Recently, Dragon sourcing helped one of our customers to find manufacturers for chemicals, tanks, and skids in Mexico. To do this systematically, Dragon sourcing first conducted a demand analysis which helped us understand what kind of products our customer’s requirements were (volume, quality, technology, production, specs, et cetera). Once we had a clear idea of what was required, we started looking for the best supplier for these products in Mexico. Once we had shortlisted some reputable suppliers, we conducted our telephone prescreening to prune the list of suppliers further. Once we had a short list of suppliers ready, we developed an RFI-RFQ taking into account the profile capabilities of the suppliers and asked them for quotations. The RFI-RFQ was translated into relevant languages and posted to the shortlisted suppliers to ensure maximum participation. To maximize participation, we followed it up with phone calls. The entire process took us three weeks, from demand analysis to sending RFI-RFQ.
The chemicals we were trying to procure for our customers included ferric chloride, sodium hydroxide, sodium hypochlorite, hydrochloric acid, Antiscalant, SBS, NaCl, oxalic acid, and calcium carbonate. For the chemicals, we identified ten suppliers, and for the tanks and skids, we identified four and three manufacturers, respectively. Once we received responses from the suppliers for our RFI-RFQ, we analyzed it threadbare. We compared the competitors in terms of quality, manufacturing capacity, quoted price, and other parameters. The suppliers that offered the best deal for the lowest price were recommended to our customer for taking the final decision.