The cost of completing a solar installation project continues to drop. Part of the reason is that component manufacturing changing from being outsourced to multiple suppliers to single sources.
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Using “pull production” rather than “push production” -- meaning, using a demand-driven approach rather than a supply-driven approach -- is a manufacturing philosophy that’s existed for decades at this point. In an industry like metal roll forming, “pull production” means everything from raw[...]
Customers don't ask for much. All they want is the right product at the right price, delivered on time and free from defects. That doesn't seem unreasonable, but many manufacturers struggle to hit all four points simultaneously. Hitting all four on a consistent basis is harder still.
Kanban inventory management was developed in the 1950s by Taiichi Ohno, a Toyota executive. He took notice of the way supermarkets handle and replenish their inventory, and applied those strategies to the manufacturing process. Today, kanban is a major component of lean manufacturing[...]
The idea behind a
supply agreement
-- whether with a roll forming company or another manufacturer -- is pretty simple. The supplier provides everything a customer needs for a particular service, and the customer can count on a specified price and single-source service. Everybody wins.[...]
A continuous improvement mindset encourages both initiation and implementation of changes to manufacturing processes to improve “customer delight” (our quality policy statement) and other measures of company performance. In Dahlstrom's case, manufacturing process improvement helps us offer both[...]
“Which metals will get cheaper?” It’s a question OEM customers are asking even more these days in light of the latest events in the Section 232 investigation of unfair imports.
U.S. manufacturing has had its share of bad turns over the last 50 years, with entire industries being outsourced to other parts of the world. Not good news for roll forming companies. Starting with products like clothing and electronics, we gradually saw large corporations move their production[...]
Any manufacturing setup --- yes, even yours --- has limits in achieving its goals. The Theory of Constraints (TOC) is a management methodology that claims systems are as vulnerable as their weakest person or part. TOC aims to improve that constraint until it’s no longer a bottleneck to your[...]
When you think about supply chain risk mitigation, what are the first things that come to mind? For us, the usual suspects are:
