On Record / Episode 11 · Supply Chain
What dual-source actually costs
A metals buyer on the difference between a second name on the AVL and a second plant that can ship to drawing.
The Industrial Brief with Priya Shah, VP procurement, heavy equipment OEM · 9 September 2026 · 31 min
- 00:01The AVL fiction
- 09:20Qualification is the real dual-source
- 18:55Paying for idle capacity on purpose
- 26:10What to tell the board
Shah’s working definition: a dual source is not a second logo. It is a second plant that has shipped your drawing, at your spec, in the last twelve months. Everything else is a slide.
She puts a number on qualification — tooling, first-article, PPAP-equivalent, the slow audit of heat-treat and chemistry. The cost sits in the P&L as ‘resilience’ only if someone owns it. Otherwise it is a surprise in quarter four.
The useful board sentence: dual-source is an inventory decision about knowledge, not tonnes.