It's been my experience that there's existed a gap between the Supplier of manufactured goods & the Customer in providing that orders placed with a critical timeline are successfully met. With in-house manufacturing often taking precedence, the overwhelmed Manufacturing & Quality Engineering groups may not have the ability to allocate the necessary time to support the Supplier initiatives. This activity includes that of addressing questions regarding design for manufacture, qualifying or validation activities, and communicating measurement techniques as needed.

The Supply Chain Liaison, with the indispensable background and expertise in Manufacturing, Quality, and Purchasing, will not only facilitate the manufacturing process through interactions with the Supplier & Customer new project teams, but also report back to the Customer management team on the progress being made against the timeline. This role will not only pay dividends in assuring the lines of communication are wide open with respect to verification & validation activities, but also that of sustaining efforts. These accomplishments will ensure that once the manufactured costs have been quantified that additional price saving initiatives will further reduce the costs of manufacture.

This leads to a satisfied Supplier and Customer, in establishing a long term relationship based on a positive financial bottom line and increased profit margin with the manufactured product.