Only last week I talked about the difficulty in identifying suppliers who are able to maintain the correct balance between high quality, competitive prices and efficient organization. I think it is right to add, however, that this situation applies both to the Italian suppliers and to the foreign suppliers with whom we are dealing.
And the greatest problem we are experiencing concerns delivery times.
Contrary then to what might some time ago have been an opinion shared by many – that Italians are disorganized and are often unable to honour the commitments assumed – today we find that
even the foreign suppliers that we are using are presenting the same problems: they are late in delivering goods. Have you experienced this too?
Most certainly the wave of recovery that is affecting the majority of Italian companies, inundating them with work, is also affecting foreign enterprises, consequently making it difficult for them to manage the emergency due to the abnormal workload.
The result is that those who before used foreign suppliers are now trying to replace them with Italian ones.
Let’s think about our case, for example. We are increasingly receiving requests for compatible components for gearboxes produced by German companies, precisely because our colleagues/competitors in Germany have delivery times of 8/10 months. Requests that obviously we cannot satisfy because it would make no sense (not now, at least) for us to start to produce mechanical and electromechanical components competing with those made by the German giants. It is well known, in fact, that MICROingranaggi focuses on market niches in which these giants have no interest in tapping into.
From what I understand, moreover, this is not just an impression that we have. More or less since the last edition of MECSPE, and therefore approximately since last March, I have noticed that many Italian companies are complaining about the delivery times of Swiss and German companies, enterprises, therefore, whose strong points are typically punctuality and unexceptionable organisation.
Where we Italians were perhaps more creative and better at inventing new products and solutions, the Swiss and the Germans (to give just one example) were more organised and therefore reliable. And often, precisely for these reasons, they “stole” market shares.
Do you think this is a temporary situation or might it be, all factors considered, a good opportunity for a revival for many Italian companies?
