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Article: Successful strategies for a changing materials market: small, family-owned raw materials suppliers are increasingly being merged into larger corporations, forcing many ceramic manufacturers to reevaluate the way they do business.(Materials)
- Article from:
- Ceramic Industry
- Article date:
- July 1, 2003
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 BNP Media. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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You have the perfect raw material blend for your slip casting operation. You've worked closely with your materials supplier over the last few years to develop this unique, customized formulation, and you consider the technical sales rep to be a close ally in your manufacturing process. You know each other on a first-name basis and often inquire about each other's families during phone calls and visits.
Then one day you discover that the supplier is being acquired by a much larger corporation. Will your sales rep be laid off? Will your customized material blend be discontinued? Will you be given the same level of personalized service, or will you get lost in the ...