Nibletz Staff
For any entrepreneur it’s only natural to be concerned with keeping the overheads down. A watchful eye on the purse strings now could save you a whole heap of trouble and expense later, right? The finest line many startups walk is between ensuring that initial costs are kept as low as possible while making sure that quality is up to scratch, without cutting corners.
The assumed truth of offshoring
It’s easy to assume that the attractively low costs of locating your manufacturing operations offshore are a given, but looking at this link you’ll find plastic injection molding services can be cheaper to keep on American soil, as production costs rise overseas.
Reshoring operations to the US has helped numerous businesses that rely on manufacturing and the benefits go beyond the monetary.
Quality Assurance
When you’re starting out, the last thing you want to risk is the possibility of associating your business’ image with a shoddy product. Today’s consumers demand a level of quality that can be difficult to attain if you’re choosing a manufacturer solely on the basis of cost from a country with lax manufacturing laws. Low cost manufacturing tends to be done with low quality tools, using low quality parts and assembled by low quality labour. Moreover, with the inherent delays caused by transatlantic or transpacific shipping you might not notice an inferior product until it’s already too late.
You’re in the driver’s seat
Entrusting your operations to an overseas manufacturer can feel like letting a stranger into the driver’s seat of your car, shutting your eyes and hoping for the best.
However much you do your due diligence on a prospective manufacturer it can be difficult to build trust and communications with the inevitable language, cultural and temporal barriers.
Locating operations in the US not only allows for quicker and clearer communications but allows you to assert greater control over the quality of your product. You can also be safe in the knowledge that you know your own country’s manufacturing laws and can trust that workers on the factory floor are adequately trained, adequately paid and working in a fair, safe environment.
Streamlined Production
There are unavoidable complications and costs when it comes to overseas manufacture. Your business may or may not be able to wait for several weeks while goods are transported from overseas and undergo the inevitable myriad customs checks. The transporting of goods from factory to warehouse, to store or consumer is made inherently longer and prone to unknown variables.
Bringing the process to US soil simplifies the distribution process, reducing your time delays and saving you additional international shipping costs.
Your products will also be in closer contact with the lucrative home market, enabling you to respond to national and regional demand with greater agility so that less stock is wasted or poorly distributed.
The Macro Economic Benefits
By keeping manufacturing operations in the US you’ll be creating much needed jobs. More jobs means more marginal propensity to consume which means more growth for everybody. You’ll also be feeding innovation through manufacture and doing your bit to solidify the country’s status as a player on the world’s manufacturing stage.
