Outsourcing your parts machining to another manufacturer can seem like a serious leap of faith at first, especially when you’re used to controlling the product from start to finish. However, letting fear curtail innovation and the push to build a leaner, more efficient manufacturing infrastructure will only set us back as we step into an increasingly technologically advanced era. In order to compete in this faster paced market, building relationships based on trust, reliability, and quality is essential to forming solid supply chains with qualified outsource manufacturers. At PD Peterka, our track record speaks for itself. Over the last decade, fasteners machined in our facility have helped keep one of the nation’s busiest transportation systems on track, allowing 2 million people to get to work every day.
It’s difficult to compete with that level of tried and true reliability. So why should we?
Specialization in Machining
Like the medical industry, the diversity of manufacturing technology has lead to a boom in specialization, which has become essential to effective lean manufacturing. Not every machine shop or manufacturing plant needs to be able to create the best in every part, in every material. Rather, becoming specialized in a few related areas, while outsourcing certain parts and processes to other specialized machine shops and manufacturers ensures that the best in each area of manufacturing have a hand in the final product. Instead of competing with each other to do everything, it’s exponentially more efficient to outsource essential parts like the fasteners we supply to major city transportation networks to those who produce them best.
This allows other machine shops to continue to do what they do best, and rely on trusted venders and collaborators to keep driving their own specialties. At the end of the day, the job gets done, even better than before.
How to Outsource in Your Own Backyard
Outsourcing doesn’t mean shipping jobs overseas, or damaging local economies. In this context, it means the opposite. There are countless machine shops and small manufacturers all over the country, each with its own specialty and business model. Doing your research on the kinds of previous work these machine shops and manufacturing plants have done in the past can give you an idea of the quality and longevity of their parts. Sometimes simply asking a local manufacturer what jobs they’re most proud of is a sure fire way to learn what kinds of parts and services that operation loves to work on. If it happens to be the kind of work you’d rather not continue in-house, you’ve scored an opportunity to start building a mutually beneficial relationship with a potential outsource manufacturer.
It’s these kinds of relationships that maintain the infrastructure most take for granted. With increased specialization and outsource manufacturing, like the kind we do at PD Peterka, manufacturers can lead the way towards a leaner industry.
For more information on PD Peterka’s previous work for the transportation industry, and outsource manufacturing in general, contact us here.