There are many factors that have led U.S. companies to ship manufacturing jobs overseas for the past few decades. These range from lower labor costs to favorable tax policies, better supply chains, and more.
For years Clark Synthesis, Inc. manufactured high-tech audio transducers for movie theaters, underwater sound systems, and military training systems in China. But that changed a year ago when they moved their manufacturing operations back to the United States.
Why did they give up the benefits of working in China to return to the U.S.? Here’s what they told us:
Why did they give up the benefits of working in China to return to the U.S.? Here’s what they told us:
Lead Times
They cut their lead times down from 4-5 months in China to 2-4 weeks in the U.S. That has made a huge difference in their ability to fulfill customer orders quickly. It has also given Clark Synthesis the ability to tailor products for individual customers, a service they could not provide with offshore manufacturing.Component Availability
Component availability in China was a problem. The Chinese factory had originally used a vertical manufacturing system (meaning they controlled all aspects of the manufacturing process), but they switched to a horizontal system (which means they outsourced most of their component manufacturing to outside suppliers). Now they could not control component quality, and component quality suffered. This resulted in high numbers of component failures at incoming QA, and high failure rates in final QA. Many orders had to be delayed because of these problems. When Clark Synthesis moved production back to the U.S. they found a number of local suppliers that manufacture components to print and deliver on time.
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