The industrial product supply market is a unique one, featuring varied players with vastly differing goals – creating a fundamentally flawed supply chain which isn’t delivering what today’s engineering customer really needs. But at MSC we can, find out how…  

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) are focused on selling their own products, while their technical offering is generally limited to their current product portfolio. This means they cannot provide advice or expertise beyond that – and any advice they do provide will almost always recommend their own solutions. 

There are some vendors and distributors who look primarily at the margin they will make on a particular product, rather than whether that product really meets your needs. 
 
These suppliers often lack in-house engineering capability – and are content to keep selling what they have always sold; a completely transactional approach which adds little value for the customer. 
 
Some smaller or local vendors are also limited in their product range, with exclusive or semi-exclusive arrangements meaning they may not always stock the best product for a particular customer application. 
 
Recommendations and relationships are often governed by what suits the supplier best, with little or no alignment of supplier offerings to what customers really need. 
All these factors mean engineering customers have low expectations about what a supply partner can – and should – offer. 

This challenge isn’t helped by a silo-based approach in some engineering businesses where purchasing and engineering departments are not aligned in their thinking. Purchasing teams are often focused on cost price while engineers – whether through lack of time or information – may be buying the same products they have always bought out of loyalty or because they enjoy dealing with a particular supplier.  
 
This means that a customer’s business may not be getting the best solution for their immediate needs – and, even worse, failing to act to meet longer-term engineering challenges.  

But at MSC, we know there is a better way. We want to ensure that we stock the right product for you, which is why we have a range of over 120,000 products.  
We take the time to understand every individual customer’s needs – then we recommend the most appropriate solution for that problem. 
 
As an independent distributor, we’re not aligned to any single OEM and so will provide unbiased advice – meaning you have the right product for the job, now and in the future.