Why nearshoring is the manufacturing wave of the future
In the current business landscape, consumers expect a faster turnaround time. Waiting is something that no one likes to doand with how quickly the world is evolving, any slowdown cannot only upset clients but also make it possible for other organizations to hit the market first.
One major source of business slowdown is a solution that many companies have adopted over the years because it helps save money – offshoring. A recent article from Manufacturing Business Technology Magazine examined this idea by interviewing Victor Wong, the CEO of Austin-based company Music Computing.
His company has been innovating the marketplace with the MotionCommand Clearview TouchScreen and needed to figure out the best way to manufacture it. Offshoring production to China would seem like the best way to save money on mass production right?
"Here's the short-term view," explained Wong. "Overseas manufacturing makes great sense. We get to produce products for 10 cents on the dollar, we get great quality, and we don't have to pay for insurance. It comes to the States, and we can sell it at a lower price than our competitors, or at the very least we can compete at the same pricing level as other people who manufacture overseas. The long-term view is… never ever do that."
Wong goes on to explain that nearshoring manufacturing has several benefits. First, companies are not risking their intellectual property with a business across the globe. The second comes in when discussing innovation. Being able to create prototypes close to home, makes it easier to tweak designs during the creation process and address customer issues that come to light.
For companies to do this successfully, they need to deploy manufacturing business software that will be able to take operations to a new level and make nearshoring more effective.