Supplier Interfacing Rundown

On the team we call any sort of interaction with a sponsor for a physical good supplier interfacing (or SI for short).

One of the biggest tasks (and most important) this term will be for the two of you to get all our sponsors organized for our parts and materials.

Very roughly, there will be two categories within SI, custom and off-the-shelf (OTS) parts.

Custom Parts

Most if not all the custom parts will come from the Chassis and Dynamics sub-teams. In this case we will want to look at who is willing to machine our parts (and in some cases who provide the material for it) then send them some drawings to see if it’s within their scope or capability.

Some sponsors to make note of:

Stem Punch Tool and Die - Jens is communicating with them personally.

Little Lakes - Requested not to do any sponsorship with MSXV.

A list of custom machining sponsors can be created from the MSXIV Master BOM. This would be a good place to begin reaching out to sponsors, but also do some research on who is nearby (the KW area or the GTA) and is capable of doing machining for us.

OTS Parts

The other side are the OTS parts. These are things that you might buy if you were shopping in-store or online. In a dynamics perspective, these would be items like rod ends, bearings, nuts, bolts, washers, bushings.

This will involve finding which companies are known for making whichever component you’re looking into, and starting to reach out.

Some OTS parts to look into

Rod Ends

Bearings

Shim Stock

Key Stock

Nuts and Bolts

Some sponsors to make note of:

Kitchener Fiberglass - Michael is communicating with them personally.