GlossaryKind of term: Manufacturing termEarly supplier involvement (ESI)
What is early supplier involvement?
In early supplier involvement (ESI), the customer brings its supplier in to review the design before the drawing is released.
The supplier takes part during development, rather than first seeing the part when the request for quotation arrives. The supplier brings manufacturing knowledge: which details take a lot of machining time, which tolerances the intended processes can hold, which material is available and how the part can be held and measured. How far it goes varies, from comments on a concept to co-designing a part. Who is responsible for the design and the decisions is agreed beforehand; when the supplier only reviews, responsibility usually stays with the customer.
How does early supplier involvement work in practice?
Early in the design a change is usually cheaper than after release, because no approved drawing, first-article approval, tooling or order is tied to it yet. A proposal to enlarge an internal radius, relax a tolerance where the function allows it or split a part can save machining time or a finishing step; how much depends on quantity, process and what is already fixed. Reviewing costs the supplier hours with no certainty of an order, so agree beforehand how that work is paid for, who holds the rights to proposals and what is confidential.
What is early supplier involvement often confused with?
Early supplier involvement is a form of collaboration, not a method: design for manufacturing and value engineering are methods you can apply within it. Value engineering can also happen later, on a design already in production; early supplier involvement concerns the stage before release.
Frequently asked questions
What does early supplier involvement give the customer?
A design in which details that take a lot of time or an extra operation are discussed before the drawing is fixed. Whether that lowers the cost per batch depends on the proposals, the quantities and what the function allows.
How do you charge for advice in the design stage?
As hours at an agreed rate, as a fixed sum per design round, or as an investment in production that may follow. Settle this before the work starts, along with what stays confidential and who holds the rights to your proposals.
Which questions do you ask on a concept drawing?
Which dimensions and tolerances the function really needs, which radii and depths standard tooling can reach, which material is available, how the part will be held and measured and what quantities are expected.