East West Manufacturing Blog

It’s everywhere. You can’t escape it. Lead time, lead time, lead time! You’ve heard it repeatedly, but has anyone taken the time to explain to you exactly what lead time is and what goes into it?

Don’t fret, we’re here to help. It’s a complex beast, but we’ll do our best to break it down so it even makes sense to those who are just getting...

We talk a lot on this blog about Chinese New Year and for good reason! It’s a major multi-week holiday that puts production at a complete standstill, and if companies do not properly prepare, it could cause major headaches.

Let me guess – you’ve designed a killer product that you want to manufacture in China, but you’re worried that a cheaper version of your product will appear on Alibaba in a month. Who wants to spend the R+D dollars to then have their intellectual property (IP) stolen in a flash? Taking your IP to China will prove much smoother (and less risky)...

It's a common mistake among procurement newbies to use the acronyms RFQ and RFP interchangeably. Throw in RFI, and things really start to get hairy. Understanding the nuances that distinguish these different types of requests (for information, proposal and quote) will help you get what you need a little faster and more easily, and that's...

You wouldn't start out on a road trip without your GPS or a good road map, would you? So why face your future supply chain without an idea of what to expect?

Casting -- one of the oldest known manufacturing techniques -- is a process in which liquid material (e.g. molten metal) is poured into a mold cavity and hardened. After removing the piece from the mold, various finishing treatments can be applied to create a dazzling final product. This process is used primarily to manufacture complex solid...

Have you ever wished for an easy, all-in-one-place guide to the most cost-effective locations for specific manufacturing processes? Maybe you’re thinking, “No, but now that you mention it…” 😊

Just think about it for a second. Every day you interact with hundreds of products that at one point were nothing more than an idea. But have you ever wondered what it looks like to take a product from prototype to production? It's a complex process that combines creativity and procedures. There are stops and starts. The timeline for...

Let’s be honest. With a show of hands, when we say strategic sourcing, how many of you think this concept is really just about buying at the cheapest price? While engineers and brand managers get most of the credit for successful new product development and commercialization of product launches, the unsung hero is often the team who wears the...

Handing engineering projects off to other team members is more than a task – it's a skill, and one that many people undervalue or lack entirely. When saying goodbye to a project, there are a few general guidelines you should follow to ensure a smooth exchange. Below we'll take a look at things to do and mistakes to avoid.