Procurement

Procuring or Producing the Right Components With the Correct Timing

Getting the right materials in on time - and keeping track of them - is a necessity. In order to achieve this, we work with high quality vendors, specify the product and other requirements carefully, and keep track of and expedite deliveries.

Selecting the Right Vendors
Our ability to deliver and keep materials in stock for our customers is based on strong vendor relationships combined with our processes and systems

Our materials and component suppliers are subject to a vendor qualification program. After qualifying as a vendor, the company is added to our Approved Vendor List (AVL). The performance of each vendor is observed and documented, and vendors who do not perform up to standard are put on probation and may be purged from the AVL. Our MRP system allows us to monitor the vendor's performance in both quality and delivery.

ALOM vendors are judged on the following criteria:

Ability to deliver products which meet or exceed specs and industry standards for a particular product
Ability to deliver on time in the desired quantity
Ability to deliver at a competitive price
Location
Responsiveness and flexibility
Capacity relative to maximum requirements
Number of problems/complaints, how serious the problems were, and how they were resolved

We also work with customer-specified vendors, coordinating purchases and specifications with engineering, purchasing, and domestic or overseas vendors.

Product Specs
Based on customer supplied information, we help spec each component out to ensure that the final product is as desired by the customer.

Special attention is paid to printing and packaging and media duplication specifications.

Internal Procurement
Certain parts are produced in-house, such as digital print. All parts are subjected to the same quality scrutiny, and internal vendors are subjected to same requirements to meet lead time and other customer specifications.

Lead Times
Vendors are required to provide normal lead times for the products supplied. This allows us to build project plans for each product, and to utilize the MRP system's tickler feature. This ensures that we always have the components on-hand to build as forecasted.