Read our blog posts that give tips about the manufacturing industry.
As the US-China trade war continues, tariffs put in place have raised costs for many businesses. Some have produced efforts to restructure their supply chains, but deep levels of supply chain integration in China have caused the conversation to open up to other potential ways to reduce import/export costs, such as the First Sale rule.
Speed and quality are two of the few things that can get a company ahead of its competitors. The challenge is accelerating the product development process to get ahead without compromising quality.
The speed-to-market mind set has gained momentum in part due to today’s quick pace of innovation and compounding technologies, accessibility to funding through platforms like Kickstarter where anyone can be your competition, and the way that consumers are being conditioned to instant gratification.
Though a product’s time-to-market is becoming increasingly more critical, caution must still be taken. Faster is not always better, especially if it means cutting corners, hastily producing a low quality product, or even producing the wrong product that is bound to fail in the market. There must be a balance between having a sense of urgency and maintaining high-quality design practice standards.
Continue reading “Accelerating Your Product Development Process”
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.
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.
Continue reading “10 Key Elements That Factor Into Product Manufacturing Cost”
If you are producing a product, then you are likely aware that there may be certain safety and quality criteria it needs to meet in order to successfully be marketed and sold. In order to officially prove that your product meets the applicable requirements, you will need to submit it to a third party testing lab to gain product certifications.
Continue reading “What You Need to Know About Product Certifications”
Taking an idea and realizing it is exciting. It’s through ideas from entrepreneurs like you that we see manufactured products that help the world evolve. With that being said, it takes a lot of hard work, expertise, and testing before products like these can even start to become a commercial success. As you dive into manufacturing for the first time, keep these things in mind to create an outcome like a champ.
Continue reading “6 Tips for Manufacturing Your First Product”