East West Manufacturing Blog

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.

Designing a new product is as easy as having a killer idea, right? Not right. There is a lot that goes into designing, developing, manufacturing, marketing and selling a new product. Millions of products have failed (take these 12 notorious product flops for instance), and chances are that all of them had at least one of the below mistakes in...

Drones in warehouses!

Robots delivering everything from diapers to pizza!

Artificial intelligence and augmented reality!

We’ve all read the breathless accounts of the ways technology is going to be integrated into the supply chain — from ordering materials, to manufacturing, to delivery. But many of those predictions of integrating supply...

Are you planning to start your own business, but you're not sure you have all the tools you need to make the leap? Look no further – we've done (some of) the work for you. Below is a list of 15 awesomely useful sites every entrepreneur could benefit from. From mentor-matching sites to podcasts about work-life balance for startup founders, we've...