “New Supplier Assessment”) and upgrade their suppliers according to the QIP standard
More than 1,500 audits carried out, thus 70 NSAs each year
Knowledge of customers’ quality requirements
Team close to the customers’ sites worldwide thanks to 450 employees in 45 countries

You will have understood that, with 70 years of existence, SNECI supports both manufacturers and suppliers by giving them the means to achieve operational excellence.

Our expertise allows us to offer solutions for supplier sourcing, audits, management of complex industrial projects (dismantling, transfer, etc.), training and coaching, sorting and reworking, not to mention purchasing and logistics.

If you too would like to benefit from SNECI’s support in improving industrial performance, do not hesitate to contact us via our website.