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21 Service Bay fi nding the materials before moving to manufacturing. "They provide us with specifi c in- structions to fi nd materials," he says. Navistar's development process works the same way, says Koller. "Our design engineers sit down and decide the mechanical properties of a product, and once they've [identifi ed] everything they come to us," he says. It's at this point when a manufac- turer's sourcing process formally kicks into gear. Koller says existing suppliers are always Navistar's fi rst call, and for good reason. Finalizing a sourcing agreement with a completely new supplier is an ardu- ous process, he says — "it can take up to a year" — and in situations where new materials are needed quickly that much time isn't always available. Expanding an existing relationship also dramatically cuts down on the steps in a supplier evaluation, says James Hoenshell, vice president of supply chain at Reyco Granning. Approved suppliers don't need to be evaluated on every aspect of their opera- tion because they've already proven they can do the job, he says. Instead, they are only required to show they can continue to meet their requirements with another material added to their expected output. STEMCO operates the same way, Smith says. "Ideally that's our fi rst goal" when sourcing a new material, he says. "We prefer to expand an existing relationship with a proven partner supplier." More often than not, manufacturers say this step fulfi lls their ordering needs. "We rarely have to fi nd someone totally new," says Joe Devany, director of operations at Betts Company. "I would say at least 80 percent of the time one supplier will have [what we need] or at least know where to send us to fi nd it," adds Hoenshell. And that latter point is important, manufacturers note. A supplier's ability to provide guidance is an invaluable aspect of a supplier-manufacturer rela- tionship, says Tom Meyer, vice president, Engineering and Materials at Hunter Engineering. "Our partners understand fi rst hand the type of company we strive to be and take that into consideration before ever suggesting a source for Hunter Engineer- ing," he says. "These channels combined produce a rich fi eld of companies which we can then begin vetting as potential suppliers." Only when networking also comes up empty will manufacturers turn to an open search. This is an infrequent step. Smith says "less than 10 percent" of new source searches at STEMCO reach an open eval- uation stage, while other manufacturers describe its prevalence as "very rare" and "almost never." But when it is done, it is far and away the most exhaustive. Devany says Betts Company has found trade shows and publications as two of the best ways to begin a search for a new supplier. Devany says Betts Company uses both resources to garner options, W W W . T R U C K P A R T S A N D S E R V I C E . C O M A p r i l 2 0 1 6 | T R U C K P A R T S & S E R V I C E Manufacturers say sourcing decisions are heavily infl uenced by shipping and acquisition costs. A production line doesn't run if product arrives late. Newly procured raw materials are regularly tested for performance and quality before moving to an assembly line.