On-Demand Manufacturing Safeguards Supply Chains

Dear Desktop Engineering Reader:

Managing risk in your manufacturing supply chain means more than having a list of Plan B suppliers ready if your main provider goes down. It also means strategically managing your supply chain from the start of product development and lifecycle planning through manufacturing. Today’s Check it Out link takes you to a new white paper that explores how you can leverage on-demand manufacturing to mitigate and quickly respond to supply chain disruptions, reduce financial risks and accelerate time to market.

Proto Labs’ “Reducing Risk Through On-Demand Manufacturing” white paper is not your typical paper covering on-demand manufacturing as a success somewhere. It’s a sober presentation showing product managers how on-demand manufacturing plays a pivotal role safeguarding supply chains while improving design, production and competitiveness. This paper will get you thinking about your processes and, for many, will thoroughly retool how you perceive rapid manufacturing and prototyping service providers.

Your daily concerns are the backdrop: Shorten product development and life cycles, proactively prepare for supply chain disruptions, rapidly respond to opportunities, beat back competitors, reduce bottom line costs and grow profits. The proposed solution is to institute an approach that establishes safeguards within your supply chain that act both as shock absorbers and as rapid reaction forces.

It incorporates within your design and production processes and supply chain an on-demand manufacturing and rapid prototyping outfit like Proto Labs that can provide 3D printing, CNC (computer numerically controlled) machining and injection molding fabrication quickly.

The paper offers four likely occasions these supply chain safeguards will come into play and prove their worth in addition to service disruptions: Quoting with design for manufacturability analysis, rapid prototyping, pilot production and short-runs and, lastly, as a bridge to high-volume production. Each is examined in its traditional manifestation and compared to an alternative, easy-to-implement approach or options an on-demand manufacturer can offer.

Time and money saved factors big here. For example, intelligent quoting can shave weeks off of development time and proactively trap design flaws. On-demand manufacturers can deliver parts while your contract manufacturer gears up production. Soft aluminum tooling for pilot injection molding projects is quicker and cheaper to produce than steel molds.

In short, “Reducing Risk Through On-Demand Manufacturing” bursts with ideas that can strengthen your supply chain and accelerate your design cycles cost-effectively. This is a good one. Don’t miss it. Hit today’s Check it Out link and download your copy.

Thanks, Pal. – Lockwood

Anthony J. Lockwood

Editor at Large, Desktop Engineering

Download“Reducing Risk Through On-Demand Manufacturing” here.