Recently, in an email exchange, we found this alarming example of a term in a plastic supplier's contract about mold tooling ownership: It got me thinking about the different expectations on both the manufacturer's and customer's sides … [Read more...]
Archives for January 2024
Experience Effect: How it Reduces Manufacturing Costs and Improves Efficiency over time
What is the 'experience effect?' We look at how the experience gained over time by manufacturers who are producing the same products can lead to cost reductions and efficiency improvements. To illustrate this, we give some examples of … [Read more...]
Ensuring Supplier Transparency for a New Product Made in China
As I wrote before, there has been a big push for transparency in supply chains over the past few years. However, supplier transparency is hard to come by in China and very few buyers get visibility beyond their tier-1 … [Read more...]
Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max Accident: Quality & Reliability Issues Again?
We're looking into the Boeing 737 Max 9 airplane that has been in the news again on Jan 5, '24, following a very frightening incident where part of the body blew out leading to a sudden depressurization and emergency landing. From a … [Read more...]
Cost Vs Quality – How to improve yours.
We tackle the big question of cost versus quality in manufacturing. Aside from what this concept means, we look at the rather surprising (for foreigners, at least) Chinese attitude about how quality is linked to price, why lean … [Read more...]
Bangalore & South India Observations for Manufacturers (Dec ’23)
Last month in December '23 I travelled again to South India to investigate the manufacturing landscape there compared to China and, besides spending time in our office in Dharwad, I took a week to explore Bangalore (a key manufacturing hub … [Read more...]
7 Must Do New Product Introduction Tasks For Successful Product Launches
Andrew Amirnovin, our group's Head of Compliance and Reliability, kicks off 2024 by introducing 7 key elements of the New Product Introduction process that you need to understand as they will help ensure a successful product launch, but … [Read more...]