Sure, sometimes you can re-qualify new suppliers for a reasonable cost relative to putting up with a crappy supplier. But, trust me, sometimes it is cost prohibitive, especially when it is for aerospace products sold to the military via a major defense contractor. The expenses for my company are estimated at 7 figures when all is said and done, which is ~ 25% of our yearly profit!
Bummer!
One of the reasons I wrote
"sole source supplier - keep the romance going with lots of personal communication - these are the guys you HAVE to have a true partnership with because replacing them is almost too traumatic to contemplate."
was because I DO understand some situations make it next to impossible to change suppliers due to problems up and down the supply chain, not just the difficulty of finding another supplier with capability and capacity to make your product.
Did the ownership change come as a surprise or were you notified well in advance and given an opportunity to meet and "bond" with the new owners? If it was surprise, your relationship with the supplier was not as close as it could have been.
Obviously, something more than ownership change has occurred in the relationship or else the second company would not also be giving your company grief.
In terms of sole source, I was on both sides of the "sole source scenario"and made it a large and high priority to know nearly as much about things at my supplier as I knew about my own company. The situation as a sole source is also "iffy" if the purchaser is secretive about plans for changes and nurses a "grudge" for real or imagined offenses of the supplier.
It may be a difficult notion for people to follow or accept, but the personal relationship between buyer and seller has a large effect on the "perception" of events which occur from time to time:
- If my purchaser started stretching out payment beyond contract terms, in my mind, that was as big a breach of the relationship as if I was consistently late on delivery (delivery of goods or delivery of payment have equal weight in my mind.)
- If my supplier changed from same day response to a query to "next day" or "next week," it was a signal that something was seriously wrong with the relationship. If the late response came without an effusive apology, that was absolute proof the relationship had degraded. As a good quality pro, the task is to determine root cause and either make a correction AND corrective action OR prepare to dissolve the relationship.
- If quality of product or packaging showed a trend to worsen without proactive comment from a supplier about efforts toward corrective action, this was a big signal the supplier's organization was deteriorating, not just the relationship between us.
When the relationship cannot be repaired or if the supplier organization is deeply flawed
(whether because of something the purchaser has committed or omitted or due to outside influence), it's time to get a new supplier, no matter how inconvenient, costly, or painful, BECAUSE the ensuing problems will inevitably cause more pain and cost more than changing suppliers.