A business which simplifies manufacturing procurement is changing the way industrial companies purchase parts. Estonia is a country famous as the most digitised society on earth, the home to countless clever, problem-solving businesses. And one of those businesses, Fractory, which is now headquartered in Manchester, finds that its offering - making laborious and expensive procurement processes more efficient – is experiencing growing demand at a time when manufacturing businesses seek cost savings and efficiencies. Procurement managers and purchasing departments have discovered that they benefit significantly from Fractory’s scalable manufacturing service.
Martin Vares, the CEO of Fractory, says purchasing professionals who add Fractory to their toolbox are finding new efficiencies and seeing many of their typical procurement problems reduced or eliminated.
“With so many manufacturing capabilities accessed from a single source, workflows are simplified,” he says. “And with all supply partners being quality-checked and proven for reliability, the burden of auditing is removed. Also, instant pricing means budgeting is simple and accurate and often better than anywhere else. This is important. Almost all purchasing managers have at least one common KPI, to cut costs. And leveraging our network typically sees prices drop.”
“Fractory is a business that any procurement department, anywhere in the world, can benefit from using,” he adds.
Benefits for Manufacturing Procurement Professionals
Capacity & Capabilities: Through its 150+ manufacturing partners, Fractory has access to comprehensive capabilities across sheet metal fabrication and machining.
Guaranteed Quality: Supply partners are carefully chosen and audited.
Competitive Pricing: With order pooling and collective buying power, prices are controlled and often low.
Scalability: Inventory management is streamlined through Fractory's scalable manufacturing solution and clients can size operations up or down instantly.
Speed: Live data on supplier availability allows projects to be put into production fast.
1-1 Support: As well as representing a technical solution to purchasing problems, Fractory is a manufacturing services consultancy, staffed by mechanical engineers responsible for everything from quoting to Design for Manufacturing suggestions to quality, logistics and delivery.
Demand Based Evolution
Since it began in 2017, Fractory has been doing important work improving manufacturing procurement processes. The original idea – to eliminate time wasted on procurement and create a system where engineers can buy manufactured parts simply by uploading CAD files – is still the heart of the business. But Fractory’s customer profile has grown from engineers seeking one-off parts to large organisations seeking ongoing purchasing and supply chain handling, often for very complicated orders. They want Fractory’s access to value and speed. They want production capacity and they want flexibility.
Martin explains: “Our technical solution is the basis for everything we do. But increasingly there is a consultancy or account handling aspect to Fractory which sees our mechanical engineers project managing large orders and ongoing contracts.”
“Bigger businesses increasingly come to us and bigger orders come through us. We’ve been experiencing growth at a time when business conditions have been poor and global supply chains have been interrupted. That’s specifically because Fractory is set up to navigate those challenges.” www.fractory.com
