The COVID-19 pandemic brought sudden and unexpected disruptions worldwide. It shined a large light on both the domestic and international supply chains, including their shortcomings. While many people didn’t know what a supply chain was, supply chain optimization quickly became a goal for many companies.
Like other businesses, machine shops were directly impacted by shutdown orders, social distancing, and other pandemic-related requirements. The role of a machine shop in the supply chain became increasingly important. Most were forced to change the way they operated to ensure continued service along with employee safety. Many shops adapted to the new normal and have continued their industry success.
What Is The Supply Chain?
This is the network of people and companies that take raw materials, create a product, and get it to the end user, whether business or consumer. Management is vital to supply chain optimization, including efficiency and lower overall costs.
A supply chain can be large or small, depending on the type of product produced. The chain can include producers, vendors, warehouses, transportation companies, distribution centers, and retailers that work in tandem from production to the final delivery of a product. Should one component fail, it can be costly for everyone involved.
Supply chain management (SCM) oversees and operates the activities that a manufacturer undergoes to convert raw materials to finished products they sell to their customers, whether consumers or businesses. SCM centralizes control of the processes needed to produce and sell products to their customers.
How a Machine Shop Fits into Supply Chain Optimization
Machine shops are the quiet partners in the larger world of manufacturing. They create the parts and components for manufacturers that are used in products we see and use daily. Additionally, machine shops play a vital role in the supply chain by filling in the gaps of other companies and keeping the supply lines flowing. They can support supply chains and offer high-quality manufactured parts to customers for larger companies for a reasonable cost and time frame.
Large manufacturers and OEMs can’t produce everything they need themselves, so they hire machine shops to make up the difference. Offshore machine shops can be risky to both a company and the supply chain. But the reshoring movement is bringing the work—and jobs—back to North America.
Smaller orders and niche manufacturing also contribute to the popularity and continued outsourcing to machine shops. Large manufacturers that work in bulk orders can outsource their “boutique” orders such as prototypes, small-scale, and specialty parts. This allows the larger manufacturers to focus on what they do best while trusting the smaller and niche orders to a specialty shop.
A machine shop in the supply chain is one of the many links that provide many components to the overall pipeline. The machine shops that supply manufacturers with parts and components contribute to supply chain optimization by making needed parts that aren’t mainstream or standard using the same high-quality standards as manufacturers.
The Best Machine Shop for Your Supply Chain Optimization Needs
Whether you need help fabricating a single component, a subassembly, or manufacturing a complete product, Brown Industries offers contract manufacturing for your company’s production needs.
