6 Things You Shouldn't Assume When It Comes to Procuring Building Materials for Industrial Operations

Posted on: 2 March 2022

The success and profitability of your industrial venture largely depends on how well you procure building supplies. When it comes to optimizing your building material procurement procedures, there are a few things you shouldn't assume.

The following are six things you shouldn't assume when it comes to procuring building materials for industrial operations. 

Your current building material supplier is offering you the best prices.

If you want to be sure that you're buying from the supplier who offers the best prices, then you need to research and get quotes. You shouldn't make any assumptions about your current supplier until you've put the effort into researching the subject. 

There aren't a lot of suppliers out there to choose from.

If you feel like there aren't a lot of options in terms of suppliers, perhaps you're just not looking hard enough. Look online and ask around among professional contacts in your industry. Perhaps there are some quality suppliers you could be considering but are overlooking. 

You have to choose the supplier that is located closest to you.

Some managers who handle building material procurement for their company assume that they should buy from the supplier that is geographically the closest.

While shipping costs tend to be lower with suppliers who are located close by, this is not always the case. Some building material suppliers may offer more competitive shipping costs despite being located farther away because of their partnerships with shippers and the resulting discounts they enjoy. 

Less expensive building materials will always be of inferior quality.

While cheaper does often mean lower quality, this is not always true. Before you assume that less expensive building materials are of a lower quality, make sure you're doing your research and really verifying this assumption with hard facts. 

It's always best to buy from the supplier offering the lowest material prices.

You should evaluate more than just the costs for materials. You should also evaluate numerous others factors including shipment speed, shipping costs, and building material quality. 

You should buy different materials from different suppliers.

You might have a practice of buying different materials from different suppliers depending on price and availability. While this might be the best strategy, you should make sure that suppliers you're buying from don't offer advantages to buying all of your supplies from them like bulk discounts or loyalty discounts.

Many suppliers will give you considerable discounts if you buy larger quantities of materials from them, so look into this possibility. 

Share