Manufacturing in Your Hands

You’re reading the 2016 PM Buyer’s Guide, carefully prepared to help you make necessary purchasing decisions for your business during the upcoming year. Some people say a print edition of a buyer’s guide is obsolete. And as a stand-alone issue, that might be true.

However, our buyer’s guide is not alone in its ability to help you make good purchasing decisions. Actually, it is simply a first step in the process to help you make informed business purchasing decisions in 2016.

All businesses must make purchases to keep the business running. While some purchases are relatively routine, consumables and such, others are less routine. Capital investments and productivity-enhancing technologies for shopfloor and front office automation require more in-depth research.

That’s why we’ve designed or should I say organized this buyer’s guide to be helpful to your research efforts. As a trade magazine, PM is focused on the products, services and processes that are germane to precision machined parts manufacturing. The benefit to you is that we editors have pruned the content to reflect what is relevant to your business, saving you valuable time.

You want to spread your research net as widely as possible to make sure nothing is missed, but at the same time, relevance to your business is important, too. Google is great if you know what you’re looking for, but it can be a virtually infinite search to capture specific information by browsing. It’s that editorial exercise we do for you that makes this Guide valuable. And it has a shelf life that will be relevant throughout 2016.

To realize the benefits of the print edition of the 2016 Buyer’s Guide, we’ve coupled its research capability with the power of its online component, the PM online supplier directory. Working together, these research tools provide you with a one-two combination method of finding the best fit supplier for your business’ purchasing needs. Moreover, the search is focused on the right product or service for the specific needs of your company. It’s a multi-media world, and for precision machined parts manufacturers, it’s tough to beat the combination we’ve created to aid in efficiently making the best purchasing decision for your business.

Together, print and the Web work to help companies create a list of potential suppliers that can provide products and services needed at a given time and then allows full research to help narrow that list to the best candidates. And, it’s all done anonymously. In other words, no salesman will call until you ask to be called on.

To create the Buyer’s Guide, we send out an extensive survey to suppliers that are relevant to your business. We know who these suppliers are, and in turn, they provide us with up to date information on their latest technologies in order to keep you informed about what is new.

Because our circulation is controlled, meaning you must ask to receive PM, we also have a pretty good idea what kind of products and services you use. It’s our goal and yours as well to help manufacturers be as competitive as possible. It’s a global market, and providing shops with access to the world through the Buyer’s Guide listings and our online supplier’s directory is a valuable resource to extend the reach of a business regardless of its size and location.

For the first step in researching purchases for your business, use this guide, which is organized into categories to help you identify companies that provide you with what you’re looking for. It’s pretty straightforward.

The contact information in the directory is comprised of many companies you may be familiar with, but there are also some you may not know. While there is a tendency to deal with companies that are known, it might be worth putting some that are not as familiar on your contact list.

With a contact list in hand, visit our online Supplier Directory on productionmachining.com to link to the company’s website to get more detailed information as well as contact information. All this research is possible without leaving your desk.

As competitive as business is today, it’s never been more important to be as efficient as possible when contemplating a purchasing decision. It’s equally important to get the right products and services, at the best price, which will perform as promised.

Using the Buyer’s Guide and its online component in tandem is a tool that will save time, money and headaches. When you’re ready to make a purchase, try using these tools while doing your research.