East West Manufacturing Blog

We've written a lot about protecting your facility and processes from cyberattack. As these incursions continue to escalate, in number and in scope, companies of all sizes must address the issue of cybersecurity.  

If you were going to make a cake (especially if you are a man), you would certainly want to start with a recipe.  The recipe provides instruction on what ingredients to use, and in what quantities.  In addition, a good recipe will provide instruction on how to prepare the ingredients – the order to mix them in, special instructions such as...

Want your business to become more profitable? Is the sky blue? Is grass green? Will the Cubs win the World Series again this year? (Never mind that last question.)

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...

Hindsight is 20/20. We’ve all heard that adage. But what if hindsight could become foresight? 

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.

Working with engineers is very similar to working with military personnel in that to communicate effectively, you need to learn acronyms quickly!  Follow along:

An ID firm can create the concept and DS (or DMS) produces the drawings you need for a CM to manufacture your product. OEMs work with CMs to bolster their supply chain. If your OEM...

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...

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.

Do you order electronic assemblies that contain long lead time (LLT) components? Nothing is more frustrating than placing a large PCBA order only to find out that a key component has a 180-day lead time, slowing down the entire production process. Why do some components have such long lead times, anyway? Here’s the deal: Factories typically run...