Guidlines For Manufacturing Website Design

29 Feb 08

ManufactureLink's Managing Director, George Pofandt shares his thoughts on design considerations for your job shop's manufacturing website.

I am no website design expert. However, I do see a lot of manufacturing websites of Australian manufacturers when searching for capability to fill buyers' requests, or discerning the capabilities of my new suppliers. I do know what I’d find helpful to see on your company’s site, particularly in relation to custom manufacturers such as machine shops and jobbing shops. I suspect that buyers looking for new manufacturers to work with are interested in seeing much of the same content.

In an age in which more than 80% of businesses use the internet as part of their everyday activities, your manufacturing websites will more often than not be the first impression a potential customer has of your company and its capability. How do you design a website that gives your potential customers the perception that yours is a company with more knowledge of the exact capability they need than any other? Let me make some suggestions.

Although nearly every manufacturer’s site contains an obligatory list of machine tools, that limited information really doesn’t reveal much about what your shop truly has to offer, other than telling me some of the processes you offer, or how up-to-date your equipment is. As someone searching the internet for a manufacturer, with no prior knowledge about your business, I’d hope to see more than that.

Show me samples of tricky machining work or a complex, progressive stamping job you have performed. You might organise this part sampling by industry and/or work-piece material. These days almost all of us have access to a digital camera, so make it a habit of photographing complex work-pieces before they go out the door. Think about composing your shots to emphasise quality or technology. For example, photograph the work-pieces in your clean, metrology lab, on your CMM machine with its spotless granite table to imply quality. Having a person in the shot also gives a human element to the composition and makes people feel like they are not dealing with a shop run by robots. Just make sure the person looks professional!

A tip if you are looking to move into new industries or different types of work: don’t be afraid to spend the time to make some sample parts for the sort of jobs you would like to be doing. A picture tells a thousand words.

As a person who has no knowledge of your reputation, how will I know how you work with your customers and whether or not you are the sort of shop that is going to go beyond the call-of-duty to find a solution to my particular challenge?

For each complex part you are displaying on your website, give a brief description of how you overcame the challenges in manufacturing those parts. Include a mention of any design changes you suggested that made the manufacture easier and/or less costly.

Create a page that details projects you have taken on, and how you came through for customers in difficult circumstances. Allow this section to go beyond describing the tough parts you’ve machined or the exotic materials you’ve tackled. For example, explain a situation in which you were able to accommodate a customer’s hot, ‘need-it-yesterday’ job. This demonstrates to a potential customer currently experiencing trouble with on-time delivery that you have a reputation for putting in the effort to get the job out on-time.

Describe the time a customer came to you tearing their hair out and needing a solution to their challenging manufacturing problem. You had to think outside the square and come up with a unique, innovative solution and have developed world-class expertise in this type of problem.

Perhaps you took on a prototype job for a customer even though there was no guarantee you’d see a production run of that part. That shows you’re willing to go the extra mile for your customers. These descriptions don’t have to be elaborate prose. Briefly tell your tales. Simply list the customer’s problem, the steps you took to help and (if possible) the customer’s reaction to your excellent service (testimonial). But be careful with testimonials that you don’t give your competitors the names of your best customers!

When listing components, projects or describing your expertise, try not to be too general. Many potential customers are searching for specific expertise in a specific industry. For example, they may want a press shop specifically with a history of manufacturing for medical devices. Make sure you come across as having expertise in specific areas. If you try to be too general, you may just miss out on the buyers who really are looking for that exact expertise you could have highlighted. Nobody expects a job shop to cover every industry, so don’t try to.

Make those browsing your site aware of your recent efforts to improve shop efficiency. Perhaps you’ve embarked upon a lean manufacturing journey, embraced Six Sigma, added automation, implemented shop management software, established new quality control measures, or become certified in one of the latest industry standards. In addition, mention your ongoing training initiatives, especially if these are programs of your own design. This shows you’ve taken the initiative to grow your own skilled labor force, rather than waiting for someone else to do it.

Highlight your part-measurement capabilities. If you have a CMM, show it and describe it. Also, include a list of the value-added operations that you have either in-house or via relationships with trusted area suppliers (assembly, anodizing, heat treating, laser welding and others). Customers prefer to place just a single purchase order for their completed components and assemblies.

Use photos to show how you keep your shop clean and organised. In addition, describe the strides you take to maintain your facility and equipment to ensure the operation runs effectively. If you maintain tight environmental control in your building, boast about that too.

Give your potential customers a feeling that you are involved in bettering the Australian manufacturing industry by listing your industry association memberships. Also take steps to capture the potential buyers from your local area by describing any local sponsorships or community activities you are involved with, such as sponsoring the local under-nines footy team. This gives your local buyers a feeling that they are putting something into the community by giving you the work.

Make sure your site has the right overall ‘feel’ to it that you want to project to your customers. Anyone can knock up a website on Frontpage to have a ‘web presence’, but most likely it will not leave your site visitors sensing that you are a modern, advanced manufacturer using the latest in manufacturing technology, nor will they feel you care about how your company looks.

In any website design it is worth thinking about writing text that will attract the attention of the search engines. This is known as Search Engine Optimisation or SEO. Before you design your website, sit down and think about what search terms you would use if you were going to look for your type of business. Write them all down and rank them in order of importance. Then make sure you have the most important key words in your website text somewhere. A SEO specialist can help you to gain a decent ranking on your chosen search terms and one with manufacturing industry experience can likely assist you to out-rank your competitors.

Lastly, make sure your website has your contact details on it! Don’t laugh. You would be surprised how many websites I see that have no phone numbers, no email address and absolutely no way to contact the company.

The aforementioned is just a sampling of what I think makes for a good manufacturer’s website. That said, some shops continue to do well just by word of mouth, even though they have either a modest site or no site at all. So, even though I prefer detailed sites, I don’t make a hasty judgment about a shop solely based on site existence or quality. However, use of the web as a new-business search tool is increasing, so I believe it’s becoming more important to create and maintain a quality shop website. A website is an excellent way to gain positive exposure to potential new customers, assuming your company’s abilities are presented in the right way.

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