Purchase to Thrive or Purchase to Survive?
When you purchase a machine, you marry your production process to that machine for the foreseeable future. Pause, think about that for a moment. We live in a highly competitive environment. There are numerous consumer considerations when purchasing. There are five consumer considerations that reign supreme
1. Quality
2. Innovation
3. Dependability
4. Availability
5. Price
The order consumers rank those considerations are the determining factor if they will purchase your product or your competitor’s product. Notice what happens if we change the order of these considerations.
1. Price
2. Availability
3. Quality
4. Dependability
5. Innovation
Or
1. Availability
2. Price
3. Innovation
4. Dependability
5. Quality
The amount of weight a consumer gives to each of these considerations and the order in which they are considered determines which product they will purchase.
Of course, you are also a consumer when your purchase machinery. The brand and model you purchase will be determined in the same way consumers choose the products you produce. The order and weight you place on these considerations determine if you are purchasing to “Survive” or purchasing to “Thrive”.
Two of these considerations rank higher with companies that just want to survive while the other three considerations rank higher with companies that want to thrive.
Survivors
1. Availability
2. Price
The order these two purchasing considerations are listed are not by accident.
Availability
Survivors often find themselves in desperation mode. Their machinery is often on its last leg or requiring expensive repairs that can’t be justified. I can’t think of a worse position to be in than a desperate one. Desperation forces people to make hurried decisions. Desperation forces people to settle. I’ve received more than one phone call from frantic customers asking, “What machine do you have in stock and how much is it?” This is most often a result of poor planning. Trying to squeeze every last minute out of a machine and failing to keep pace with the industry. These are the companies that run the risk of losing contracts to their competitors that have planned for the future. Do you have the luxury of being this type of consumer? Machines are tools, do not get emotionally attached to them. Your tools must be dependable, if they fail you won’t be able to produce a product of any kind. If you fail to plan ahead and are forced to purchase whatever is available you may find yourself purchasing a machine lacking in functions critical to your operation or you may even find yourself purchasing a machine with functions you will never use, all because you have put yourself into a position of desperation.
Price
I have worked for 40 years as a technician, 32 of those in the woodworking industry. Customers have often asked me for recommendations on machine purchases. I have had several conversations with customers that purchase based on price and those conversations often end the same way. Let me offer an example. One of my customers had a twenty year old edgebander that should have been replaced ten years prior to our conversation. The production manager asked what edgebander manufacturer I recommended. I was familiar with their operation and the product they ran through their current machine. Before recommending a manufacturer, I talked about what functions should be on the machine. This customer ran quite a bit of 3mm edgebanding at the time. I pointed out that no matter what manufacturer they ultimately purchased from, they should make certain they have corner rounding on their new machine. Immediately he asked, “How much extra will that cost?” I replied, “between fifteen and twenty thousand dollars.” I barely finished my sentence and he objected, “the owner will never pay that kind of money to have corner rounding.” I pointed out that they spent this much or more in additional labor on a yearly basis to hand round the corners of their panels. “It doesn’t matter, the owner won’t spend that kind of money”, he informed me. The owner didn’t spend any kind of money in the end. He limped on for a few more years satisfied to just glue the edges on and completely trim the panel by hand. When the machine would no longer even glue the edges on, a new edgebander was purchased that wasn’t designed to run for more than an hour or two a day. This is a company that purchases to survive. A year later the “survivor” died, and the doors are closed. It was really a slow and painful death over a decade in the making. They were losing contracts they used to win as other companies were able to produce better and for less. They lost key employees that had grown tired of making do with machines that constantly broke down and required hours of rework to make panels presentable. Failing machinery, waning employee morale, failure to deliver on time resulted in a once thriving business turning in to a failed business.
None of this is to say availability or price isn’t important, of course it is, but if these two items drive your purchases you purchase to survive, and survivors are constantly facing the threat of death.
Thrivers
Consumers that purchase to thrive put more weight on the following.
1. Quality
2. Innovation
3. Dependability
Quality
Have you ever looked at a machine or listened to it operate and get the impression that it was different than other machines performing the same function? You can immediately tell it’s built better, it’s higher quality. You don’t feel vibration in the frame that you notice in other machines, machine movements are smooth and effortless, not abrupt and jerky. Motors don’t bog down when they are working. The machine maintains adjustments producing consistent, high quality parts. If the machine you are purchasing is important to your operation, you should seek out quality. I have visited businesses and noticed expensive, high quality, trucks and cars in the parking lot, but walked into the facility to find run-down machinery. The owners valued personal items but not the tools used in the business. I have seen this scenario and the slow decline of businesses on many occasions. If you value you company, you want the best for it. If you value your employees, you treat them well. If you value your machinery, you purchase high quality with the intent of thriving.
Innovation
You’re ready to research and purchase that new piece of machinery. Do you really want a machine that fails to advance you to the next level of production? Machinery purchases are expensive. If you are a thriver, your new machine should take you to the next level or higher. One of Nutek Machinery’s lines is the Ott edgebander. Ott edgebanders have the only top driven glue roller in the industry and are perfect for running PUR glue. Once again, I think about questions customers have asked me. I have been asked if EVA glue can be run with the Ott. Of course, it can but I always ask, “Why would you do that?” EVA is several steps down from PUR when considering quality and durability. If you are a thriver you want to climb the rungs of the ladder, not hang out where you are at. Innovation makes your daily work easier. Innovation results in faster or no setup time. Innovation finds a better way to address needs and often results in a higher quality end product. Lead the way and seek out machine innovations that make you a thriver.
Dependability
How many times have you thought or said, “That machine is a boat anchor, it hasn’t run right in years!” The best conceived ideas and highest quality machines are only of value if they produce. Your goal should be to first find a machine that is dependable, one you aren’t constantly seeking support for. Regardless of promises made by machinery companies about how great their service or parts departments are, there are still only so many technicians to go around and the more machines they have in the market the thinner their technicians are stretched. Seek out machinery companies that have an excellent ratio of technicians to machines. Often the largest companies have so many machines in the field that their technician to machine is often an extremely poor ratio. The same is true of parts. A company can boast of having twice as many parts on their shelf as their rival machinery competition but if that same company has 10 times the number of machines in the field their ratio of parts to machines is actually much lower. You will know the service you can expect by how quickly you are able to get answers to your questions. You may also have history with multiple machinery suppliers and know which ones have been professional and responsive.
Tips
Do you stick with the same machinery dealer you have always used or investigate to see what the competition has to offer? Thrivers do their homework. I would suggest the following approach if you want to be a thriver.
1. Leave budget numbers out of the conversation. In fact, don’t set a hard budget number until you have determined what your needs are and what machines will meet those needs. Companies that start with a budget number or price may miss the true solution to their needs. It is important to first make a list of your “must haves” in a machine, followed up with a “nice to have” list. If you haven’t limited your budget at this point, you might be surprised to find there are jobs and processes, you can process in a machine you hadn’t considered. This happened with one of our most recent customers. We started off with Model A and after looking at other features available on other models they began to discuss what other jobs and processes they could run if they purchased model AA. They purchased model AA because the value was there. A much better return on investment and additional ways, they could provide their customers with better quality products. If the budget had been carved in granite, they would have purchased from another supplier entirely and missed the true solution to their needs.
2. Seek the knowledge of the sales representative you are talking with. If they bring up price, they are a sales guy. If they seek to understand your needs and offer up solutions, they are application specialists that will match you up with the proper machine they have to offer. I would much rather find out what I need first then learn I can't afford it rather then determine what I can afford buy it and find out it wasn't what I needed. One thing you can be certain of, if you give a budget number to a sales rep, they will find a machine for you that will cost what you want to spend. You should have no confidence in this scenario of being offered the proper solution to your production needs.
3. Create a spreadsheet and list each machine you have gathered information on. List critical machine specifications and features to compare. Listing the machines side by side will allow you to quickly compare your considerations and select the machine bested suited for your company in the present and for future growth.
Are you in the initial phase of an upcoming machine purchase or just interested in learning what innovative technology exists that will make you a thriver? Contact Nutek Machinery to learn more about the efficient, high quality machinery we offer. info@nutekmachinery.com (216) 904-0215
