This supplier is making an extremely critical component on our device. It's also a really difficult component to make. The component is basically not designed for manufacturability so it currently has 20% yields. Our supplier has been complaining to us about this issue for at least a year, but we've been sort of ignoring them and telling them to march forward. Shame on us!
Last week the supplier finally gave us the ultimatum. When our materials manager put in an order for this component as usual, she got a nasty email from them saying that they will no longer supply this component. So she forwarded that whole email string to me and told me to take care of it.
Honestly, I wasn't happy to represent our company on this issue. I don't agree with mgmt's approach in the past. But no matter how I blame the problem's origin on them, it's in my hands to fix now.
Last week during our weekly Wednesday calls, the engineer I work with once again told me how difficult and unhappy they are with making this component. Trying to be the peacemaker, I told them that I totally understand their position and I will work with them to develop a new component to replace it. However, in the meantime they must supply this part to us. They cannot just pull the plug on us. At the end, they said they understand my position, too, and the conversation ended there.
This morning in our call they made a surprising recommendation. We usually receive this component in 12" lengths from them and then immediately cut it into 1.5" strips. Well this morning, the engineer asked me if we could receive this component in 1.5" lengths instead of 12" lengths. He says that it's much easier to keep the tolerance over shorter lengths than over longer lengths.
I was elated when I heard him say this! I knew that it means they will continue to supply this part to us after all! The double blessing is that it's also a elimination of a manufacturing step whenever we receive material already cut-to-length from a supplier. So this will make our production supervisor very happy as well! It's really a win-win solution.
So I really thank God. He really heard my prayers concerning this difficulty. All praises to His name!