Reshoring: Helping U.S. Manufacturing Compete through Enhanced Domestic Production

As a side note, while it would appear as though the worst of the pandemic is now behind us, in the manufacturing world, the struggle to regain control of supply chains and return to pre-COVID delivery performance and staffing levels is still an issue. Many companies are learning that their historical models for staffing and compensation are simply not luring people back into their factories. Thus, even though it would seem the recovery is here, the negative impact is still being felt.

We see a problem with our domestic manufacturing presence that is applying pressure from two issues, one being our goal to maintain a U.S. presence, the other being the after-effects of COVID and a reduced labor pool to draw from. Our approach includes an ability to address this shortfall in qualified staff to replenish production teams. In collaboration with our client, we qualify certain manufacturing tasks to be converted to automation as part of our overall solution plan. Depending on task complexity, this conversion could alleviate the need to re-hire qualified workers, and over time would help boost output and reduce delivery time, potentially restoring pre-pandemic production performance.

At the outset of a journey to implement this new, enhanced manufacturing approach, a company might do well to consider the following three first steps to launch an improvement project:

• Problem Statement, including business goals (volumes, yields, UMC, new features, etc.).
• Existing equipment assessment: What works well, where problems or bottlenecks occur, where and what improvements need to be made.
• Generation of User Requirements Document, what the intended solution needs to provide.

Since Re:Build Optimation is not bound by attempting to fit an existing equipment model into a client’s problem statement, we can alternatively seek out residual value in a customer’s existing equipment base and offer targeted technology upgrades to supplement and enhance the machinery that is capable of meeting needed performance metrics. We do this by visiting our client at his factory and identifying where and what in his production workflow is working well, and what machinery might benefit from the implementation of automation, either to replace lost labor or to provide a needed performance boost.  This on-site investigation should generate a list of possible tasks where:

• A targeted technology upgrade or enhancement to an existing machine might be an option to achieving a client’s goals or requirements, as driven by how complex or sophisticated each task is, and thus get an initial idea of how challenging a technology implementation for each considered task might be.
• Consideration of a pre-engineered machine module that may be available and useful to a particular company’s needs (for example, welding, painting, palletizing, riveting, and cutting are all manufacturing methods that offer automated equipment adaptations). The intent would be to then integrate a viable module into the client’s line.

In the typical progression of pursuing an automation project, once a business concern has reached the point at which they have done their initial due diligence and are committed to pursuing the potential improvement project, a decision has to be made to further develop an appropriate and beneficial solution. This step is of major importance, as it will set the conditions by which the potential project will be defined, engineered, and ultimately executed. As has been noted here, this can be a crucial decision point, as our hypothetical manufacturing entity must consider whether to two strategically different types of solutions:

A total replacement (new manufacturing line) as quoted by a purveyor of pre-engineered equipment. This solution is typically high-cost and involves compromises or changes to our client’s production methods to accommodate equipment functionality limitations.

A custom-designed solution, as we have outlined, that takes advantage of the residual value of existing assets and dispenses capital expenditure to make targeted improvements. We believe that this is the least disruptive to a client’s existing and future operations, and by design fits their financial needs.

At Re:Build Optimation, we view the challenge of assisting our clients with deriving their most beneficial capital solution as an exercise in fluidity, where the eventual outcome is tailored to the client’s business needs, production nuances, capabilities, and cost and schedule constraints. It, therefore, follows that when pursuing an automation opportunity, we guide our customers through a series of phases and gates that we have learned to drive a predictable outcome, irrespective of applying pre-existing solutions or technologies. With the client’s strategic goals, business objectives, and User Requirements in hand, we are well-equipped to come alongside our customers and collaborate with them to innovate and create a system tailored to their specific needs.