When we meet new customers who are considering switching to a new global contract manufacturing services company, the reason they are looking typically falls into one of four buckets. It used to be just three, but the world continues to change, and good contract manufacturers change with it. Of course, there are more than four reasons. These...
April 23, 2020
Electronics Components Shortage: What You Need to Know
Q&A With VP of Supply Chain
With the rise of IoT, increased electronics in everything from home automation to new cars, it seems the supply (today it’s MLCC and resistor Chips) and demand surges of electronics components create waves of shortages. It’s no secret we’re either coming out of one shortage or heading into another. What’s causing...
April 23, 2020
Maintaining Quality Control When Manufacturing Overseas
Hindsight is 20/20. We’ve all heard that adage. But what if hindsight could become foresight?
April 23, 2020
4 Reasons Why Production Tooling is Late
After spending months or perhaps years of blood, sweat and tears on the development of your product, the wait between achieving your Production CAD Release milestone and that holiday-like buzz of unwrapping your first off-tool parts can be excruciating. Despite today's same-day delivery mindset, creating a tool still follows the same general...
April 22, 2020
Benefits of Using a Vendor-Managed Inventory Program
You’re looking for ways to reduce costs, streamline ordering and ensure that you never run out of product. Isn’t everyone?
April 21, 2020
FCL vs. LCL: Sometimes an LCL Shipment is Your Best Option
Less than Container Load (LCL) shipping (also called groupage) get lots of grief, but it can save you from time to time, especially when you don't have enough goods ready to ship a Full Container Load (FCL). If you find yourself in an FCL vs. LCL situation, review the following benefits and risks and apply them to your particular scenario – and...
April 20, 2020
Contract Manufacturing Product Pricing | Factors to Consider
We can do a lot of things but giving people “ballpark” estimates of how much it would cost to make their product without knowing any of the details isn’t one of them. And yet, you might be surprised to learn how often we’re asked to do that very thing.
Product quality issues can be a real pain to deal with, but one thing is for sure: quality issues are inevitable, no matter how experienced your supplier is. So knowing how to address such problems is a skill worth learning. Of course, some issues will be more substantial than others, but approaching them with purpose and patience is the best...
You make a product in China. You went it alone. You found someone on the internet and they promised they could manufacture your product to your standards in the time required for the lowest price.
Unfortunately, they also made an absolute hash of it.
April 16, 2020
Moving Your Product From Prototype to Production
If death and taxes are two guarantees in life, time and money are the two constants when taking an idea from the prototype stage through new product introduction (NPI) into commercial launch.
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...
