Should a supplier pay to access to its client's portal?

Question

More and more (in Europe), some companies are putting a portal to gain time on their internal process and pass on the cost to its suppliers'. Is it right to do so?

Answer 1

It's legal. The big question is "Does the profit of doing business with this company outweigh the expense?" If you don't comply with a customer request, do they find another supplier?

GM recently layed off 3000 contract design engineers and told the supplying company's that they were again responsible for the design of their product. A few years back many companies, especially those responsible for safety parts, i.e., brakes, transmissions, airbags, etc, dropped the responsibility for the design of their products due to the legal liability. The companies reasoned, at that time, that they only manufactured parts based on the auto company's requirements and drawings and, in effect, not truly "designing" the parts.

So it you want to keep the business you currently have, you must comply. Those who don't loose the business. A few company's I know of are happy to not have that business anymore.