With today’s aggressive sourcing strategies creating an extremely competitive, high quality and low cost sourcing environment, we believe that businesses no longer compete; it becomes the supply chains that compete. Shift your thinking about how vendors and supply chains can affect everyday sourcing challenges. Consider seeking out a high-value, low-cost sourcing strategy when selecting a supplier.
Company A or Company B
Take for instance Company A, which offers vertically integrated 
services and capabilities resulting in a single-source relationship with its customer base. Now consider Company B, which is limited to certain services and capabilities and will need to outsource multiple operations to complete the component(s) requirements or assembly. Company B will gather competitive bids from its network of vendors, taking time, purchasing power, and human resources, along with profitable services and/or purchased components, to complete the product. This results in a profit item stack-up and lead-time stack-up and it becomes difficult to compete in today’s aggressive sourcing environment.
Company B will not be able to offer a competitive finished component price due to the profit item stack-up, nor will they be able to reduce the lead-time due to vendor capacity and other constraints. Plus, the customer will be subject to process and quality control variation.
This is not ideal, not recommended and not considered a solution to the customer’s sourcing initiatives.
Vertically Integrated Sourcing Strategies
Company A definitely wins the comparison when quoting and manufacturing a multi-process component, due to valuable factors considered in the purchasing stage of the pipeline. With vertically integrated strategies fully implemented and working seamlessly, Company A can offer a completed component with minimized lead-times and controlled processes, eliminating variation from one vendor to the next. This ultimately minimizes the liability and “blame-game” that can happen between two vendors when quality or capacity issues develop.
This solution is critical for the customer’s sourcing plan.
If you believe that Company A’s vertically integrated manufacturing plan is valuable and creates marketplace advantages for your products, contact Alexandria Industries. Alexandria Industries has, and continues to, plan and work aggressively toward offering customers proven strategies in Company A’s example above.
Alexandria Industries is not just an aluminum extrusion supplier; the company offers much more, including vertical and horizontal machining, 4 and 5-axis robotic machining, bending and stretch forming, additional fabrication processes, mechanical finishing, chemical finishing, painting and assembly. The company developed its vertical integration map over the past 50+ years by using capital investments, forward-thinking and proper planning to stay ahead of the curve and differentiate itself from other suppliers.
Alexandria Industries created a manufacturing flow that minimizes lead-times and creates high quality parts with low cost solutions. There are no profit item stack-ups, or lead-time stack-ups-work is simply done right, on time and cost competitively. This can be your high-value, low-cost sourcing strategy.