Overview
The unfortunate truth about manufacturing offshore is that unit cost is rarely reflective of total cost. Nor is every low cost country (LCC) contract manufacturer equally equipped to provide the support required by highly regulated medical product design and manufacturing. A strategy based on having your team train or continually audit a low cost contract manufacturer into compliance with your systems, typically doesn’t result in real cost savings if your internal costs as well as the supplier’s charges are measured. In short, for offshore contract manufacturing to consistently save money, the contract manufacturer needs to not only have a competitive unit cost. It must offer the same level of systems and processes found in domestic suppliers. The challenge for a supply chain management team becomes finding a contract manufacturer capable of delivering more than unit price reduction.
The unfortunate truth about manufacturing offshore is that unit cost is rarely reflective of total cost. Nor is every low cost country (LCC) contract manufacturer equally equipped to provide the support required by highly regulated medical product design and manufacturing. A strategy based on having your team train or continually audit a low cost contract manufacturer into compliance with your systems, typically doesn’t result in real cost savings if your internal costs as well as the supplier’s charges are measured. In short, for offshore contract manufacturing to consistently save money, the contract manufacturer needs to not only have a competitive unit cost. It must offer the same level of systems and processes found in domestic suppliers. The challenge for a supply chain management team becomes finding a contract manufacturer capable of delivering more than unit price reduction.