Tech talk: A buyer's how-to guide to working with engineers
What engineers want buyers to know about their work, priorities, and concerns.
By Maria Varmazis -- Purchasing, 4/19/2007 2:00:00 AM
It's no secret that engineers and purchasers don't always see eye to eye. As more companies urge their procurement staff to team up with other departments—like engineering—to gain more cost-effective products, inevitably there's increased chance of conflicting wills between the two groups. The friction often comes from differing goals: Purchasers have the bottom line as priority number one, while it's sometimes the last thing on the mind of most engineers.
"From engineering's perspective, specifications are everything," says sales and applications engineer Tom Solon at Hollis, N.H.-based Kerk Motion Products. 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. Cost doesn't come in to the equation. 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.
One engineer at a large computer company tells Purchasing: "engineers can get frustrated when they talk to purchasers, because purchasing folks don't understand the technical tradeoffs that have been made. The purchasing person says they can get a part for less, but there may be a technical reason for the part the engineer specified. So there's a big disconnect."
Additionally, sometimes a buyer's suggested part change might make engineers wary of the decision, solely due to a lack of concrete data. Engineers emphasize the need for detailed information about any change in supplier or parts, concretely spelled out.
"It can be difficult to have a discussion about made-to-order goods vs. stocked goods unless the person making the request can discern if the supplier has the correct processes in place," says Solon. "It's useful for purchasing to know what they're procuring and some guidelines on what manufacturing process may be used."
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. And it's not the purchaser's job to be an engineer, after all. While engineers say buyers with engineering backgrounds can help, all buyers should ask questions, especially if they're engaging the engineering team in-depth and early on, says Paul Ainslie, director of advanced projects at Kokomo, Ind.-based Delphi Electronics & Safety. Technical discussions may be loaded with acronyms and jargon purchasers might not understand but shouldn't hesitate to ask about, ego aside.
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Reader reactions: “Being both an engineer and a supply chain professional I can relate with both sides—having worked as both supply chain manager and manufacturing operations manager also helps! Some quick comments: 1. I agree on buyers getting involved early in any projects, and sometimes even earlier than engineering/R&D. Buyers should be there when marketing is first developing the idea of a new product or process, to avoid costly mistakes such as designing with parts of materials that need to be single-sourced, custom-made, or are scarce in the marketplace. Buyers can also help to identify which components of the product or process can be obtained “off the shelf”— which will help in terms of scalability, maintainability and modular design— and which ones will be custom-made (requiring significant engineering effort). I have found that structured approaches such as the use of the House of Quality (also known as Quality Function Deployment) tools are very useful in getting people from different backgrounds to have a common understanding and agreement on what needs to be done. 2. Not sure if I agree on “err on the side of more information.” While some engineers do like to have all the details, I don't think all of us are cut with the same shape. Some engineers like the “to-the-point-show-me-the-money” approach. Details and information should be shaped for the audience. Now having the right data is critical, as mentioned earlier in the article: clear specs, lead-times, costs, access to the technical/engineering teams of the suppliers. That will keep most engineers happy. 3. Buyers should make an effort to learn and understand the technical part of the company they are working for. Regardless of your background, understanding the basic technical aspects of your industry will give you a clear advantage, not only in talking with your technical teams and internal customers, but also on the negotiation table with your suppliers. If you are servicing a chemical process industry, go and dust-off your college chemistry books, if you are servicing a financial industry, get a quick finance-for-non-financial people course. Bottom line, there is no excuse for a buyer not understanding the technical issues of the company he/she services.” — Roy Calderón, Latin America sourcing manager at H.B. Fuller |
There's no quick and easy fix to getting purchasers and engineers to understand each others' objectives, but there are a few key long-term tactics for purchasers to encourage changes with their engineers.
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Get involved in product design meetings earlier, whatever it takes. Collaborative meetings between purchasers and engineers are a huge help in understanding each others' objectives, but many engineers feel that purchasers come in to the design process far too late. What this means for engineers is all the work they put into a design changes drastically without as much consideration for how that will affect the efficacy of the design itself. Buyers should work with engineering managers to make sure they're invited into design meetings early. After all, as much as 90% of a product's costs are fixed within the first few weeks of a design.
Another reason to step in sooner is to avoid maverick spend. If an engineer feels purchasing is dragging its feet in finding a supplier for a specific part to a new product, that engineer might try to circumvent purchasing altogether and source the part to a supplier, with little consideration about whether or not this supplier is the most cost-effective or even approved. If that part is only made by that one non-approved vendor, either purchasing is stuck or the engineers have to go back and redo the design. -
Err on the side of more information. Everyone needs the most complete picture to make an informed decision and engineers are no exception. Yet several engineers recounted situations where purchasers had a suggestion for a product or supplier substitution without providing enough information to the engineer.
Solon suggests that procurement present as much information as possible to engineers, even if some of that information might seem extraneous. "Engineers look for details—often those details are best conveyed visually through a drawing or regulation, something they can quantitatively say yes or no to," says Solon. "There can't be a grey area, if you have a grey area that is where problems come in."
It can also help to explain how your procurement department works. "Engineers don't know how data flows in purchasing," says Ainslie. Explaining procurement roles helps engineers more proactively involve procurement. -
Build up trust. To some degree, the way procurement approaches engineering can alleviate some of engineers' suspicions. Actively seeking engineers' input on technical questions can be a big boost to relationships. But it's a two-way street, as engineers need to recognize when selecting a supplier that procurement needs to be involved because of supply chain considerations, says the engineer at a computer manufacturer. He adds that the worst thing a buyer can do if engineering asks for help in supplier selection is refuse to help—it's much more effective to talk it out.
Visits to engineers at suppliers are a big boost to engineering-procurement relationships, even though buyers are notoriously short on time. "Purchasers don't have the time to get as close to suppliers as they'd like, but they should be steadfast in the belief that you need to build that relationship," says Solon.
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