A New Year has arrived, and that means it’s time to make all those new year’s resolutions—which for hardware engineers and procurement buyers is likely include scheduling the near-sourced production of your custom precision parts to a trusted supplier who can help you meet your deadlines while ensuring quality and managing cost.
Realizing the full potential of timely supply chain management while outsourcing production can be challenging for any engineer or buyer facing constantly shifting design revisions, fluctuating material costs driven by inflation along with other creeping supply chain challenges. This makes it important to plan ahead when choosing the right partner supplier.
To start off the New Year with confidence and a view to successful execution of your supply chain plan by year end – it is important to incorporate a thorough Production Planning and scheduling evaluation into your plans this year and beyond.
Production Planning and Support
To find a team that can provide your company with durable and cost-effective outsourced manufacturing solutions. Outlined below are some production planning considerations that you should take into account when looking for a manufacturing partner to order build to print custom parts:
Learn as Much as Possible About the Build Time of Your Parts in Advance
Keep in mind that at the there is no one-size-fits-all solution at the last minute. Each production run will present its own unique challenges, so starting by learning about your specific production challenges in advance is vital. In addition, companies should look at similar parts they have had produced in the past for guidance or consult with their trusted supplier.
Connect with Suppliers
It might seem like you have plenty of time to begin seeking production feedback for your anticipated needs, but if you avoid waiting to the last minute to source the right supplier with the prerequisite capabilites and leadtime, it will make it much easier later on down the line (production leadtimes and available capacity may vary greatly so it is best to lock in machine time and material cost ahead of time).
Ask Questions When Needed
While it’s certainly useful to do research beforehand, keep in mind that proper communication cannot occur in a vacuum and requires dialogue. So if something doesn’t feel right along the way, ask questions and make sure everyone is on the same page.
Provide Certification and Tracebility Requirement Information at the Outset
Certification and material traceability requirements should be communicated at the beginning as every production orders requirements tend to vary greatly, especially when dealing with new orders. Make sure to communicate your requirements clearly.
Plan Your Production Schedule Carefully
Sourcing and developing a core group of dependable suppliers is critical to timely production for complex assemblies —and giving proper consideration for advance notice is important! Consider ordering small batch prototype parts upfront to avoid delays further down the road; there is nothing worse than waiting months for a batch of custom parts which could have been had sooner with sufficient setup leadtime preparation.
Know-How Long, It Takes to Finalize Things
Communication breakdowns happen all too often in the heat of supply chain planning and busy engineers on the shop floor working through changing iterations of design revisions. Get familiar with your supplier production processes during ordering, and discuss contingencies upfront.
For example, if you need approval from three different departments to move forward with production, state that upfront, so it’s clear what happens if approval is delayed beyond a certain date and how you can make accommodations.
Production Planning Process
The key step in any successful production planning strategy is accurate forecasting. When it comes to Make to Order (MTO), build-to-print, and other customized production, taking into account your build schedule needs and customer delivery schedules, as well as strategic inventory management, can have a dramatic impact on your supply chain planning outcomes.
A detailed production planning forecast with at least three months’ lead time can be challenging to create but can often serve as the most critical component to a winning formula when creating an effective MTO/customized production plan. Accurate forecasting will help eliminate late deliveries and ensure inventories are sufficiently stocked to avoid production delays while managing cost. Ideally, you should work closely with your supplier to plan for timely fulfillment of key assembly parts and components you will need throughout each quarter throughout the year.
Then you need to take that data and develop a robust manufacturing schedule that provides enough parts for their needs while also preserving buffers against fluctuations in future demand. At some point, however, even the most disciplined MTO/build-to-print team may not be able to meet your requirements without sufficient advance notice.
Sourcing the right production partner supplier with the right production planning process will leave you on more solid footing knowing there are suppliers ready to fill order surges quickly if needed and allow your main facility to focus solely on satisfying its core customers.
Advantages of Outsourcing Manufacturing Process Planning & Support
There are numerous advantages to outsourcing production planning and support tasks. Companies that have outsourced their manufacturing processes have realized savings in time, efforts, cost, and expenses. The key benefits of outsourcing include:
Reduced Time Tasks
Syncfab’s employees spend more time on value-added services like drawing up a production plan and analyzing data from an inventory rather than engaging in routine office works or menial activities. This ensures that clients get quality products at competitive prices.
Reduced Efforts
Outsourcing allows you to focus on your core business while we care for your operation needs, thereby saving you a lot of energy, effort, and money. For example, businesses can outsource most of their factory maintenance work through Syncfab, which helps them concentrate on sales promotion and develop products with little distractions or workload.
Minimized Costs & Expenses
Syncfab thoroughly understands client requirements better than most making it easier for us to provide our best advice by reducing budget and leadtime impact and maximizing consistent quality and on time assembly schedule maintenance.
Why Use Syncfab Manufacturing Processes Planning and Support Services
- SyncFab has integrated build to print, sourcing, production, quality control, traceability, compliance and reporting needs to cover all production stages from prototype to NPI to mass production for both commercial and government contracting. SyncFab’s supply chain solutions help our customers reduce inventory costs while delivering needed parts when and where needed.
- SyncFab specializes in build-to-print (B2P) customized parts production, including assistance with Rapid Prototype NPI, 3D printing, quoting, and procurement/production scheduling through our ecosystem of domestic machine shops, contract manufacturers, and material suppliers.
- SyncFab streamlines operations for its customers by allowing them to place orders directly from their desktop using a browser-based user interface combined with web-based project collaboration tools and workflow approval processes.
Orders will be automatically executed, updated, and tracked by computerized work instructions that allow Shop Managers to shop out jobs on a real-time basis without paperwork or faxes, which translates into savings in both time and money as each person spends less than 15 minutes managing one piece instead of several hours searching paperwork.
By utilizing efficient automated processes, purchasing and engineering teams can focus their efforts on innovating new parts and pursuing new design improvements. We also provide an online platform aggregating production data in a secure cloud computing environment for machine learning optimization.
Our Syncfab Services Include:
Produce and ship metal and plastic parts using 3D printed plastic, metal, or wood files and Industrial grade 3D printers. In addition, there are several types of additive manufacturing available at SyncFab that can meet your needs.
We also offer CNC machining services. Our customers like these services because they allow flexibility in scheduling parts when needed, not just during regular business hours.
In addition, SyncFab produces higher quality parts faster on budget than other sourcing methods and does so while streamlining advance setup and tooling costs.
In today’s economy and rapidly shifting supply chains, our services allow companies to remain agile, price competitive, and flexible without sacrificing their bottom line.
This is why we have become one of the leading providers of outsourced production capabilities while providing OEMs with unique capabilities they can’t find elsewhere in one single source.
Contact Us: We’re Ready When You Are
Production planning is an essential part of any company’s growth. However, to maximize productivity and efficiency, manufacturers and suppliers must plan. By taking advantage of OTA (outsourced parts), you can focus your time more efficiently engineering parts and optimizing end customer production build schedules and deliveries.
We work towards smart solutions to issues during the NPI stage to limit scope for unwanted changes post-production stage once we hand over deliverables to clients. Being focused on customer satisfaction, we also guide customers about available options at the right delivery time and price points.
With Syncfab’s supply chain management technology and team expertise, we provide customers with maximum benefit.
Our strong network ensures optimal budget and leadtime allowing for streamlined negotiations for long-term agreements for blanket purchase orders, especially those which require larger volume purchases.
Let us quote your precision machined parts at no cost or obligation to: sales@syncfab.com
Stop Corona Virus bottlenecks in your OEM Supply Chain: SyncFab allows OEMs to slash procurement time and cost for precision parts with SyncFab’s rapid response supplier network secured by blockchain for anti-counterfeit, recalls, smart payments & more.
SyncFab helps Aerospace and Automotive OEM Purchase Managers stay on top of their demanding production schedules while shaving their parts procurement costs as much as half off benefiting from a vetted full range manufacturing capabilities network of 1000s of suppliers. SyncFab’s network precision machining capabilities include multi-axis milling and turning, routing, waterjet, laserjet, EDM, Electron Beam Welding, punching, cutting, shearing and finishing services including anodyzing, coating, plating, polishing and more.
SyncFab also works with OEM IT Departments whose aim is to secure more of their supply chain data with blockchain for ERP module and internal reporting system integration. OEM IT Departments can use their procurement activity blockchain records SyncFab generates to complete a Turnkey Supply Chain Blockchain Proof of Concept, Custom Use Case Pilot or Program Implementation. Furthermore — SyncFab’s patent pending parts procurement tokenization solution can be used to mitigate product fraud — isolate recall cost and time using blockchain track and trace feature technology at a fraction of the cost. Finally, OEM IT and Financial departments can partner to use the industry first MFG Manufacturing Token to create custom smart contract and supplier incentive programs such as RFQ and data sharing rewards.
SyncFab is Hiring for Key Roles!
We keep the talent pipeline open for candidates for: 1) Full Stack Blockchain Engineers, 2) B2B Enterprise Software Sales Professionals, 3) B2B Supply Chain Marketing Professionals, 4) Data Analysts. Email resumes to hr@syncfab.com
Talented and Eager to Make a Difference in Manufacturing? Join Us!
We are always seeking additional engineers. Interested in joining our team? Learn more and apply here.
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