Uncategorized | ALTEX Wire and Cable

Ouch! That Is Really Starting To Hurt

altexadmin — Mon, 21 Oct 2013 15:35:06 +0000

By this time you’ve formulated the questions you need to be asking in order to decide if a manufacturing partner makes sense for your company. This may have led you down the path toward a decision to outsource. Now, you might be feeling the sting of the difficulties that arise when it comes to finding a contract manufacturing (CM) partner.
Most companies identify a few main barriers they face when trying to select a CM partner: difficulty understanding the cost benefit, a lack of experience in finding and working with an outsourcing partner, and needing time to clean up operations before outsourcing them.
At ALTEX, we spend considerable time getting to know our prospective customers in order to understand their manufacturing needs and obstacles. We then provide solutions that demonstrate how we can best become a collaborative CM partner by alleviating the challenges you face at this point in the road. At this point in your journey, several of these pain points might begin to sound familiar:
Cost Pain – I’m already pressured to cut costs and don’t want to add on another.

There comes a point in the growth of every company when its leaders need to look at the economies of scale. If you consider the amount of financial resources dedicated to in-house production such as labor, soft labor, overhead, maintenance and repair and capital investments in machinery – outsourcing may be a major cost-savings opportunity.
Process Pain – I have a solid product, but don’t have the resources to spend on product development and design.
The right collaborative partner will provide the flexibility for you to move some or all production outside of the business in order to focus on research, design and innovation. During growth you may come to the realization you need to focus on what you do best and move some tasks offsite. If an engineer spends 80 percent of his or her time on the people, processes and production and only 20 percent on development, your company could be leaving quality improvement, product innovation and new sources of revenue on the production floor.
Time-Crunch Pain – I’m being challenged to get products to market more quickly. I don’t have time to look into outsourcing.
A good CM partner will provide solutions to improve processes to get to market faster. A qualified CM will have staff focused entirely on material and process innovations, and have established relationships with suppliers. They will create streamlined processes that work effectively and efficiently.
Outsourcing needs will be different for every company. Identifying and addressing pain points before they become tremendous problems will save you from a lot of frustration down the line. While the process of deciding on a CM partner can seem overwhelming, ALTEX aims to lessen the pain by collaborating with you on what your company needs the most.
For more information on beginning the outsourcing process be sure to download our Outsourcing 101 whitepaper.

Meet Katie Slabinski — Customer Service Specialist

altexadmin — Thu, 10 Oct 2013 15:48:41 +0000

After quite a few years in the retail business, Katie Slabinski found herself transferring her skill set to the manufacturing world. That skill set included merchandising, staff management, training, customer service and operations.
“In retail everything you do is customer focused. Focusing on providing great customer service and product satisfaction so that the customer returns or continues to do business with you,” shared Slabinski. “Even though ALTEX’s focus is manufacturing the same principals apply.”
Slabinski joined ALTEX in May of 2012 as customer service specialist. She grew up in Pennsylvania. Her older sister moved to Indiana to attend Purdue University and her father followed soon to take a job with Indianapolis Public Schools. After her high school graduation Slabinski, her mother and younger sister all followed from the east coast to Indiana.
She attended Indiana University with a degree in telecommunications and a double minor in biology and public and environmental affairs. With Slabinski’s soft-spoken nature and draw-you-in smile, it is easy to see why customer service comes naturally to her. She really enjoys the people interaction aspect to her job.
“My daily routine involves checking email from customers, running reports, analyzing data and following up with clients on any questions, orders or timelines they may need answers for,” shares Slabinski. “ALTEX’s philosophy on customer service is one I believe in personally too. I believe customer’s respect the fact that we treat everything we do with them with a sense of urgency and do so with honesty and provide realistic expectations on delivery and production.”
Organization and operations seems to be a natural way of life for Slabinski. She shares that she likes the behind-the-scenes responsibilities of keeping things running smoothly and troubleshooting quickly and effectively to provide ALTEX customers with top-notch customer service and open communication.
Slabinski lives less than a mile from her office. When not at the office she enjoys walking her dog, gardening, cooking and tackling home improvement projects. Slabinski also admits to a love of “moving her furniture around” something she probably got from her years in retail. As a self-professed homebody it is also obvious that she values her time with her close and extended family — all of who still live in and around Central Indiana.
“I guess most of all I enjoy becoming a respected and go-to resource for our clients,” Slabinski says. “Just last month I had a request for some pricing on some parts. I was able to provide a solution that was within budget and could be delivered on time. We got the order and I quickly moved things through new customer registration and was able to satisfy that new customer’s needs. The best part was that he called back two weeks later to request pricing on a new need. Seeing our customer’s business grow because of great service and a quality product makes my job worthwhile and shows we must be doing something right.”

Outsourcing — When is it time to buy vs. make yourself?

altexadmin — Thu, 03 Oct 2013 21:29:10 +0000

At ALTEX we spend considerable time getting to know our prospects in order to understand your specific challenges and then design solutions that demonstrate how we can be of service in your search for the right manufacturing partner. If you are just beginning your search and embarking on the necessary assessments needed to make some decisions, these are some questions that you may be asking your team as you formulate your future production needs.
Many different yet co-dependent departments within your organization may be feeling these pain points at different times throughout the production process as project demands become specific to their particular process task.
If you are in purchasing and material management you may be feeling pain in these areas and should ask yourself these telling questions:
– Am I having raw material issues?
* Excess material? Lead-time issues? Price escalation?
– How level is my demand?
* Production spikes?
– How many product part-numbers could be eliminated by outsourcing my assemblies?
* Reduce scrap?
– Are tooling costs high when you launch a new harness?
* Focus on standardization?
If you are in charge of operations or a manufacturing engineer you may be feeling pain in these specific areas and wonder:
– Am I facing capacity issues?
* No available workforce? Facing too much overtime? Is floor space tight?
– Am I trying to eliminate secondary processes from my manufacturing floor?
– Would it improve process time to have harnesses come in as sub-assemblies?
* Other integration? Reduce part number count?
– What type of processing equipment do you have on your floor?
If your design engineering staff is sharing their frustrations perhaps asking these questions could help:
– Do we have a dedicated department for harness design?
* Who manages the harness design? Is this a core competency?
– How “busy” is our engineering group?
* Do we need assistance in the design of our harnesses/assemblies?
– Is application tooling an issue for us?
* How is the connector technology chosen?
– Is there a focus on standardization of the raw materials?
* Can we reduce tooling costs, lead-time or excess material?
We often hear that the first pain that manufacturer’s face is actually finding the time for the actual search for a qualified manufacturing partner once their decision has pointed them in the direction of outsourcing. The process does take time but can reap significant rewards for your company. Work with others in your organization to develop a selection process, a clear set of selection criteria, and requirements for the future contract manufacturer for quick as well as long-term successes.
For more in-depth help on outsourcing view our Outsourcing 101 white paper or for an up-close view of how ALTEX has helped one Indiana-based company make the transition from making to buying visit the IBL, LLC case study.