Manufacturing Engineering | Supply Chain Management

Manufacturing Engineering

With a wealth of hands on production engineering experience within medium and high volume manufacturers we can offer real world, workable solutions to all manner of companies. Our in house knowledge is extensive but when required we can call upon a network of specialists to enhance or speed up the consulting or implementation process.

Product design and costing

We have expertise in basic pre design production engineering – particularly in the electronics sector. Let us advise at an early stage of product development to help choose the most suitable designs, materials and assembly techniques with volume manufacturing in mind.

Vendor selection

We can locate and shortlist suitable vendors for your component parts, sub assemblies and even finished goods with price, delivery, quality and service in mind. These can be local or overseas and can encompass any specific purchasing criteria you may have. We can also work with current under performing vendors to improve price, quality and service levels.

Production technologies

Whether you are a small UK based outfit looking to automate some of its processes or just improve efficiency and workflow - through to a multi national company looking to evaluate its whole manufacturing approach – we can help. Our solutions are tried and tested and will inevitably offer cost savings and therefore success. We have expertise literally from raw materials goods in to packed and finished goods out.

Quality

Having implemented complete quality strategies in many electronics manufacturing sector companies, Icefox has a real track record in this area. Scale once again is not a problem – we can deliver anything from solving small scale factory quality issues to implementing a whole company wide quality system.

Strategic Outsourcing analysis

With low labour rates and ever rising quality levels on offer, many companies are facing the agonising decision about outsourcing some or all of its production overseas. Icefox can provide in depth analysis in this area to include not only the straightforward cost advantage breakdown but can balance this with the wider commercial implications for your particular product or company.

Supply Chain Management

An America professional association put forward the definition that Supply Chain Management encompasses the planning and management of all activities involved in sourcing, procurement, conversion, and logistics. Importantly, it also includes the coordination and collaboration with channel partners, which can be suppliers, intermediaries, third-party service providers, and customers.

In essence, Supply Chain Management integrates the supply and demand (for goods and services) within and across companies or internal departments.

Icefox can take any element of these many and varied activities, analyse performance, highlight any weaknesses or threats and most importantly provide workable improvements through to and after implementation.

We can even offer Supply Chain Event Management (SCEM) by considering all possible occurring events and factors that can cause a disruption in a supply chain. With SCEM possible scenarios can be created and solutions modeled and planned for.

As with our UK based Manufacturing Engineering assistance, we can also provide product design and costing, vendor selection, recommended production technologies, quality plans and of course help in making the initial decision to outsource if appropriate.

The majority of our current work in this area is the specific sourcing of electronics and FMC goods in China for UK companies.

Specifically we offer the following:

Design input

Coordinating with UK and Chinese designers to make bespoke branded goods for European consumption. We regularly handle all elements of this process from technical specification, pricing and safety standard adherence to packaging and carton design.

Branding

We have successfully registered and launched brands within many market sectors. We have a number of pre registered brands available for selected products within the electronics sector that can be licensed for 3rd party use and can of course help with the whole branding process for those undertaking this for the first time to include market research, carton and gift box design, barcoding and so on.

Vendor selection

Our network of trusted vendors is vast, covering most manufacturing sectors, We also spend a considerable amount of time in the far east working with them to maintain the highest levels of confidence whilst always looking for potential new suppliers. Icefox will always visit during the early stages of setting up a new project to ensure success and have staff based in Guangzhou and Shanghai to manage on going relationships after initial set up.

Negotiation

Integral and key to the success of any new outsourcing project will be the negotiation of price, terms, warranties, service levels and support. This can be very difficult to the uninitiated and lead to all sorts of major issues down the line if details are missed. Icefox is strong in this area and can offer peace of mind to companies new to sourcing overseas.

Production scheduling

Icefox can handle all your ordering and scheduling with the vendor/s and are always mindful of potential day to day changes in product mix and volume requirements. We only work with flexible suppliers who will do all they can to accommodate change. We also provide a daily conduit for all regular vendor communications (which with China are generally out of normal European office hours) and therefore remove potential for mistakes due to language and time difference.

Freight forwarding

For most clients we handle the whole logistics process from overseas factory through to clients warehouse or end user customer. Sea freight of full or part load containers, air freight and a sea/air mix are all regular options and we only work with carriers of the highest standard. Icefox can provide you with an absolutely turnkey door to door distribution solution.

Manufacturing Engineering | Supply Chain Management