Once the design files were completed, KLM needed the night lights to be mass produced. The challenge was that they wanted them quickly, at a reasonable price and in good quality. The novelty of the product and the necessary PCB (microchip) development required dedicated effort. Furthermore, the custom plastic parts had to be produced from scratch.
As an airline and traveling service provider,
finding suitable suppliers, communicating the ideas to them, and maintaining product quality is a lengthy process, and the cost can be high for a novel product like this. The distance to the manufacturing location and little experience in this field makes own supervision inefficient and risky, while other electronics production services companies charge very high fees for product development.
After assessing KLM’s situation and considering different options, Intrepid Sourcing adopted a production implementation solution that helped them find reliable and inexpensive suppliers to produce the custom parts quickly while maintaining good quality and setting up assembly. By working with prototypes and rapid iterations, development time could be saved.
The First Step,
was product costing for both the standard and custom parts from original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). This considered what materials to use for the product components, then compared and analyzed suppliers for each part and material to get the most accurate product costing to bring down costs while maintaining quality. Intrepid Sourcing also helped with designing packaging that tells the story of the night light and their brand.
The Next Step,
was lead time assessment. This determined how to arrange and organize the suppliers for printed circuit boards (PCB), plastics, adapter, and assembly. All was done with an eye toward increasing efficiency and reducing lead times. Coordinating the numerous suppliers and the final assembly is key to this efficiency.
The Last Step,
was providing intermediary services, managing all payments and financial transactions directly with their suppliers. This saved time for KLM, and avoided international and other transaction fees so that they could focus on their core business.
KLM doesn’t need to worry about product development, packaging, finding, communicating with, and making payments to suppliers. Instead, they can focus on their business’s core competency, such as providing airline services and offering corresponding merchandise, marketing, and others. Third party manufacturing solutions give the full flexibility needed.
Also An International-Renowned Airline Company Like KLM needs help setting up OEM production lines.
Although the night light is a relatively simple product, realization of the design at an affordable cost under consideration of good quality can be challenging. With Intrepid Sourcing’s help, KLM was able to find reliable suppliers so that they were able to have the night lights produced quickly by solely providing the design files, saving them time and costs.
KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is an international-renowned airline, headquartered in Amstelveen, and has been operating airline services to over 100 destinations for decades. Airlines need merchandise products for representing their brand and rewarding customer loyalty. Custom products help to stand out from the usual give-aways and duty-free offers.
