Maneuvering Through The Current Supply Chain Disruption

Transformation efforts have become a key business strategy among most manufacturers today – you can find more information about it on the West Monroe website with the Corporate Transformation Series. Embracing innovation, growth and agility, the focus on enriching the bottom line has become paramount. Many times, this involves increasing capacity on the plant floor. In parallel, it means identifying faster and better ways to pinpoint inefficiencies in the current processes.
2020 was a unique year with a global pandemic, economic uncertainty, political chaos and natural disasters from wildfires, state-wide power outages, tornados and flooding. There were times when it felt as if anything that could happen would.

The pandemic hit manufacturing hard. Some plants were shut down as non-essential, while others stretched (essential) to meet the chaotic demand as many transitioned to working remotely—growth trends for technology increase from intelligent products to wireless technology. Food and beverage markets changed, and consumer spending shifted to online.

Managing our businesses during this time was also challenging throughout the volatility and uncertainty. While the market message was consistent that things would improve, the slapback was more robust and sudden than expected.

The state of supply chain disruption in 2020 and 2021 has been a large-scale example of how supply chain disruption can upend entire industries. Among a handful of other complications such as the Suez Canal blockage, COVID-19 caused immense constraints on raw material supplies, semiconductors, and other commodities.

The plastic industry experienced shortages across major industries, like shipping delays and surcharges.

The pressure to move quickly with capacity increases is real. It cannot be minimized, but this is not the time to step away from successful company strategies or make compromises due to equipment and resin availability.

Buying new or used machinery to meet an urgent need will add costs to the life of that equipment. The opportunity to work smarter in the chaos defines our future.

There are solutions we can assist you with. According to the International Data Corporation (IDC):

  • 90% of all manufacturing supply chains will have invested in the technology and business processes necessary to improve productivity by 5%.
  • Over 82% of manufacturers have either implemented, piloted or considered IIoT.

The commonly identified technologies are automation, Industry 4.0 Initiatives, training of the workforce.

Turner Group has identified some ways we can help you. Our goal is to meet you where you are and share our experience with solid and creative solutions to meeting today’s challenges.

  • Vetted automation houses that can provide a simple and highly complex solution to meet the labor shortage
  • A clear path of identifying your current workforce’s ability to move them into more profit-centered work
  • Technology that will give you live data as to where the opportunities lie to improve your OEE.
  • Networking with suppliers and customers to identify and locate surplus equipment that can be rented or borrowed.
  • Working with other processors to pick up temporary capacity needs.
  • Working with resin distribution houses that can meet your needs.
  • Communicate with our network to find surplus resin.
  • Share our connections to universities and trade schools for recruiting.

We will be providing information on our website, APP and blogs over the upcoming months are what we see throughout the supply chain.

We are happy to meet with you and identify how we can help refer you to our network.

Other link of interest: Manufacturing Report WestMonroe 

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