Contract Manufacturing is a process that’s about more than getting the parts you need. Here at Ferriot, we think of it as a partnership – and like any good partnership, that means working hard to ensure you get what you need.
How Can Contract Manufacturing Help Grow Your Business?
Working with a contract manufacturer can allow for someone else to:
- Source componentry from domestic or offshore manufacturers, based on what you want and need.
- Qualify vendors so you don’t have to.
- Mold and paint plastic parts for use in the final product.
- Assemble sub-assemblies or the final product.
- Ship products to order, or provide Vendor-Managed Inventory services.
- Drop Ship directly to Customers if you don’t need them going through an intermediary.
How does this help you?
- By working to reduce your costs you’ll be able to spend less capital, hire fewer laborers, spend less time on QC, worry less about purchasing, and know that someone else is ensuring the technical skills of the people involved.
- You’ll also be able to control your inventories at manageable levels, without the stress of needing to focus on the small details.
- Our Contract Manufacturing method will also provide flexibility in forecasted highs and lows, helping you further control costs and inventory levels when you know the market is changing.
- Finally, it offers one stop shopping for everything you need – no more worrying about whether or not all of your partners can supply what you need in a way that works for you.
How does it work?
- At the very beginning, a customer comes to us with a product and complete specifications. We’ll take a long look at the product and figure out what would be needed to really put it into mass production.
- Next, we’ll source and qualify components for the product, with an emphasis on achieving the level of quality our customers want to have. This is when problems are most likely to occur, and why we place so much emphasis on qualifying vendors and suppliers.
- Once we’re certain that the components will be available, we’ll train qualified operators for assemblies and get them ready to produce the products you need. Our experience with Contract Manufacturing has given us the contacts we need to find the best people for each job – whether it’s fifteen workers or five hundred, we’ll find and train them so you don’t have to.
- While we’re doing that, we’ll create work instructions, QC criterion, and test methods. This is another common area for problems – sometimes, things that look good on the drawing board don’t work out well in practice, so we’ll be monitoring the process, listening to the experienced operators, and solving issues as soon as they arise.
- Once we have a finished product, we’ll establish packaging for it, working to keep costs as low as possible while still properly protecting the items inside.
- From there, we’ll determine inventory levels based on forecasts and start working to meet those levels. In most cases, this involves steadily increasing production until it hits an estimated plateau – other items tend to be more seasonal, and we’ll adjust the production lines as necessary if they won’t be running for too long.
- Finally, we’ll configure shipment of products and logistics to ensure that everything gets to its destination on time. From determining the correct freight class to making sure you don’t get shipped more than you’re prepared to handle, we’ll be reviewing every step of the process.
Manufacturing is complex, but we don’t think it should be more complicated for you than it needs to be. Contact us today for more information about the contract manufacturing process and what we can do to solve your manufacturing problems.
