To achieve long-term success, any company that makes a product – whether it’s a computer, an office building, a washing machine, or a jet aircraft – must make that product with the highest possible quality at the lowest possible cost. That means buying raw materials and components at the lowest price to help keep overall manufacturing costs low.
It’s interesting to note that the one common component across all industries, products, and applications are fasteners. Nuts, bolts, screws, straps, latches, and a myriad of other fasteners are vital for manufacturing components, assemblies, and systems into final products. Of course, some products are more complex, sophisticated, and mission-critical than others and have highly specific requirements that must be met to achieve the highest quality, reliability, and dependability necessary.
Unfortunately, in many cases, buying decisions are made by a wide range of purchasing agents, engineers, and procurement personnel who can be lured into purchasing fasteners strictly on price. But what if your assembly or building has certain critical load requirements and your low-cost fasteners aren’t up to the task? The increased risk of failure could cost you dearly.
There are several potential issues that can arise due to low-quality fasteners, starting with the manufacturing process and running right through to end user dissatisfaction and even product failure and recall.
Low-quality fasteners are typically manufactured to a “just good enough” standard. Tolerances are not tight, alloy quality can be spotty and finish work shoddy, all resulting in difficult installation, lack of durability, and poor strength. And that means longer manufacturing times, higher reject rates, and overall greater production cost. So much for saving money with low-cost fasteners.
But that’s not all. Even if your products make it out the door, there’s a much greater chance that you’ve manufactured a defective product that will fail under use, resulting in a high return rate and unhappy customers who will go elsewhere for their products. Can you afford that?
Time and again, it’s been proven that the most cost-efficient way to buy fasteners is to work with a reputable, experienced, and well-stocked fastener supply house such as Electronic Fasteners. Our comprehensive inventory, experience, and encyclopedic knowledge of consumer, commercial, and industrial fasteners of all types means we can provide you with the right fastener for your project or product at the right price.