Read our blog posts about ensuring quality in the manufacturing industry:

The Application of AI in The Process of New Product Introduction at E-BI

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) can play a significant role in various stages of new product manufacturing, including tooling design, process development, and quality assurance (QA) planning. With its leading Global Supply Chain Management System (GSCM), E-BI has been developing and adapting AI technologies for our clients’ success in complex system operations. Here’s how AI can assist in each of these areas:

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China Supply Chain Recovery from the Coronavirus Disruption

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First, the good news! As of March 12th, 2020, the coronavirus outbreak in China has been tapering off. Most provinces (which account for 1.3 billion people), except for Hubei, have had a single digit number of new infections for over 14 days. Depending on the recovery rules of local areas, factories are ramping up to work with intensive and complex monitoring measures in place. Shops are also opening up after being shut down for roughly a month and a half.

Factories in eastern China have for the most part reached full capacity. Southern China has recovered to about 70% of capacity. The “motto” for this recovery has been “ramp up hard and control the corona”. This means the worldwide shortage of supplies, such as face masks, should be over in days.

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A Systems Engineering Approach to Contract Manufacturing of a Brand Name Product

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From the initial inception of an idea to final delivery of a finished product, contract manufacturing of a brand name product proves to be a systematic challenge. It is a 14 dimensions management job to incorporate all key aspects of a project, a concept presented in previous E-BI literatures. If examined by a systems engineering approach, the product contract manufacturing operation can be described as establishment and management of technologies, process development, manufacturing chain, value chain optimization, and a supply chain.

For every unique brand name product manufactured, the development of a new system of unique manufacturing processes is required, as well as a set manufacturing chain to accomplish each process. In order to have the manufacturing chain work effectively, it needs to be improved and optimized periodically, the process controlled, and the supply chain managed in order to minimize risks arising from day to day operation. Once developed, this system works as an ecosystem that consist of many independent contractors and is unique to this particular brand name product. The system appears when the product build process starts and disappears when the build process finishes so that all manufacturers and sub-contractors can use their resources to work on other projects. Continue reading “A Systems Engineering Approach to Contract Manufacturing of a Brand Name Product” →

Controlling the Snowflake Effect on Project Cost

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For contract manufacturing projects that aim to produce a product, project cost includes the overall works in design, engineering, manufacturing, quality, project management, and supply chain management. Within each of these categories, work can be divided into many sub-sectors with even more specialty tasks that intertwine with each other. Management teams try to put a budget on the project based on their best estimate. However, there are still many gray areas in the details of each task where decisions need to be made based on skills and best known methods (BKM). Without doing so, this is where the Snowflake Effect can be seen.

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9 Things a Good Sourcing Team Considers

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Global sourcing involves all factors related to helping make a product happen on time, meeting quality standards, and satisfying budget expectations. There are many resources required in order to build a product such as engineering design capability, tier 2 sourcing, project management, material management, and quality control. The challenge is determining how to coordinate these on a global spectrum. Beyond that, a sourcing team is focused on finding the best goods at the least expensive prices. In other words, they look for value. They help manage and alleviate supply chain risk through risk-management and keeping tabs on supplier stability.

Sourcing goes much deeper than just a simple purchasing decision. A good strategic sourcing strategy generally has a few basic components such as category planning, sourcing projects, and supplier performance measurement. The team looks to align these activities with the goals of the company and leverage expenditures with quality suppliers to maximize value.

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10 Key Elements That Factor Into Product Manufacturing Cost

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There are a lot of factors that go into determining the cost of making your product. This is why in early conversations with your manufacturer it usually isn’t possible to give you an impromptu, off the top of the head estimate to how much it will cost you to make your product. Of course it’s a valuable and necessary piece of information to know before going forth with manufacturing, but an accurate quote needs to be based off of something—mostly the details relating directly to your product and design.

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