Outsourced Manufacturing
Companies making the strategic decision to outsource manufacturing or design services face a variety of challenges—from securing the best pricing, to creating a strategy that works across several different product lines. In the past, we have shared tips for setting up outsourcing partnerships. But establishing those initial relationships is just the first hurdle—over time, there [...]
When you outsource assembly, the product of your engineering department isn’t really hardware—it’s raw information. This raw information (BOMs, drawings, specifications, purchasing and sourcing information) is of critical importance to your suppliers, yet many OEMs lack visibility into how ambiguous their data can be when it’s received on the other end. The idea of throwing [...]
Securing pricing is a struggle for every manufacturer who enters into an outsourcing partnership. But is focusing on reducing part and service prices the best way to lower your total outsourcing costs? I recently spoke with Kate Vitasek, a faculty member at the Center for Executive Education at the University of Tennessee, and co-author of [...]
To everyone who waited so patiently while I got this write up together—thank you! And so you don’t have to wait a second longer, here it is, the 2011 Arena Solutions Manufacturing Outsourcing survey results. Click here to view survey results. Survey insights include some interesting differences in the specific benefits and challenges of outsourcing [...]
I know it’s taken forever, but I finally finished the Arena Solutions Manufacturing Outsourcing Survey report. (Whew!) We talked to 1004 respondents across the high-tech, medical device, consumer products, industrial, clean tech, automotive, aerospace, telecoms, contract manufacturers/EMS companies (et. all) segments, and I have to say—the resulting 10-page report is pretty fascinating. I’ll be publishing [...]
For organizations moving from prototype to production, there are a lot of decisions that must be made about how to source parts and build the product. A major part of this process is deciding what can be done in-house, and what must be outsourced. (And who are the partners, and how closely can they be [...]
Short answer—“no.” As we wrap up analysis of our Manufacturing Outsourcing Trends Survey, it’s becoming clear that although there are some general commonalities, the specific benefits, challenges and impacts of outsourcing differ greatly for large and small companies across different industries. We received approximately 1000 survey responses from high tech, medical device, consumer products, industrial, [...]
As I said on Tuesday, small manufacturers face unique challenges when it comes to navigating the contract manufacturer (CM) and original equipment manufacturer (OEM) relationship. Tuesday, I posted five tips from Manufacturing Outsourcing for Small and Mid-Size Companies: 10 Key Challenges and How to Address Them, a white paper produced by Arena Solutions and Symphony [...]
Outsourcing plays a role in almost every manufacturing strategy. But for smaller manufacturers with fewer resources available, the challenges of outsourcing—finding the right contract manufacturer (CM), determining appropriate pricing and contract terms, establishing collaborative relationships—can be tough to navigate. Small manufacturers face unique challenges when establishing successful outsourcing relationships, so to help I’d like to [...]
With global supply chain shortages following the earthquake in Japan, continuing unrest in the Middle East and Libya, hurricanes and tornadoes in the U.S. and the fluctuating costs of labor worldwide, it only makes sense that supply chain risk mitigation would be a hot topic. And it is—for business analysts, writers and risk-management firms. However, [...]
