The first question you should ask yourself is whether you are looking for a long-term partner or shopping at the lowest price.
The first question you should ask yourself is whether you are looking for a long-term partner or shopping at the lowest price.
If you are looking for a long-term partner, there are five criteria to evaluate a chemical manufacturer:
1) Product professional / technical support: water treatment professionals are amazing talents. We have been in this industry since the 1980s, but we have been shocked by the professional level of these experts. However, there is a difference between the R & D chemists responsible for product formulation and commercialization and service representatives who have applied chemical products in the field for more than 20 years. When evaluating a chemical manufacturer, make sure they have experience in formulation and field application. Most importantly, if you have a technical problem, you want to be able to get them quickly. Here are some questions or areas to be aware of when assessing whether your company has the technical support you need.
2) Values and customer service: do their values match yours? When things go well, it's easy to make all chemical manufacturers look the same. Everyone has a slogan: "our customers first", but we believe that actions speak louder than words. As a leader in customer service, zingerman (bakeries and other food service companies) points out that good service starts at the top and every employee "makes an extra effort to do things that customers don't even ask for.". When you look for a long-term partner to your employees, you should be looking for a partner at the management level. Can they share their life stories, what values they post on their websites, or are they just talking? We often find it not difficult to distinguish between the talker and the doer.
3) Quality and safety should be the top priority in the chemical world. We are shocked by the neglect of these important standards by some chemical manufacturers. Of course, it takes time, money and resources to commit to a quality plan, but the risks associated with poor quality management should never be ignored. If you can visit the facilities of water treatment chemicals manufacturers, you can have a good sense of their quality and safety methods. Here are some suggestions that you can review during the visit or ask questions by phone:
4) Cost. Over the past 40 years, we've seen more competition, more production capacity, and a more informed buyer. While this has placed significant pressure on the commodity products described below, it has also had an impact on the specialty chemical industry. When assessing costs, it is important to consider all costs, not just USD / GBP. Here are three key costs to consider
5) Supply chain: we live in an age when we can order things from Amazon in the morning and we won't be surprised if it's on our doorstep when we get home. Assessing a company's ability to meet your supply chain expectations should never be overlooked.
Delivery time - we've placed an order with the chemical manufacturer, only to find it takes 12 weeks to receive our product. If you can plan such a long distance ahead of time, we praise you. But the reality is, we often see that the delivery period required by the company is getting shorter and shorter. If the company has a Lean culture, they should be good partners here.
Personal tagging capability - do you want private label material? If so, you'd better ask first.
Location is crucial in the lowest cost consideration, but it still plays a role. Does the company have a localized hybrid capability or a localized warehouse to reduce costs and shorten the delivery time of the supply chain? If you are required to ship 5000 gallons of water from Atlanta to California in bulk, you will face a huge shipping bill, so be sure to consider this.
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