The Impact of COVID on Manufacturing

I was asked yesterday what the impact was of COVID, on manufacturing.

As it happens, I had just received news that the black powder-coating of our almost-finished knockboxes, had been pushed out to the end of September, and was having that very conversation with the company that makes our knockbox for us. I'm attaching below the two comments she made.

From my perspective, what I've seen is previously-reliable suppliers, now turning out low quality work. And, they're skipping steps.

This past weekend we had to reject 100% of a batch of 2000pcs of brushed steel front panels, because they had laser etched our logo at too low power, and it looked terrible. Most suppliers I've worked with make 1 sample with the logo, and then sends me a photo via chat for approval. Or, also common, is for no logo to be etched until after we approve the work in person, and then they put the logo on while my staff member is witnessing it. This is because they're legally allowed to sell product we reject, as long as it doesn't have a company logo on it. ps: I don't mind that law, as I think it's eco-friendly.

So…. low quality is the first thing we're seeing. Secondly, everything is taking twice to three times as long as as they estimated. A 6 week delivery date turns into 12 to 18 weeks. Partially, this is because suppliers were shut down for 6 months, and now there's a huge rush to get things done before Christmas. And also it's because so many suppliers fired staff during the Covid shutdown times, and those people have gone and found other work. Suppliers have tons of new employees, and they're not as good. So, quality and speed suffers.

A glimmer of hope? Yes: a few small companies were well run, and did not fire people during the covid times, are hungry for work and want to take on more. But they can only scale up so fast (just like us) and maintain quality.

So… making stuff is a bit of a challenge at the moment, if you want to make good stuff.

Below is a photo of the chat with my supplier from yesterday.

-john

#COVID #manufacturers #DE1history

Updated 2020/09/09