How to Avoid Supply Chain Issues by Sourcing American Made Water Filter Products
Dave runs a company in the U.S. that is a distributor of many products including water filters. A lot of these products come from overseas, but Dave has had many issues recently meeting his customer demand as a result of supply chain delays. One of the best ways for Dave or anyone who runs a business to avoid running low on inventory due to supply chain problems is to source American-made products. If you become a Rusco distributor, you’ll be doing just that!
When it comes to getting products from overseas, there are several issues that can arise preventing your business from getting your shipments in both a timely and even cost-effective fashion. You may think you can save a lot of money by sourcing products from certain countries or regions overseas, but you can certainly run into many problems that may not always make the per-unit cost savings worth it. Stord, which is a supply chain management company, has some common supply chain issues listed on its website, stord.com.
One of the biggest problems that you’re likely to run into when sourcing products from across the ocean are sudden shortages. Regardless of the industry, every business needs an ample number of workers to keep everything flowing as smoothly as possible. When lots of people get sick at one time, like what we’ve seen with Covid over the last few years, or large numbers of layoffs happen, the required workers needed to keep everything running as intended just aren’t available. When this issue happens within the transportation industry, that’s when you really start to notice supply chain delays.
If there aren’t enough truck drivers available, it’s going to take a lot longer to get products from the source to warehouses or ports. If there aren’t enough warehouse workers, it’s going to take a while to unload and load up trucks. If there aren’t enough workers at the ports, it’s going to take longer than it should to load and unload the boats. All of this leads to you not getting your shipments until weeks and in some cases even months later than what you were originally expecting, and this is because of a lack of workers in the transportation industry only. Workforce shortages at factories making the goods will most likely add to the delays.
Another problem that has really come to the forefront over the last decade or so deals with e-commerce growth. Obviously, more and more people have been purchasing products online in recent years, and this even extends to some countries outside of the U.S., including Brazil, Spain and Japan. With a more convenient way out there to purchase, where it literally just takes the click of a button, the demand for everything has just been increasing. If manufacturers haven’t made the proper adjustments to meet these higher demands for goods, there won’t be enough products to go around, at least not in a timely fashion, thus leading to an increase in lead times for those products. The other issue related to this increased demand for products due to e-commerce is that more shipping resources need to be exhausted on a regular basis. The more goods being sold means the more transportation services that will need to be utilized and this naturally means that the amount of time it takes anyone good to get from point A to point B will take longer unless massive growth happens within the transportation industry as well.
A third point that needs to be considered when bringing in goods from overseas, isn’t really a supply chain issue per se, but it deals with costs. The further products need to travel, and especially when you need to bring something across the ocean, the more you’ll pay for shipping. Along with that though, when shipping in items from a number of countries, you’ll be paying tariff costs. The percentage you pay will depend on the type of good that you’re importing, but even if the percentage is low, a tariff is something you can avoid entirely by sourcing products within the U.S.
Sourcing products in the U.S. doesn’t mean you’ll be immune to every supply chain issue all the time, but the likelihood of facing these problems decreases quite a bit. If nothing else, the amount of time it takes you to get your shipments can be decreased by weeks if not months. If you’re a distributor of water filters or water filtration-related products, choosing Rusco to be your main supplier can make things very convenient for your business for a number of reasons.
One of the top reasons to choose Rusco is that we manufacture our products locally with high quality products. By actually being a U.S. manufacturer, we’re able to get the majority of small orders out on the same day and large orders out within a week. Once items do ship from our Florida warehouse, they’re typically able to get to even the furthest locations in the U.S. within five days. In order to make things more convenient for our customers out west though, we do warehouse-select products at a location in Oregon.
Along with being able to offer much quicker shipping times as opposed to international manufacturers and suppliers, Rusco can also offer convenience through our online customer portal. The portal is a way to submit orders, offering an alternative option to the now-traditional method of sending them through email. The customer portal has all of the items we sell listed and will show your company’s unique pricing. Once selecting the items you’d like to order and after submitting that order, you’ll get a confirmation immediately for that order. Rusco’s customer portal also allows you to easily view your purchase history as well as view any open invoices.
Another reason why choosing Rusco can offer convenience over going with an international supplier deals with the customer service. Not only can the language barrier lead to problems when purchasing internationally, but the time difference can cause delays in getting answers back, and in some cases, it can take a full day to get any sort of information from your international vendor. At Rusco, we pride ourselves on our customer service. If you give us a call anytime between 8 am and 5 pm Monday through Friday, you’ll get to talk to a live customer service representative who can help you with any questions relating to orders or our products.
If you’ve been dealing with an international supplier for your water filtration products and have been getting frustrated with any of the common supply chain issues, give Rusco a call. We’d be glad to send you a distributor packet and get you signed up as a Rusco product supplier. Call 1-800-345-1033 where, once again, you’ll be able to speak to a live customer service representative who can answer any of your questions.
Source Notes: Information in this article relating to common supply chain issues came from stord.com.
