The global light rail industry is forecasted to reach $4.97 billion by 2026, growing at an annual rate of 9.8%. While Europe continues to maintain the highest market growth, the recent rise in light rail passengers across major U.S. cities has led to approvals for light rail extension projects throughout the country — expecting to drive market growth even further. Light rail vehicles produced by companies like Bombardier, Siemens, Kawasaki, Hitachi, Alstom, Ansaldo, and others are expanding across the nation due to advancements in areas like noise reduction, comfort and safety.

Imagine notifying your two largest customers that their lines will be down because you won’t be able to deliver their products for 16 weeks.  Imagine the daily conference calls, site visits, audits, and over-time costs while your organization is turned upside down trying to deliver product, all for one simple reason: a key part of the process was never formally documented on an assembly that is newly outsourced, or outsourced from a new supplier.

Twenty-five years ago, Liberty Electronics’ system for creating and distributing work instructions was 100% paper-based. At Liberty, as with most companies in the industry at that time, engineers created work instructions for each assembly, printed out each document, and distributed them to manufacturing personnel. These manufacturing employees, in turn, depended on these paper documents in order to assemble components according to contract. Upon completion of an order, the documents often had to be filed for reuse at a later time.

In developing standardized procurement processes, operations and purchasing decision-makers should consider strategic sourcing as a part of their procurement best practices. However, they should keep in mind that strategic sourcing is not a single project but rather a key continuous process.

For those companies sincere about establishing control over their supply chains, incorporating strategic sourcing principles should be evaluated. Decision makers must ask: Do we control our supply chain, or does our supply chain control us?

Understanding Turnkey Manufacturing

Turnkey manufacturing solutions are a common outsourcing practice. The term refers to outsourcing production to a single manufacturing partner who controls the process from beginning to end. Companies choose this model because it eliminates the hassle of managing relationships with multiple vendors, making it is as simple as “turning a key” to complete a project.  

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) in the aerospace and military defense industries rely on efficient integration of many different parts with little margin for error. As a result, effective aerospace and military manufacturing relies heavily on maintaining good business relationships between different buyers and suppliers on the production chain.