East West Manufacturing Blog

It is the pandemic that has shocked the world. Though health experts had been talking about a global pandemic for years, lack of adequate planning and global reliance on China’s manufacturing prowess allowed COVID-19 to unveil major vulnerabilities in today’s supply chain trends.

While we have our own theories on what the post-coronavirus world...

Do you remember the scene in the movie Father of the Bridewhen Steve Martin’s character George Banks goes nuts over the number of hot dogs in a package versus the number of buns in a package?

No?

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...

I have this image of a sourcing manager talking to a supplier with the conversation going something like this, “I don’t have extruded aluminum right now, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let me have the aluminum that...

Let’s say you’re a sourcing manager for a manufacturer. The company’s part/product is in production and things are going well. In fact, they’re going great! Things are going so great that you’re starting to get a little concerned. What happens if one of your machines goes down, you run out of a key material or some disaster — natural or man-made —...