Frequently Asked Questions
What is global sourcing?
Global sourcing is finding and procuring goods and services on the international market. The goal is to take advantage of lower prices, cheaper raw materials, specialized expertise, and/or lower taxes or trade tariffs allowing a product to be manufactured more cost efficiently.
How do I optimize my cost?
Optimizing your vendors’ efficiencies to lower his costs. This can be accomplished by visiting and partnering with you major suppliers regardless of their location. Based on my experience, a company took a 5% cost increase and turned it into a 3% cost descrease by allowing the vendor to maximize their efficiency.
What is logistics?
There are different types of logistics. In this case, Production Logistics is the management the transportation of products, or parts for products, or material to create parts for products from one place to another.
In order to have a healthy supply chain, the logistics of moving material to manufacturing sites, parts to assembly locations and finished products to warehouses and then to businesses or consumers’ needs to be carefully managed. Too much material costs money to store, too little creates costs by idle manufacturing facilities.
Why do I need to optimize my supply chain?
With a well optimized supply chain, your costs are low and your yield is high, both being integral to the success of your business.
Share data with your suppliers so they can optimize their inventory. Having too much inventory will create storage costs. Having too little inventory may mean delays in shipping your product, and customers may choose a competitor instead of you.
Optimize your logistics, getting the lowest prices for the delivery times your customers want.
Review and analyze your supply chain on a regular basis, to make sure it is healthy and working for your business, while still keeping your customers happy.
As an entrepreneur, why do I need a market assessment?
A market assessment is an analysis of market conditions and competition for a new product. It gives information on customer wants and needs regarding the new product under consideration. If the new product is in a highly competitive market, it helps define price and quality points where a new product could make inroads. If it is an innovation, it gauges customer interest. It is critical to have a good market assessment to avoid creating a product with no market or introducing one that already exists.
Having an assessment also gives you the relevant information to improve your product and "create a better mousetrap."
Do Invention Service companies work?
You've likely seen ads for companies that - for a fee- will help you get your invention patented and make you a lot of money.
How do I optimize my supply chain?
Make your vendors partners instead of adversaries. Visit them, regardless of where they are located. Share data with them so they can provide you the best, most cost effective service. Often, that results in price savings and preferred customer status when supply chains are squeezed, as with the pandemic.
Have them visit your manufacturing plants. Let them see how the product they supply is used. Share data with them. They might have ideas on how to optimize your product that they haven't shared because they didn't know what you were manufacturing.
Review and analyze your supply chain on a regular basis. Make sure it is healthy and resilient in order to keep your customers happy.