No matter what industry you’re in, manufacturing parts (internally or outsourced) can take a big toll on a company’s budget. Thankfully, there are experts that have been in the industry for decades now that know what it takes to keep your costs low and your profit high. Try these cost-reduction strategies to keep your manufacturing costs at bay.

Improve Your Process

From overhead costs (if you’re manufacturing internally) to forgetting to solidify a process of working with another company to stay in-budget and on time (if outsourcing manufacturing), there are many ways that companies get tripped up, costing them in the long run.

If you have the resources to produce your own parts, keeping a close eye on your overhead costs, such as building costs, administrative costs, storage costs, etc.. Re-evaluate regularly to reduce the amount of unnecessary money going out.

On the other hand, if you need to outsource your manufacturing, setting a clear, defined plan and design will reduce the amount of time that you spend going back and forth with the manufacturing company and making changes during billed time. Also having a point-person is essential to making sure everything stays on task.

Manufacture in Bulk

There can be many benefits to blanket orders, but the biggest benefit is that your labor costs of either manufacturing internally or the costs of hiring an external manufacturing company to manufacture your parts or components will significantly decrease. From an internal standpoint, all your time, resources and staff will be used at one time instead of spread across multiple time frames, and you get the same benefit when outsourcing, reducing startup time and labor which only adds to the bottom line.

Rethink Your Materials

Some materials like titanium or steel cost more to purchase and can take more time to manufacture with than other materials like polymers or certain alloys. Reworking your manufacturing design to substitute more cost-effective materials, while still maintaining the integrity and strength of your parts is one of the best ways to cut manufacturing costs.

Work With a Qualified Manufacturing Team

Let’s face it - whether you manufacture in-house or outsource, a lot of time, energy and resources can and have been wasted by utilizing a team that is not equipped for the job. To solve this, it’s crucial to either have the right trained machinists and engineers in place to efficiently and cost-effectively manufacture in-house or make sure you do your research first to ensure that you choose the right company that is going to fit your specific needs.