As I am writing this, in mid-2022, we're living in pretty unprecedented times. The Covid pandemic is ongoing, tensions between major world powers are at a high, previously solid supply chains and business practices are crumbling, inflation is rising affecting all kinds of costs, politics are causing countries to become more insular and closed-minded, and shipping is still a mess. Today's manufacturing businesses need to find suitable supply chain risk reduction strategies to help counter these … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 4: How Much Inventory Do You Need?
If you make sure to sit on 6 months of inventory for every one of your major products, you will run much lower risks of being unable to supply your customers with what they need. You might even be able to cut a current manufacturer off and ramp up a new one, without any impact on your customers. There will be downsides, though. Working capital is expensive. Warehousing and transporting all these goods are not cheap. You may have to write off damaged, lost, of rapidly obsolete materials. (It … [Read more...]
Flexible Manufacturing in China: How To Set It Up
It is easier than ever for foreign buyers to have a manufacturer handle high-mix, low-volume orders, with short lead times. In other words, flexible manufacturing. … [Read more...]