This case study shows how Dragon Sourcing helped one of the clients procure aluminum frames and canopies from emerging economies at lower rates. Our client asked us to find reputable and potential suppliers for sourcing:
- Fabric marquee canopy
- Instant marquee aluminum frame.
Once we got the request, we conducted a demand analysis to understand the requirements of our customers in terms of the specifications, the production technology the suppliers had, the type of quality testing the suppliers performed on their products, any certifications, and others. When we gathered all this information from the client, we analyzed the supply market to identify potential suppliers who made these products.
After researching the suppliers, we identified 146 vendors, 78 from China, 47 from India, and 21 from Vietnam, who made these products. To cut down the list further, we conducted a prescreening telephonic interview to understand whether the suppliers were interested in selling their products to our client. We also checked whether they fulfilled all the points raised by our client.
After the pre-screening, we shortlisted 68 vendors who fulfilled all the criteria requested by the client. After we shortlisted the potential vendors, we sent them an RFI-RFQ (which was made after consulting our client). Only 11 suppliers responded to our RFI-RFQ; 7 were from China, and 2 were from India. We analyzed the RFI received from potential vendors on various parameters that include business information (20% weightage), production (30% weightage), quality management (30% weightage), social responsibility (10% weightage), certificates, documents, and pictures (10% weightage). We then asked the suppliers for samples of their products.
After analyzing their RFI responses and samples, we recommended the names of nine suppliers. 7 of these suppliers were from China and 2 from India. Once the project was completed, we submitted all our charts and research materials to our clients so they could decide on the right vendor(s) from whom they plan to procure materials.