The Art of Buying New Equipment
If you’ve ever been in the position of recommending an equipment purchase for your company, you know it’s about more than just puddle control and heat affected zones. Speaking in welding terms will make about as much sense to a Chief Financial Officer as balance sheets and budgeting terms will to the average welder.
Equipment requests are about putting the recommendation in terms that make sense from a business management perspective: return on investment, payback period, inventory control, warranty costs and customer satisfaction rates.
What has been your experience in addressing the issue of equipment purchases with management? Has your company encouraged you to take a more active role in its profitability and bottom line performance? How would it respond to your efforts to be more involved in its financial viability?
If you’re a member of management at your company, what has been your experience in considering new purchases? Do you feel your employees are thinking in terms beyond a welding machine’s ease-of-use and performance? Do they understand the reasons why an equipment purchase would or would not be approved? Please share your thoughts by posting a comment below.
To read more about making a strong case for new equipment, read “Negotiating the Jungle of Equipment Acquisition” on the Miller Industrial Results Web site.
Average (Not Rated)
June 18th, 2007 at 12:02 am
How is much? SRH-444 ?
June 21st, 2007 at 4:08 pm
if companys looked at the balance sheet and the investment of welding equipment the return of funds are huge therefore I
June 24th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
Bonjour,
Est-ce que vous avez de la documentation en français ?
Merci
Serge Campbell
3245 Principale
St-Zotique, J0P 1Z0
Québec, Canada
July 24th, 2007 at 2:35 pm
as with anything
there is two differeing thoughts happening.
The CFO with the budget
The welder with the technical side.
Of course since the welder is the one requesting the welding equipment. It is up to the welder then to learn the “CFO jargon” that way he can communicate effectively.
Welding equipment is not like computers that you need more power with the next iteration. As a matter of fact with the new inverter based welding equipment, quite the opposite is true. The new equipment has nice features but a nicety is not a necessity. It is up to the welder to basically throw a sales pitch as to why the new welder is a good INVESTMENT to the company.
Allows for more time spnt welding and less time with setup and reconfiguration, less energy consumption (A BIG PLUS when tallied through out the lifetime of the welding equipment), more BILLABLE time (higher duty cycles means the welder is welding and not waiting for cool down, also diminishes the prep work with especially with aluminum in benig able to “clean” more than ever before) etc. Other advantages for making money should also be put into the sales pitch.