Posts Tagged
Industry Trends
For manufacturers, intellectual property security is a strategic sourcing decision – not just a legal formality. While offshoring often promises lower costs, it can introduce unforeseen risks such as stolen designs, counterfeit products, and the loss of physical tooling leverage. This podcast looks at why legal contracts and NDAs are often unenforceable across international borders,…
For many years, procurement success was measured by three familiar pillars: quality, speed, and cost. Hit your specs. Meet your lead times. Protect your margins. In a stable environment, that model works. But we’re no longer operating in stable times. Volatility is no longer a temporary disruption that manufacturers can plan around—it’s become the operating…
Pricing conversations have never been more difficult—many leaders find themselves trapped in a “pricing power paradox”: the urgent need to raise prices to stay profitable, met by a wall of customer skepticism and eroding trust. As “greedflation”—price increases that outpace real cost drivers—becomes a growing concern for procurement teams, manufacturers risk turning long-term partners into…
Offshoring can seem like a straightforward math problem: lower piece price, acceptable lead time, quality checks out—sign the agreement and move forward. But for many manufacturers, that equation breaks down the moment intellectual property (IP) becomes part of the value. IP risk doesn’t show up as a line item on an invoice. It shows up…
The manufacturing landscape has reached a tipping point where volatility is the new baseline. For decades, the Just-in-Time (JIT) model prioritized lean efficiency, but today’s “supply chain surprises” have turned lean inventories into production liabilities. This podcast explores the critical shift toward a “Just-in-Case” (JIC) mindset, where strategic buffers act as essential insurance against downtime…
Volatility is no longer a temporary disruption that manufacturers can plan around—it has become the norm. Tariff uncertainty, shifting trade policies, supply chain surprises, and ongoing geopolitical tensions continue to reshape global supply chains with little warning. Natural disasters, another pandemic, and other major disruptions can emerge at any time. What once felt like isolated…
Motorcycles give riders a sense of freedom and power, as well as the satisfaction that they look cool while cruising down the highway. But as bike OEMs continue to engineer new models with advanced performance and eye-catching appearance, there’s another priority impacting their design decisions today – environmental sustainability. One iconic motorcycle manufacturer in the…
No plastic pellet, flake, or powder left behind. That’s the goal of Operation Clean Sweep. One of New Berlin Plastics’ resin distributors, M. Holland, is totally committed to it and encourages members of its supply chain to do the same. Operation Clean Sweep (OCS) was launched in 1991 to help every plastic resin handling operation…
Higher inflation. Continuing labor challenges. Scattered material and component shortages. These and other challenges will affect some industries a lot in 2023, and others not as much. 2023 may be another challenging year, depending on what industry you’re in. The New Berlin Plastics leadership team has built resiliency and agility into the company’s DNA and…
A variety of events during the last several years have transformed the workplace. The pandemic. The great resignation. Labor shortages. Supply chain issues. Knowledge management, which was once a less important concern, has now become critical. Companies that can capture, utilize, and improve upon their collective knowledge to improve their processes, training, and products have…
