Tag: manufacturing

Nearshoring to Mexico

Nearshoring: ¡Vamos a México!

Driven by federal incentives, geopolitical risk and pandemic aftershocks, reshoring and nearshoring continue apace. For manufacturers compressing supply chains, nearshoring to our southern neighbor provides a comfortable, cost-effective option. Companies of all size are feeling the pull – even 88% of small and medium sized businesses are “reshuffling their supply...

Interim Leadership

Transforming a Plant as Interim GM

We all lose our heads sometimes, but it’s big trouble if a factory does. When a leading manufacturer of aerospace fabricated assemblies lost its facility general manager, executives knew it could take months to find a qualified replacement. Unfortunately, their 50,000-square-foot integrated contract manufacturing facility needed a leader immediately. Kormac...

Manufacturing Facilities Optimization: Detailed Plant Scenarios and Modeling

Reduced manpower requirements by 33%, cut warehouse overtime, and optimized off-site storage locations

As US manufacturers consider reshoring, they’re often prompted to reevaluate the configuration of existing facilities, including storage. We help such leaders develop detailed plant scenarios and models to guide recommendations on combining, consolidating, redesigning, and/or automating plants, including estimated costs and savings for each scenario. To follow is a chemical...

Reshoring

Geopolitics Drive Nearshoring & Reshoring

“Geopolitical risk and the advantages of domestic manufacturing are motivating more and more companies to move production back to the U.S., driving job announcements to record-breaking highs.” Assembly Magazine’s October assessment reflects our own experience: reshoring’s proximity to end-use customers provides compelling relief from logistical issues, risks, and costs. Kormac...

Automotive Aftermarket

Maximizing Throughput and Flow

A leading automotive aftermarket manufacturer was facing large impending order volumes and turned to Kormac for help in improving throughput, quality, and facility flow. Together, we developed a future vision for one-piece flow through their entire operation. Because new equipment proved cost prohibitive, Kormac and the client team sought to...

Cost Management

Rebalancing the margin tug-of-war

As the labor and supply cost rollercoaster continues, we are working with several clients to identify new management levers. Among them: Increasing the frequency of cost reviews to ensure faster customer price adjustments and/or tying customer pricing to component market indices Executing Value Analysis and Value Engineering efforts to drive...

Lean Liberation

Lean as Resource Liberator

As manufacturers grapple with rising material and labor costs, we’re seeing renewed interest in Lean. Kormac has decades of experience in employing Lean/Six Sigma/Kaizen methodologies to boost quality, productivity, and speed while reducing cost, backlog, and facility floor space. We begin each Lean engagement by analyzing our client’s product line...

Global Manufacturing: Supplier Visibility and Planning

Reduced airfreight costs by 43% ($47 MM) with increased component visibility

Continuing our discussion of current supply shortages and bottlenecks, Kormac excels at helping clients cultivate supply visibility and reliability amidst challenging conditions. For example, a global manufacturer of vehicle seats sought to maintain 100% OTIF (On-Time and In-Full order fulfillment rate) but suffered from inadequate visibility to component suppliers’ capacity...

Heavy Equipment

Order Backlogs & Supplier Availability

Temporary supply shortages are making economic headlines as drivers of inflation and order backlogs. Kormac addressed the same uneven supply availability during the last recovery. One of our clients, a global Oil & Gas heavy equipment manufacturer, lost critical suppliers when the 2008 economic crisis drove many small machine shops...