Hydraulic cylinder contract manufacturing
We believe that contract manufacturing is a partnership that offers both parties a trusting relationship, which in turn helps to achieve the best possible results. At Hydroline, we always pursue to build long-lasting and mutually beneficial cooperation with our customers. We are a value-adding partner with a desire to offer our customers the best tools to make their business as effective as possible.
We aim for long and mutually beneficial partnerships and are happy to say that our oldest contract manufacturing clients date back to the 1970s. We work with leading mobile work machine OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) in forestry, load handling, agriculture & maintenance, and mining & construction fields such as Cargotec, Sandvik, Valtra and John Deere.
A typical process of establishing a contract manufacturing partnership:
1. The OEM / customer has technical or cost-saving needs
2. The OEM maps out the possible suppliers and their technical ability and costs
3. The OEM requests quotations and technical proposals
4. The OEM performs an audit
5. Contract negotiations
6. Product approval before serial production – Sample products from the supplier
7. Contract approval and production ramp-up
At Hydroline, our typical contract period is three to five years. After that the contract is typically updated, if needed, and continued for an indefinite period.
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Benefits of Contract Manufacturing
In our industry the volumes are big. With contract manufacturing, you get the benefit of securing the acquisition of a great number of specifically designed cylinders annually.
Because hydraulic cylinders are not standard of the shelf products, they cannot be bought just anywhere with a short delivery time. As a contract customer, you’ll always have a supplier for a specific item you regularly need. We pursue to find the best solutions in technical quality, logistics solutions, such as delivery times, warehousing, and buffers as well as lowering the costs for our customers.
One of the contract manufacturing advantages is the quality workmanship of a familiar supplier that knows the component and client’s product. As a supplier we handle component manufacturing, you can focus on your core competence that is machine manufacturing. This also means no need to invest in your own component manufacturing.
The benefit of forming a long-lasting partnership with Hydroline is that you get our expertise in all areas of our business as needed, not only in cylinder manufacturing. We’ll strive to find the best possible holistic solutions by using our knowledge from electric & electrohydraulic actuators, coating and IoT solutions in addition to cylinder manufacturing. And we are not only the experts of manufacturing but also repairing; in addition to our manufacturing business, Hydroline Services offers repair and maintenance services for every hydraulic cylinder, despite the original manufacturer.
We pride ourselves on being flexible and responsive to our customer’s needs.
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Cooperation & Proprietary
Cooperation is the key to a successful partnership. We bring to the table our expertise in our products and services and the customer is the expert on their final device into which our product will be integrated. When we join forces, we can find the best possible solution.
As a partner, we aim for the closest possible cooperation in all aspects, from our customer’s product development to our understanding of their strategy. A big part of being an excellent supplier partner is to continuously and proactively seek and provide our customers more sustainable and cost-effective solutions and new technologies that add value to our customer.
When a customer develops a new solution or device, we emphasize the importance of us being involved as early as possible in the development process. This way we can have as much influence as feasible on the final solution and find the optimal result. Our influence is much less if we are only involved in the design process at a later stage.
Hydroline’s longest partnerships have deep roots in its history. Many of our major customer relationships are over 20 years long. We commit to being our customer’s true partners in business development and technical improvement.
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