Resurgence of the “Made in America” Movement

The resurgence of the “Made in America” movement is a direct response to the amount of jobs, particularly manufacturing, that are being sent overseas. While importing a majority of our goods does often lead to cheaper prices, it leaves Americans with fewer jobs, overall lower incomes, and generally worse quality products. With the recent presidential election, both parties have turned their attention towards this growing movement and the dedication of federal spending to rebuild infrastructure and American manufacturing. In support of states where manufacturing jobs are heavily relied upon, the President has already imitated plans in support of his “buy American, hire American” campaign slogan. 

In early February 2017, President Trump himself made a visit to Boeing’s South Carolina manufacturing plant. This trip, which followed previous commitments from other US-based manufacturers, including Carrier, to keep re-invest in manufacturing in the US, was strictly in support of his “America First” message. President Trump is quoted saying, "Our goal as a nation must be to rely less on imports and more on products made here in the USA.” The President has also spoken of future plans and proposals, including a substantial penalty for companies who move their jobs outside of the US, in order to help kick-start growth in America’s original industry. 

And the President isn’t the only person in the country who believes in this movement. Many companies are proudly advertising their Made in America status, despite the cost and competition challenges that come with manufacturing products domestically. Keeping manufacturers inside our borders allows companies to have better control of supply chain efficiency, product quality, and results in more money in the pockets of US employees. 

What does a “Made in America” Future Look Like? 

Studies have shown that the companies whose suppliers and customers are in the same country will be the ones that ultimately survive economic recessions financial hardship. This is a result of two main factors: 

1. Intricate global supply chains have higher cost variances as a result of global politics. Additionally, risk is significantly larger leaving companies vulnerable to supply disruptions and quality control problems.
2. Labor rates, which are the primary reason why companies choose to outsource production, are slowly catching up with that of the Western world. In due time, the cost of logistics along with reduced cost savings from labor, will outweigh the cost of domestic production. 

A future where America is indeed put first looks promising for both US citizens and US industry. This movement could bring more manufacturing jobs back to the US and ultimately begin to re-balance the global economy.

How can we help? 

InsideTheBox (ITB) is a US based industrial product development consulting company. Supporting American manufacturing since 2016, ITB helps US-based manufacturers efficiently and effectively manage through the lifecycle of industrial production. Regardless if you out-source or maintain US operations, ITB can help you mitigate risk, discover cost efficiency, and improve operational performance.

Impact of TPP on Global Supply Chains

What is the TPP and How Does It Affect Me? 

The TPP—otherwise known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership—is a free-trade agreement that is held between the US and eleven other countries that all touch the Pacific Ocean (hence the name). This agreement is fairly new in its creation, having just been signed by officials in each country in February of 2016 and includes the following countries: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Vietnam, Singapore and the US (The US has since been removed from TPP via executive order). 

The TPP is the world’s largest trade partnership, even bigger than the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). The twelve countries involved in the TPP make up 40 percent of the world’s total gross domestic product (GDP) equivalent to $107.5 trillion, 26 percent of the global trade, and contain 793 million consumers. It’s no surprise that the TPP is going to have a huge impact on global supply chains. Understanding the impact of the US involvement can mean serious change for your global supply chain. Below are some of the pros and cons of the US’s position in the TPP and how the President’s decision will affect your operations. 

Effects of US Staying in the TPP 

Pros: 

There’s no doubt that the TPP helps to boost exports and economic growth in the now global economy. If the US is to stay involved within the TPP, the results could mean more jobs and wealth for both the US and the other eleven countries involved. US commercial exports are calculated to increase by approximately $123.5 billion, mainly in the machinery, auto, plastic and agriculture industries. The TPP would also remove the 18,000 export taxes placed on US goods to other countries, ultimately adding approximately $77 billion a year into the incomes of US workers. 

Cons: 

The potential faults in the TPP agreement means that the US opens its doors to tax-free imports from foreign nations. In many cases and industries (i.e. retail) this could mean production moving overseas to cut costs. This could mean seriously adverse effects for various job markets in the US. This would also entail the prevention of wage increases in blue collar jobs. Free trade agreements often contribute to income inequality meaning improvement in business bottom lines, but also the stalling of wages and salaries for workers. TPP encourages the procurement of cheaper goods from low-wage countries and therefore it becomes very possible to create job-loss. 

Bottom Line: 

Whether it’s a good decision or a poor one, the fate of the US in the TPP has yet to be seen. 

InsideTheBox is a US based industrial product development company offering logistics consulting services. As we are a company built by manufacturers serving manufacturers, naturally we are monitoring how the US’s involvement with the TPP will affect our industrial manufacturing industry and its workers.

4 Ways to Easily Cut Supply Chain Costs

If you’re looking to increase your business’ profits without having to increase sales, cutting supply chain costs is a great place to start. There are several ways to reduce costs such as cutting down on inventory, maximizing shipments capacity, and minimizing resource allocation and retrieval costs. By managing and reworking every step of your supply chain, you can end up recouping anywhere from 5% to 10% of all production costs. 

Not only will rethinking how you manage your supply chain save your business money, it can also make your operations run more smoothly and efficiently. An easy place to start your consideration is with the investment in supply chain management consulting. Although spending more on your supply chain seems like a crazy way to save money, this investment can pay significant dividends over the lifecycle of your products. Below you will find four simple and easy to implement ways to easily cut down supply chain costs. 

Consider Customer Demands 

When a supply chain is typically evaluated, most companies start with the supply. With a focus on customer service and demand, surpluses in inventory and critical to quality product features become extremely apparent. Generally, there is significant room within supply chain operations to reduce inventory and better measure quality inventory, ultimately cutting logistics, warehousing, and capital costs. A good start in measuring customer demand is to analyze purchase order patterns by season or by month. With inclinations to customer forecast, it is possible to adjust your supply base and inventory levels accordingly. 

Dual Source 

By using more than one supplier, you increase competition for orders and have a better chance of getting a good deal. This technique also helps to mitigate quality and delivery risks. Multiplier suppliers help your business avoid costly delays in receiving product, but can also help you mitigate the repercussions of holidays, port closures, and other unavoidable situations. Duel sourcing from entirely different geographic areas also allows you to reduce logistics costs. Suppliers who know they are competing for business typically will look to give discounts based on volume orders or reveal hidden margins that sole-sourced producers will not. 

Streamline Your Purchase Order Process 

A large portion of your supply chain cost comes from your ability and methodology in executing orders. Human error and a lack of communication creates opportunity for the order of incorrect part numbers, old drawing revisions, and even incorrect quantities. Not only is this a cash-flow issue, but also an inventory issue. By implementing a more stringent purchasing system and process, risk can be mitigated. Leveraging and investing in other purchase methodologies, such as blanket order systems, Kanban procedures, or processes for Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery, can end up saving money in capital and operating expenses. 

Rethink your Operations 

When operations are stressed, employees and products are prone to more quality and delivery issues, ultimately drastically increasing your costs. One way to take the stress off operations and off your employees is to consider outsourcing. More and more companies today are outsourcing production services and operations such as warehousing and transport. Although you will certainly pay a fee for these services, warehousing and logistics companies typically offer greater capacity, skill, and effieincy with regard to the specified operations. This also is an option that prevents the need to invest in new technology and equipment. 

Bottom Line 

The supply chain is one of the first places you should consider when reviewing your operational costs. Your business stands to see substantial upside by thorough analysis and review of supply chain operations. Supply chain management consulting is a rapidly growing service industry that can provide significant value to any industrial operation.

How a Product Development Consultant Can Aid Your Business Organization?

A product development consultant helps companies to create profit by more efficiently and effectively developing a product and getting it to market. Most importantly, this type of consultant is used to help ensure products meet customers’ quality and delivery needs, but also establish operational processes so that production is stable and sustainable. Typical product development services include research and planning into product design, prototyping of production processes, the development of key performance indicators, and the creation of quality and control practices. Below are examples of how your industrial business can progress through the help of product development consultants: 

1. Industrial product development consulting is not only needed for new products, but can also be implemented into existing operations. Continuous improvement efforts are utilized throughout manufacturing operations to ensure production is sustainable and is fit to meet the ever changing market conditions and needs. 
2. Analysis of client operations and market research can be used to help identify goals and limitations. Defining the scope of product development challenges is critical to ensuring success. Set achievable goals that are unique to your operations. Simply throwing a framework at your problems will not make them go away. 
3. Make a clear action plan with key milestones and initiatives for the lifecycle of your product. Product development should never be complete with first article approval. A strong industrial product development consultant will ensure that your operations have been established to sustain the lifecycle of your program. 
4. It is critical to always re-visit your market and your customer needs. Feedback is a tremendously useful tool when you can derive specific actions from it. Always account for your target market needs. Typical Industrial product development services will include the establishment of key performance indicators and critical to quality requirements. 

Why Hire A Product Development Consultant? 

A lot of cutting-edge companies are trying to find new ways to develop products and get to market faster. A global market has created increased competition and effective design, development, and deployment is critical to building a strong market base. Although many won’t see value in the investment, consultants will typically have the versatile skillset that can enhance a management team’s capabilities. In the long-term, the potential upside from increased market share, as well as a quicker return on investment, easily off-set any consulting investment.

Key Focuses of Product Development

Before any product can be sold, it must be defined, designed, and built. Product development consulting services are rapidly growing in importance in today’s markets due to the need to quickly get products perfected and ready for the market. As the market changes, product needs change too. Rapid development and deployment can make or break a product’s sales success. At its root, the purpose of product design and development services is to grab maximum market share and to create an error-free production process. Product development services also are one of the key drivers behind strategic innovation. Not only do product development consulting services focus on the creation of new products according to the need of customers and ever changing market conditions, but they also support the reinvigoration of existing products in target or struggling markets. 

One of the core skills of product development companies is the ability to effectively identify the needs of a client and turn them into an efficiency product strategy and design. While innovation is always preferred, practicality in terms of its development, timeline, and cost are most critical to effectively accelerating growth and sales. By effectively designing a product and its production processes, product development consulting services help to create demand in the market. Quality assurance is also critical to ensuring sustained success and customer satisfaction. 

The main functions of product development consulting are: 

1. Translating a customer’s idea to a sustainable and practical design.
2. Defining Critical to Quality and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) from prototyping processes. 
3. Drawing comparisons with the top competition to develop a go-to-market strategy
4. Speculative justification for continuous improvement of production processes 
5. Applying analytical and professional skills to design new products and renovate existing products to expand market share. 

Success is measured through the collection of data. The ability to identify outlier data and leverage tools such as statistical process control to better manage production results in effective and sustainable product development and deployment. The use of performance metrics and KPIs is critical to enforcing best practices.

Benchmarking in Supply Chain Operations

Logistics consulting services are one of the best ways to improve your warehouse operations and supply chain efficiency. Typical services include throughput management, warehouse operations, international logistics & transportation, and the development of new procurement systems. One key tool in the effective implementation of these services is benchmarking. Benchmarking allows logistics consultants to compare a business’ operations to some of the top performers in the industry in an effort to glean insights and information about how to operate more efficiently. 

Benchmarking allows an analyst to find out whether operations are “on-track” to meet future expectations. Additionally, benchmarking is a tool that can be used to constantly measure progress against clearly outlined target performance metrics. This type of system also lays the framework for the implementation of other improvement studies such as gap, SWOT, and stakeholder analyses. Overall, benchmarking is a fantastic tool to help companies define future business improvements. 

How to implement benchmarking in supply chain management operations? 

1. Analyze your own business and identify specific operations or processes that you are looking to improve. By targeting specific trains of your operations, you can focus your benchmarking studies and therefore your process improvement tasks. If there is one particularly troublesome process, it is possible to do an entire benchmarking study within that process. It is advisable to hire logistics consulting services for this type of work. Using a consultant from the start of a change management program is more effective than implementing mid-way through.
2. Recognize the key performance indicators (KPIs) for selected processes. Examples of KPIs include: cost, time, efficiency, and quality.
3. Document existing operations. Without having a baseline of your operations and your key performance metrics, it is impossible to measure improvement.
4. Identify competitors or your target for improvement. Targets can vary based on the type of improvement that your business is considering. In some cases, benchmarks can be used for reference and future state operations will approach your target. In other cases, your future state may match the target or even surpass, or breakthrough, the benchmark. 

Specifically, with regard to supply chain operations, the top 10% of companies typically spend 5% less on logistics and supply chain operations than their competitors. While 5% may not sound like much, when you are spending millions of dollars on logistics costs, it adds up. Experienced consultants who have witnessed these types of best practices and operations can be major keys to your business’ success.

Benefits of Logistics Consulting Services for Your Business

Supply chain consultants and logistics consultants can provide a range of logistics and transportation solutions to help your business sustain growth. These consultants’ expertise consists of everything from purchasing systems to international shipping and warehousing solutions. Despite typically vast experience in different types of industries their functional skill-set is universal and can help develop sustainable logistics models that can account for the ever-changing business environment. 

Recommendations and solutions provided via logistics consulting services can be useful for a wide range of different business models, industries, and product types. Logistics consultants are experienced in all aspects of the supply chain including services such as: 

• Inventory Planning 
• Supplier Management
• Strategic Sourcing
• Supply Network Design
• Warehousing & Transport Operations

Provision of inventory means offering training to the staff to achieve the best service and inventory results across a company to get maximum profits and client satisfaction. Transportation operations are very important when coordinating a transport bid for a number of different production sites owned by one organization. 

Logistics consulting services also offer services with regard to inventory management, including Kanban management and Just-In-Time (JIT) delivery, benchmarking, logistics modeling and routing, and warehouse design. For example, new types of warehouse design services are developing across industry in order to improve the efficiency of storage systems and eliminate the need for massive inventory levels. These types of enhancements on traditional warehousing can help automate ordering systems, ultimately saving time, space, and improving cash flow. 

Experienced logistics consultants can also help companies to build better relations with their consumers and their suppliers. With improved logistics performance and business efficiency, product delivery is hassle free. Delivery is more reliable and sustainable over the course of business relationships. Additionally, it helps organizations gain competitive advantage through reduced transportation costs, better buying power, and reliable customer service. 

The investment in a strong consultant ultimately helps a business save money through cost reductions in operations and capital costs. With reductions in inventory, comes an increase in risk. A strong consultant will also look to mitigate and transfer risk out of your operations in accordance with improved business efficiency. Ultimately, logistics consulting services can offer a variety of solutions to enhance business efficiencies and reduce costs. Although many recommendations can be standardized across multiple industries, there are also benefits to using niche services for your business market.