The COVID-19 pandemic has made at least three things clear:
- Manufacturing businesses must watch every dollar to avoid unnecessary spending.
- An additional need for manufacturing solutions has been recognized in light of the pandemic.
- Manufacturers can make it through these challenging times if they take full advantage of the first two points, and that’s true for businesses as well as manufacturers that create the products for them.
As of October 2020, the manufacturing sector still had 647,000 fewer jobs than it did in February 2020 before losing 46,000 jobs in March and 1.3 million in April.
Manufacturing industries that have been and will likely continue to be impacted include printing and publishing, general manufacturing, industrial machinery and equipment, fabricated metal products, and apparel and other textile products. According to a report by Creditsafe, these industries represent more than half a million businesses in the United States, and more than 17 percent of them are expected to experience a negative impact due to the negative economic effects of the pandemic.
But that doesn’t have to be the case. With smart marketing strategies, money-saving techniques, and optimized internal processes, these industries can overcome some challenges.
It definitely reinforces why a tool sampling/tryout shop is a necessity, as doing things the right way the first time will save money, time, and resources.
It also highlights the importance of taking advantage of local manufacturing business, tool tryout shops, and metal and plastic molding companies. When you choose local, more of your dollars stay within the country and the state. With that in mind, businesses who choose local for manufacturing would help other industries survive the pandemic as well. Reinvesting back into our own internal supply chain may even grow critical manufacturing sectors within the United States despite the economic downturn.
When you choose a local tool sampling/tryout shop, you can oversee the project while identifying any tweaks that must be made before finalizing the product.
Using local tool sampling/tryout shops for manufacturing needs offers numerous benefits.
1. Innovative Solutions
Many manufacturers have been forced to create creative solutions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, such as by developing enhanced shields. A plastic molding tryout shop can help these manufacturers create the best results.
2. Finalizing Products
Saving money is going to be crucial to businesses’ survival, so choosing a local tool sampling/tryout shop will allow manufacturers to test and perfect products without the overhead costs. Seeing the sample and trying out the product will help you identify any tweaks that must be made. Consider the mold layouts, heat transfer analysis, tooling design, and manufacturing design.
3. Remaining Competitive
Choosing a local tryout shop allows you to literally watch the process unfold. You can identify tweaks that need to be made, and if necessary try again later. Any improvements made in the effectiveness of a part during tryout may increase your business’s competitiveness.
4. Ensuring that Your Product can be Manufactured
The last thing you want is to waste resources developing a product only to discover that it can’t be made. Trying it out locally will enable you to recognize glitches and fix them sooner.
In fact, designing for manufacturing with a goal of making a product easy to manufacture will save you time and money as you create as high-quality product. After finalizing design drawings and prototypes, you can create the product in the local molding facility.
5. Identifying Timelines
After sampling the product, you can determine a more precise timeline for runs. Even if you do have to tweak your project in order to perfect it, once you get it done, you will have a better idea of how long it will take before full completion.
6. Saving Money, Time, and Resources
Some experts say that the jobs lost due to the pandemic may never return, which means you may have to do more with less. When you choose a local molding shop for sampling and tryouts, you eliminate any need for additional spending associated with export, import, supply chain needs, and travel.
Using local companies such as Plastic Molding Development in Sterling Heights, Michigan for tryouts and sampling may help manufacturers save time, money, and resources.
The economic recovery will not occur quickly. University of Michigan economists forecast that the recession in Michigan alone could last beyond 2022, and the nation might not recover until after 2024.
However, businesses that find a way to adapt until then will be stronger for it. Although financial analysts predict that the economy may not recover for several years, the pandemic may change the face of manufacturing in the United States in the future for the better.
