When clients tell us why they continue working with SGS after the first project, the answer is rarely about price, and never about presentations. It usually comes down to one thing: we were reachable and acting at moments when others weren’t. That is not a personality trait – it’s how we’ve deliberately set up our work. Here is what that looks like in practice.

Chinese Production Runs on Saturdays – So We Do Too

Most Chinese plants run production six days a week. Saturday is a normal working day: lines are running, parts are being made, quality decisions are being taken. A sourcing partner who is offline from Friday 5 PM to Monday 9 AM is disconnected from his suppliers for two full production shifts – every single week.

That’s why we provide support on Saturdays when a project is in a critical phase. If a dimensional issue is found during a Saturday shift, there are two scenarios. In the first, the supplier keeps producing until Monday, and by the time the topic reaches Germany, several hundred parts need sorting or rework. In the second, the issue is discussed the same morning, the line is corrected or stopped, and the client hears about the problem together with the solution. The difference between those two scenarios is one phone call – taken on a Saturday.

Our clients supply directly to OEMs. An OEM ramp-up doesn’t pause because it’s the weekend in Germany, and neither does the production that feeds it.

Availability Is Not a Service Promise – It’s Project Speed

We start our day at 6 AM, when it’s noon in Shanghai and the afternoon shift in Shenzhen is starting. The reason is simple arithmetic: every coordination loop that misses the overlap window with China costs at least one day. A sourcing project consists of dozens of these loops – technical clarifications, tool approvals, sampling reports, price negotiations. Whoever works 9-to-5 from Germany turns a three-month sourcing cycle into a four- or five-month one.

The same logic applies to escalations. When a supplier reports a capacity bottleneck or a failed inspection at 7 AM our time, we’re already talking to the plant – not waiting for an internal meeting at 9:30 to decide who should respond. In escalation situations, hours determine whether an SOP date holds.

What OEMs Notice About Their Suppliers

OEMs don’t see our work directly – they see its results at their Tier 1’s program reviews: supplier status that is current instead of three weeks old, open-issue lists that shrink, sampling dates that hold. When we run project management for a Tier 1 supplier, our client walks into the OEM review with verified information, because we track tool progress and quality status directly at the supplier, on site – not from a forwarded spreadsheet.

That reliability is visible at the OEM level. More than once, an OEM purchasing team has asked our client who manages their Asia sourcing. For us, there is no better reference.

What the Extra Mile Looks Like in Practice

Going the extra mile sounds abstract. In our daily work, it’s very concrete:

  • Being at the supplier when the first article is measured – dimensional discussions work better at the CMM than over screenshots.
  • Answering the supplier’s question in the evening, because his next shift starts in nine hours and an unanswered question means a day of production standstill or a day of wrong parts.
  • Saying clearly when a target price and a quality requirement don’t fit together – before tooling is ordered, not after the first failed sampling.
  • Traveling on short notice when a problem needs presence instead of another email thread.

None of these points appear as line items in an offer. Together, they are the reason clients from eight countries have stayed with us for years.

Reliability Is Built in Inconvenient Moments

After ten years in automotive sourcing between Germany and China, our conclusion is simple: trust with Tier 1 suppliers and OEMs is not built in kickoff meetings. It’s built when a problem surfaces at an inconvenient time and gets solved anyway – same day, directly with the supplier, with the client informed before he has to ask.

If you’re planning a sourcing project or need support in parts procurement and project management: get in touch. We’re available when it counts – from 6 AM to 6 PM, and when your supplier’s Saturday shift is running, on Saturdays too.