Looking For A Manufacturing Partner? 8 Things To Consider

Article Overview

Wondering about how to efficiently manage your company’s production and distribution of products to customers? If so, then one of the most logical alternatives you can consider is to look for a manufacturing partner. Aside from helping companies reduce production costs and capital, this option also enables them to obtain high-level efficiency and productivity with their production.

Whether you believe it or not, contract manufacturing could benefit your business in more ways than one, especially in terms of handling product distribution marketing and project requirements. If you’re wondering how to get started with this, it’d be better to start with choosing a manufacturing partner.

Whether you’re a small startup or an already established company, even the complicated processes of manufacturing could be bearable if you know the appropriate ways to do it and the right people to work with.

What Is Contract Manufacturing?

Commonly known as the process of hiring a third-party company to manage the production and distribution of products, contract manufacturing is considered one of the fast-rising trends in the business industry over the past decades. Specifically, it aims to help companies efficiently sell their products without spending much capital on production and labor costs while ensuring quality services to their customers.

Contract manufacturing could be beneficial in producing and distributing products like the Northwest Flow Technologies positive displacement blowers and other related prototypes in various fields, including the engineering, metallurgy, and pharmaceutical industry.

To help you more, here are some important pieces of information you need to know about contract manufacturing:

Intrinsically, contract manufacturing is a form of outsourcing that mainly occurs when small businesses seek the help of a third-party company to manufacture their products. In most cases, the hiring firms are the ones that approach the contract manufacturers with their product design and a partnership proposal letter.
One of the many good things about a contract manufacturing partnership is that it allows business startups to launch their products without allotting large portions of their budget to their initial capital.
The manufacturing company oversees the hiring firm’s production, shipping, and distribution of units of designs.
Besides that, manufacturing businesses are also responsible for providing quality services, including handling the creation, production, and testing of products. In some instances, they could even aid in launching prototypes or developing another product for the hiring firm.
Moreover, contract manufacturing partnerships help small businesses to manufacture products without paying for the space, equipment, technology, and manpower, which are crucial for production.
If you’re new to contract manufacturing, it’d be better to seek help from professional manufacturers and learn how this specific marketing strategy works.
Particularly, some of the vital aspects you need to consider while studying the manufacturing business model may include material costs, labor, and tooling.
While establishing a business and running a factory could sound financially straining on first-time business owners, this option could significantly help them cut production costs and effectively manage their budget.

Choosing The Best Manufacturing Partner

Now that you already know what contract manufacturing is, the next thing you need to do is to find the right company to work with to obtain your manufacturing objectives. As easy as it may sound, choosing a manufacturing business could be tricky, especially with many considerations to ponder upon.

While the pre-production processes of products could be overwhelming, it’s crucial to know your priorities and set your standards before you choose a manufacturing partner. This is to ensure that turning the finished designs of your products would be managed efficiently.

To help you more, here’s a list of some key aspects you need to consider when searching for a manufacturing partner.

Efficiency

When looking for a manufacturing company, one of the most important factors you need to consider is their efficiency and capability to handle big-scale manufacturing of products. Although some businesses would automatically go for an already established company, it’s still better to have a list of companies you can choose from to better weigh down your options.

As a first-timer, you must know that manufacturing partnerships isn’t just about looking into an equipment list. It’s also about hiring a reliable manufacturer to help with material selection. In some cases, original equipment manufacturer’s (OEM) requirements may vary, including the automation of production processes, increasing the output, and reducing shipping and distribution costs of manufactured products.

Besides that, you might want to consider doing the following:

While searching for a manufacturing partner, it’s important to choose a company that could meet your demands and has specific capabilities to support your product manufacturing.
Determine whether that company could make adjustments to push through your initial units of designs and allow process adjustments. A potential manufacturing company also needs to be flexible enough to respond to your customers’ demands despite struggling with time management issues.
Being in the business industry has its fair share of risks and menaces. Due to the fast-changing trends in the market and high expectations of customers, you also need to consider a company’s level of adaptability to better achieve your goals.

Track Record and Experience

Aside from their efficiency and flexibility, another factor to consider is the company’s track record. Although you might find it trivial compared to other aspects, there’s no going around the fact that a specific company’s record of performance and credentials could significantly mirror its capability and competence.

Specifically, a business manufacturer’s track and reputation could provide a clear image of the quality of its works. Not only that, but you’ll also gain insight into their reliability and effectiveness as a partner, if ever.

To help you get started with researching your prospective company, you can consider the following:

For starters, you might want to consider asking for relevant company reviews and case studies from reliable organizations that can vouch for the manufacturer’s dependability and trustworthiness. By doing this, you can gain a better sense of that company’s capacity to comply with the demands expected of them.
Apart from that, you might also need to consider the type of materials you need for your products and discuss them with your chosen company to help them visualize your designs.

Qualifications And Expertise

Although most people would usually associate a company’s qualifications with its track record, you should know that these two are different from each other in many ways. Studying a company’s qualifications doesn’t solely mean you need to depend on its certifications. On the contrary, you need to ensure that your prospective manufacturing company could meet and comply with the level of work you might be expecting.

Particularly, here are some steps you can take to efficiently determine a company’s expertise:

As a rule of thumb, you must prioritize hiring contract manufacturers with ISO certification and possess a distinct quality management system (QMS) prepared for you.
Aside from that, you also need to consider the company’s expertise in product development, as well as revamping manufacturing techniques, materials, delivery schedules, and part dimensions.
But before that, you must first prioritize your product’s manufacturability to ensure that it can be easy to produce.

Communication Skills and Customer Experience

Another vital aspect you need to consider when looking for a manufacturing partner is a company’s ability to communicate well with customers and business partners. Despite being one of the key factors behind successful manufacturing partnerships, some businesses tend to give lesser regard for this aspect.

To save yourself from future hassle and conflicts, it’d be better to select a company that could provide you detailed updates regarding your projects and promotes good communication between your companies.

To help you more, here are the things you can do as well:

If you’re working with a project manager, you might first consider their availability and if you can easily contact them regarding your concerns.
Aside from that, you should ensure that they could keep you updated with the processes of manufacturing and won’t just contact you when problems arise.
Also, you need to know if you’ll be able to work with a professional leader and team who can work well with you. This is to ensure you’ll have reliable people who you can contact in terms of handling technical support to optimize the success of your product launching.

Logistics Capabilities and Reliability

In choosing a manufacturing partner, you need to consider not just their competence and efficiency but also their operational capacity and logistical ability. In its simplest aspect, a company’s logistics skills refer to how it manages processes of acquisition, development, storage, transportation, and distribution of manufactured products.

Not only that, but it also determines whether your prospective manufacturing company could beat your shipment schedules and transport products on time. Additionally, it allows businesses to know their partner’s capacity to obtain the desired level of responsiveness at the lowest possible price.

To effectively achieve your goals, you can consider the following:

For starters, you should have a comprehensive plan for the shipment of your manufactured products to global markets.
After that, you must know if your manufacturing partner could comply with all the essential international documentation and required shipping papers on time to avoid any conflict.
As a general rule, you must choose a reliable manufacturer that could properly handle your company’s logistical and transportation duties, as well as manage your product shipping to prevent possibilities of certain issues, such as contractor delays, mishandled inventory, insufficient supplier capacity, and equipment failure.
Moreover, you must also ensure to plan ahead of time and prepare for any potential disruption that could affect the smooth delivery of your finished products to carry on with your project without any hiccup.

Budget

Talking about the vital considerations in choosing a manufacturing partner, your budget is also one of the primary aspects you mustn’t forget when deciding on a manufacturer. No matter how much you plan for your manufacturing objectives, the main factor that could affect the outcome of your production is the amount of budget you allocate for your desired quantity of products.

Apart from that, your overall production cost may also depend on the manufacturing and production processes your partner could offer.

To avoid any potential issue, you might want to consider doing the following:

In preparing for your pre-production processes, it’d be beneficial to learn about how to execute proper business budget planning depending on the level of production you’re aiming for.
In this aspect, you’ll be able to get a better sense of how the overall production could cost, and you can manage your finances ahead of time.
Besides that, it’s crucial to factor in the level of quality control your prospective manufacturer could offer to know if it fits your requirements. Although you might find this alternative financially straining and pricey, it could help you save on defect corrections, and product recalls.

Equipment and Technology

Among the other vital aspects that you need to consider in finding the right manufacturer, another important factor you need to keep an eye out for is a company that could provide more advanced equipment and technology to manage your production.

Your prospective manufacturer should also offer you lower production costs and help you familiarize yourself with the newest technological advancements you can utilize to optimize your production. Also, they must accomplish manufacturing within a shorter period to better comply with the scheduled deliveries.

Staffing

Aside from the key aspects mentioned above, you should also consider whether your team could build a good working relationship with your prospective manufacturing partner’s team. Although some businesses would’ve preferred to establish a professional working connection with their colleagues, it’s still better to choose a partner with who you can get along well to ensure the success of your project.

Bottom Line

Managing the production and distribution of products could be a daunting task to accomplish, let alone have first-timers handle it. Likewise, it could be equally tricky to find the right manufacturer for your company, especially with many considerations to ponder upon. Fortunately, even the complicated processes of manufacturing products could be more bearable if you know the appropriate ways to do it and the right people to work with.

For starters, you might like to consider some of the considerations listed above to resolve your concerns and better achieve your goals without spending too much on production and labor costs. By doing some of them, you can now efficiently manage your production processes.