Rarely do middle-market companies have the same resources available to larger companies which ultimately limits their ability to mimic procedures ...

Contributing writer Ed Nance writes about lessons learned and what to watch out for when global sourcing managers step up to the task. Read what this experienced sourcing manager has learned from more than 18 years experience, particularly in Asia.

While not all contract manufacturers manage purchase orders the same way, the information that follows provides you with a reasonable understanding for what might take place inside most contract manufacturers with regards to issuing; managing, canceling, and filing purchase orders.

Quote pricing and purchase orders are driven by purchasing, programs management, and materials management departments in the contract manufacturer. Read how these functions drive the process and the role of the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system.

As contract manufacturing business development wins more OEM programs, the risk of the contract manufacturer not being able to recover his investment decreases because similar outsource product manufacturing programs often have similar startup support requirements.

While there are some common outsourcing manufacturing contract formats, no two contracts are identical and, there is no viable, common platform that can be applied to every outsourcing contract pricing model with regards to either party’s profits.

The following is a reasonable representation of a manufacturing service level agreement a contract manufacturer would present to a technology OEM for the purpose of building a robust product program.

Our survey asked electronics contract manufacturers, original design manufacturers, and prototype houses to rank, in order of importance, their top 5 improvement opportunities. Read what they selected.

Typically, what many OEMs are presented with from their contract manufacturing partners, with regards to supply chain contract scheduling and schedule changes, allows for schedule changes to occur but there is a limit to the degree of change in manufactured product volumes delivered.

This article breaks down the outsourcing cost and savings analysis for an OEM outsourcing program while also presenting the contract manufacturer’s cost of performing supply chain management services for the OEM customer’s business.