Outsourcing manufacturing

Many manufacturing firms have started outsourcing manufacturing because the costs to produce the products in the United States are too expensive or the cost to hire employees is too expensive. When you are focusing on cutting costs, outsourcing manufacturing is one of the best ways to do it.

Surprisingly it can be much cheaper to relocate your manufacturing plant to China and ship the products back to the United States. Part of working with china manufacturing plants also means you need to be able to hire an auditor that will helpyou assess the suppliers and to make sure both companies are maintaining quality standards and ethical standards as well. Since different countries have different operating procedures, it can be hard to standardize procedures overseas and through different cultural barriers.

Some of the challenges you will face as your outsource manufacturing include the following:
1. Quality of materials and effectiveness of the materials
2. Internal and external audits
3. Review of management procedures
4. Continuous process improvement
5. Documental control and organization
6. Identification of waste, control, and disposal
7. Recruitment of staff and training of staff

To help with quality control and t make sure you meet quality standards, you will want to focus on additional things like lean manufacturing or Six Sigma. A popular method for quality control is Lean Six Sigma. This allows you to not only focus on reducing your defect ratio so your customers have quality products, you will also focus on improving the rate in which the products are produced along with the employee morale.

Overseas manufacturing can save your company money, but is the hassle of cultural barriers worth it? You also need to consider how expensive your raw goods are and where they are coming from. A big problem lately has been dealing with the lead paint issues. In the United States, it is recognized that lead paint is dangerous to children and adults and when toys are manufactured using lead paints, you will have a product recall.

Will the manufacturing plant pay for the product recall and handle the publicity to fix your tarnished reputation or will this fall directly to your company? This is a big issue to talk over before you start outsourcing manufacturing.

Surprise your manufacturing plants by sending in quality control checks and audits. This will help to keep the manufacturing plant on their toes and to make sure they are listening and honoring the needs of your company. You must be able to have good communication with these facilities in order to ensure that everything is working correctly and that they understand your needs and that they are actually following them.

Hiring a quality control specialist is a must with outsourcing manufacturing. It is the only way to make sure corrective issues are implemented when you are trying to address problems within the company's manufacturing and assembly lines. Some of the things to discuss with the quality control specialist include the following:

• Health and safety


• Employee morale and pay


• Manpower needs


• Resources


• Management structure


• Commercial conditions


• Business licensing


• Legal procedures


• Company history


• Location


• Local infrastructure

The quality control specialist will be able to make sure your company is able to run correctly even though they are in other countries. This will help to protect the reputation of your company and it will ensure that your company will remain successful for many years. Random checks are the best way to make sure you are running a successful plant and that you have gathered all the right information to make sure you are maintaining a high reputation.