When you’re looking for ways to boost your competitive advantage, reducing lead times in your manufacturing processes is one of the most effective strategies. Lead times in manufacturing impact nearly every aspect of your business, from production planning and scheduling to time-to-market and profit margins. But if you’re wondering how to reduce lead time in manufacturing, you’re not alone. The steps involved can be complex and it’s important to partner with a manufacturer who can coordinate with you to optimize your production.
What Impacts Lead Times?
First, when looking at how to reduce lead times in manufacturing, it’s important to have a clear picture of the whole process. Generally, the production of your metal parts occurs in three stages: prototyping, production, and post-production review.
Prototyping involves creating a preliminary version of your component to validate its design, functionality, and manufacturability before going into full-scale production. The goal of prototyping is to refine the design of your part and optimize its functionality and performance.
The production stage is fairly self-explanatory; it involves the full-scale manufacturing of your metal parts based on the finalized design that was validated during prototyping. Processes vary based on the needs of the part, and require set-up, material procurement and preparation, the execution of manufacturing operations, and quality control and inspection throughout.
Finally, post-production review involves evaluating the manufacturing process to identify areas for improvement and to gather insights for future projects. This feedback informs future iterations of product design manufacturing processes to enhance overall efficiency and performance.
Within these three stages, there are various factors that can impact lead times, including:
- Part design and development complexity
- Material quality and cost requirements
- Skilled labor and production equipment
- Production volumes
- And supplier support
As you might expect, when it comes to how to reduce lead times in manufacturing, your supplier will focus on one, many, or even all of these areas.
How to Reduce Lead Time in Manufacturing
Consider Your Part Design
In general, the more complex and custom your part is, the longer it will take to develop and produce. This is because your supplier, no matter how experienced they are, may not have full visibility into the nature of your production until they are able to go through at least one iteration.
In order to minimize the impact of this, you should consider the advantages of utilizing standardized parts where feasible. You can even work with standardized parts as a base—the manufacturing engineers will know if a standard design can be tweaked to better suit your needs.
If, however, your part requires customization, be sure to take full advantage of the prototyping process. This allows your manufacturer to evaluate the part’s design and suggest changes in order to fully validate it before full-scale production. In turn, this often leads to a streamlined production throughput and reduced production costs.
Transitioning to a Single-Source Partner
Next, when you’re looking at how to reduce lead time in manufacturing, transitioning to a single-source partner can be incredibly impactful. Consolidating your vendor base puts more of your manufacturing in one place, which leads to improved communication, better coordination, and fewer points of contact throughout the process. All of this facilitates a smoother transition from one stage of the manufacturing process to the next and can even enable synchronized production.
Working with a single-source partner also gives you better control over your production schedule, as well as the quality of your finished products. When you and your team only have to coordinate with one partner, rather than several, it’s much easier and quicker to communicate any changes you might need to make or troubleshoot any areas of concern.
When choosing your partner, be sure to find one with experience in your industry, as this, too, reduces part development and learning time for shorter overall lead times.
Take Advantage of Post-Production Services
Another advantage of choosing a single-source partner to help reduce your lead times is that you can take full advantage of their post-production services. When your manufacturer also offers services like welding, surface finishing, and assembly, you can keep all your processes in one place and avoid the time-consuming burden of having to transport your parts between vendors. This also enables your manufacturing partner to maintain a steady flow of production and delivery based on your needs.
In short, in-house capabilities simplify the production process, which offers several key advantages, namely:
- Streamlined logistics
- Reduced delivery times
- Minimized risk of damage during transport
- Lower shipping costs
- Less fuel and energy consumption
Select a Domestic Supplier
Finally, when you’re planning out how to reduce lead time in manufacturing, choosing a domestic supplier is another decision that can have a significant effect. While overseas suppliers might offer lower rates, you still might need to deal with delayed communications between teams, long waits for delivery, and a supply chain that is more vulnerable to disruptions.
Domestic suppliers, on the other hand, are easier to get in touch and coordinate with. Because they’re closer, they can also often ensure faster shipping and a simplified supply chain. On the occasion that you need to change something about your production, such as scaling up or down, domestic suppliers are more likely to be flexible and to respond to changes in demand quickly. Domestic markets also often better economies of scale due to shorter transportation distances and shorter lead times.
Reduce Lead Time in Manufacturing with Solutions from Advantage Metal Products
At Advantage Metal Products, we are a California-based manufacturer of high-performance metal components. For more than 31 years, we’ve provided end-to-end manufacturing solutions for our customers in a range of industries. Our services include everything from engineer support and prototyping to project management and assembly services. In other words, we are a one-stop shop for all your metal parts needs. If you’re looking to reduce lead times with a domestic manufacturer that has the expertise you require for successful production, get in touch with our team today and we’ll get started.
