Community Forum – What is your process for acquiring new raw materials for R&D? 

A: What is your process for acquiring new raw materials for R&D? 

Please find below the responses to this week’s IRI Community Forum Survey. Thank you to those who took the time to add their input! 

From an IRI member: We are looking to streamline our process for acquiring new raw materials for R&D. Please take a moment to share how it’s done in your organization.

Responses are below.

Community Responses

Other:

• Lead Buyers
• There are several ways depending on what it is and who the supplier is.  If it’s a supplier who also provides production parts, we have a specific form we fill out to request the Procurement “buyer” to purchase it for us and provide our chargeline.  If it’s a non-production supplier, and it’s something we commonly buy, there is a separate process, a separate Procurement group for R&D purchases.  If they are one-off purchases, like prototypes, or developmental material being made for a specific project, we use a separate process/account.

Other:

• Request samples from vendors
• By R&D selves directly, as most of the samples for FOC
• Per previous answer, depends on who the supplier is

Other:

• Internal approvals process

What changes would most improve your ability to quickly and safely source new materials for R&D?

• If we set aside time with procurement to vet a range of new vendors in one go to future proof some R&D sourcing.
• more efficient ways to do regulatory/safety reviews – if vendors can  take the lead, it would be great
• No changes, our process is longer for a reason
• Streamlined chemical onboarding process
• material release by R&D for non-hazadous materials. lead time for commission review for hazardous materials
• Years ago our group had our own Supply Chain person who handled all our Proprietary Agreements, made all our purchases, this was MUCH more efficient.
• Improving the payment process and flexibility in receiving the quantities (grams to kilos) for R&D
• Streamlined internal approvals