Material Sourcing and Procurement

An essential part of any company involved in the turnkey production of electronic equipment is a co-ordinated sales and purchasing department. These are considered to be key functions within the company and a strong emphasis is placed on getting personnel to control these functions.

The purchasing department is in sole control of all aspects of existing customer material purchase from contract negotiation through to the expediting of overdue material. Part of the purchasing function is to advise on current material cost when quotations are generated to eliminate any price anomalies that may occur. As a large percentage of Infoteam EMS' work is done on a turnkey basis, substantial quantities of components are bought directly by the company. Many special pricing agreements and relationships have been developed with suppliers enabling us to provide excellent pricing and deliveries for our customers.

Recent developments have included implementation of an integrated MRP II system and expansion of the use of the Internet in material sourcing. The implementation of MRP on a modular basis has provided integration between Finance, Sales, Materials, Engineering and Production. The data flow between all functions is conducted in a ' live ' mode.

The sales departments function within the company is to keep in close contact with our existing and potential customers to co-ordinate quotations and purchase orders. Each customer is assigned a sales co-ordinator whose function it is to keep the customer informed of the current status of existing orders and to assist with any questions that may arise concerning these.

In addition to Sales & Purchasing personnel Infoteam EMS recognised a requirement for a dedicated materials specialist for potential and new customers. Our materials specialist will scrutinise all BOM's to guarantee that the best possible price is obtained with respect to material, and where possible, will suggest cheaper alternatives if requested.

This dedicated attention to BOM's has resulted in Infoteam EMS being extremely competitive when quoting potential business and has led to many new and very satisfied customers.