Impact-O-Graph Devices, a manufacturer of impact monitoring solutions based in Chatsworth, California, faced a challenge every precision manufacturer knows: reducing costs on critical components without touching the quality standards the product depends on. Using the Sustainment platform and partnering with our Customer Success team, Impact-O-Graph achieved significant efficiency gains and cost savings, most notably a 70% cost reduction on a common family of parts used across many of their assemblies.
About Impact-O-Graph Devices
When your product's job is to catch every shock, drop, and mishandling event a shipment endures, your own manufacturing has no room for error. Impact-O-Graph Devices (IOG Products, LLC) has pioneered transportation and equipment monitoring for more than 40 years, building impact indicators, recorders, and monitoring solutions that protect sensitive shipments for customers in over 21 countries. The product line runs from field-proven mechanical recorders to SmartShip Live, which pairs GPS tracking with real-time alerts for impact, temperature, and light intrusion. The company is ISO 9001:2015 certified, and its products are designed and tested in the USA, which is exactly why component quality was never negotiable in this story.
The challenge: cut cost without cutting corners
Impact-O-Graph recognized the need to optimize sourcing and procurement for components used in their monitoring devices. The constraint was the point: any savings had to preserve the high quality standards their precision instruments require. Like most lean manufacturers, they also didn't have spare procurement capacity to run a full competitive sourcing project on top of daily operations.
The solution: competitive sourcing in the platform
Working in the Sustainment platform with support from our Customer Success team, Impact-O-Graph ran a comprehensive analysis of their supply chain, focused on a group of parts used across many of their assemblies. The platform's supplier discovery and management capabilities surfaced qualified new sources, structured the competitive analysis, and kept every supplier conversation and quote in one place, turning what would have been months of side-of-desk work into a focused sourcing project.
"Sustainment has helped us source strategically as part of our efforts to create significant savings for our business. Their team was able to recently source a new supplier that will give us approximately a 70% cost savings on critical components and already has led to more responsive communications."
- Managing Partner, Impact-O-Graph Devices
The results
70% cost reduction. Substantial savings on a family of parts used throughout Impact-O-Graph's assemblies, achieved through competitive sourcing and supplier negotiation.
Quality without compromise. New sources met the standards precision instruments demand, and the new supplier relationship brought more responsive communication than before.
A repeatable process. Sourcing and supplier relationships now live in one platform, so the next cost project starts from structure rather than scratch.
Growing through smarter sourcing
Most manufacturers have at least one part family that hasn't been competitively sourced in years, and that's usually where the margin is hiding. Impact-O-Graph's 70% wasn't found by squeezing a supplier; it was found by finally being able to see the market. That's what a system of action does for a lean team: it makes strategic sourcing a routine capability instead of a special project.
Want to unlock similar savings in your supply chain? Schedule a discovery call or email hello@sustainment.com.