Never before has there been such a need for flexibility in manufacturing through the supply chain as we see in today’s world. COVID-19 has turned world markets upside down and it is now more critical than ever that organisations engage with the right partner today and for the future.
With demand often difficult to predict, combined with the volatile supply chain market means that achieving a reliable supply of your products to market can be a challenge to maintain, and requires significant internal resource.
Collaboration is key
When we think of flexibility we often only think of flexibility of finished goods. However, there are a lot of factors in which the right partner can offer flexibility. From Engineering support to collaboration on inbound logistics through the buffering of component stocks either with your partner or buffered at the supplier through a negotiated agreement. Planning and optimized scheduling of your supply chain will often dictate how flexible you can be with your customers, so getting it right is paramount.
A good manufacturing partner will work with you on the supply chain to minimize the impact or your ability to ship products. However, a great partner will go above and beyond this offering multiple fulfilment options, tailoring a service model to meet your unique business needs.
Long-term partnerships
The long-term partnerships with customers we build at NOTE, understanding of projects and priorities, consider every element of technical and commercial needs. Key to achieving this is our customer-focused approach, close collaboration and taking a holistic view of the business and market enables us to ensure our customers’ inventory and lead-times are kept to an optimal minimum.
Key to this is our flexibility and responsiveness. With demand often difficult to predict, it is easy to get into the ‘Just in Case’ mentality where you order parts and manufacture too many goods just to make sure you cover your customer demand. With our Kanban system, the ‘Just in Case’ mentality is eliminated, and products are manufactured when required using a pull, not push model. Our well-engineered Kanban system self regulates by pulling lower level build when demand dictates and conversely slows up when demand falls. Meaning we never waste your valuable resources.
Combine this with our build to order (BTO) and configure to order (CTO) services, where we Kanban at sub-assembly level and then manufacture finished product to order. This has the added advantage of reducing long lead times from months to weeks and reduces your inventory costs in finished goods, providing flexibility through the supply chain.
