Are frame­work con­tracts for
rub­ber and plas­tics worthwhile?

Apart from the explic­it advan­tages of a frame­work con­tract, long-term coop­er­a­tion with rub­ber and plas­tics sup­pli­ers has some pos­i­tive effects, which are espe­cial­ly notice­able on a social level.

For exam­ple, the con­sul­ta­tion between cus­tomer and sup­pli­er is faster and eas­i­er if there is already a long-stand­ing rela­tion­ship of trust. If the peo­ple respon­si­ble on both sides know each oth­er per­son­al­ly, they can sort out prob­lems and con­flicts more eas­i­ly, often bypass­ing the offi­cial chan­nels. An infor­mal tele­phone con­ver­sa­tion between long-stand­ing busi­ness part­ners, for exam­ple, can resolve deliv­ery delays much more quick­ly than an e‑mail to the supplier’s ser­vice department.

Anoth­er issue is smooth coop­er­a­tion between orga­ni­za­tions that know each oth­er well. Con­flicts often arise because both sides have dif­fer­ent goals or expec­ta­tions that con­tra­dict each oth­er. How­ev­er, if a busi­ness rela­tion­ship has exist­ed for some time, it is like­ly that the cus­tomer and sup­pli­er have real­ized that they are both on the same side and need to approach each oth­er. Com­pa­nies that have been work­ing togeth­er for a long time know how the oth­er part­ner works. They can antic­i­pate poten­tial points of con­flict, know the strengths and weak­ness­es of their busi­ness part­ners and how their con­tacts react in dif­fer­ent sit­u­a­tions. As a result, there are sig­nif­i­cant­ly few­er fric­tion­al losses.

Long-term col­lab­o­ra­tion with sup­pli­ers also pays off from a finan­cial per­spec­tive. For exam­ple, sup­pli­ers often offer bet­ter prices to long-stand­ing cus­tomers because they have an inter­est in con­tin­u­ing the part­ner­ship and take less risk. A cus­tomer who has been pay­ing his invoic­es on time for years will prob­a­bly con­tin­ue to do so. In addi­tion, it is usu­al­ly more prof­itable for man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pa­nies to retain exist­ing sup­pli­ers. Research­ing, con­tact­ing and nego­ti­at­ing con­tracts with new sup­pli­ers is always time-con­sum­ing and only pays off after a while. Once you have found a trust­wor­thy sup­pli­er, you are usu­al­ly bet­ter off mak­ing the coop­er­a­tion long-term.