The State of Manufacturing in 2021

The State of Manufacturing in 2021

If you are in shipping and manufacturing, you know about the product curtailments, the roller coaster of prices on metal and other raw materials, labor shortages, and other challenges facing you over the last two years. These challenges impact the supply chain from start to finish, leaving some end-users and clients with the shortest end of the stick. We’ve put together a few details that give a little explanation, info on how these challenges impact Component Packaging, and what we are doing to combat them.

Product Availability

With growing contentions between China and the U.S. amid pandemic and political waters, fewer and fewer products are coming out of China each month. Delayed containers, some just stuck at ports or on the coast, create clients that are running out of products. U.S. manufacturers are forced to find local products which can be high cost and in limited quantities.

Truck driver availability is limited, from Covid to employment changes amplified already existing challenges that the trucking industry has battled for the last decade. The average age of on-the-road drivers is 46, but the industry is struggling to hire new drivers to keep pace with those retiring. When there are no drivers, the products don’t move. Even when locally sourced.

Product scarcity alone can raise the price of materials, raw or otherwise.

Metal Prices

As scarcity of products rises, the prices of metal and other products also rise. They predict the surge of steel prices to continue well into 2022. What has been called a perfect storm of factors impacting the prices are the cost of raw materials, supply and demand, and the shipping crisis. Supply and demand seem to be the nastiest monster we are currently facing, battling product availability to meet post-pandemic demands. Despite the rising costs, our team and clients combat this by allowing for short runs and hot rushes. We push forward and continue with whatever it takes to meet the needs of our customers.

Short Runs and Hot Rushes

Short runs allow us to have shorter lead times with high flexibility with a partial order. Turnaround is crucial to our client’s end-users and in our facility, but it lowers overall productivity. We can store some parts to wait for larger runs, but to get the turnaround time down for hot rushes on most orders, we run with what we’ve got. Partial orders cause warehouse chaos, especially when products come from multiple sources to combine for one order. Our goal is to get products to those end-users without clogging any more chains. We never compromise quality. While our process has been forced to change, we maintain our quality control practices and the preciseness needed for each client.

We are confident at Component Packaging that we will continue to pack and ship your products well and efficiently. We are prepared and adapting to the current challenges to serve you well and do whatever it takes to take care of you!

Choose us for your packing solutions: https://www.componentpackaging.com/contact-us

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