Outsourcing Semiconductor Operations? 4 Questions to Ask Your 3PL
by 
Harry Moser, president, the Reshoring Initiative
Sixty percent of companies make offshore-sourcing decisions based on rudimentary metrics, such as wage rate, ex-works price or landed cost, often resulting in a 15 to 30 percent understatement of actual offshoring costs. Inclusion of all relevant factors—overhead, balance sheet, risks, corporate strategy and other external and internal business considerations—provides a better determination of the true total cost of a part or assembly.
Many U.S. business have found, through a total cost of ownership (TCO) analysis, they can remain competitive onshore. The Reshoring Initiative provides a free online Total Cost of Ownership Estimator® to assist U.S. manufacturers.
When you are competing with a lower-priced offshore product, we suggest offering to help the customer compare the TCO of your offer vs. the lower-priced offshore offer. If the buyer resists, gather whatever information you can from other contacts at the company, do TCO from the customer’s perspective, and review the results with the buyer. It is best to be conservative and understate the hidden costs.
Here is a real-world example of a company that used TCO to sell against imports. Electronics manufacturing services provider Morey Corp. was pursuing a $60 million contract ($15 million per year for four years) vs. a lower-priced Asian competitor. With the help of the Reshoring Initiative, Morey used the TCO Estimator to show the customer that although Morey’s price was higher, the TCO was lower. Tony Woodall, Morey’s vice president of sales reported, “We used the TCO calculator from the Reshoring Initiative. This tool framed the costs and risks of both options and was a crucial piece to our winning strategy.”
We suggest asking your customers about offshore sourced products that are causing them problems such as late deliveries, poor quality, intellectual property theft, excess inventory, lost orders and travel costs. You can point to highly publicized problems with offshore deliveries, such as the West Coast dock strike or natural disasters. Ask about your customer’s plans to prepare for President Trump’s drive to bring back manufacturing jobs.
More than 1,000 companies have already successfully brought the manufacture of parts or products back to the U.S. from offshore. The Reshoring Initiative website provides a slide file of 400 reshoring cases, a case studies file, and a library (with an advanced search function) where you can find a collection of real-world success stories. You may have to overcome senior management’s directives that X percent of products must be offshored, but what a great opportunity to meet senior management.
Work with natural allies within your customer’s company. The lean, green, compliance and quality champions should all support domestic sourcing. The line management should be receptive to ideas to improve turns and from-stock availability while reducing warranty and travel costs.
Many U.S. OEMs have outsourced design, build and packaging of complex products, such as major appliances, to Chinese contract manufacturers. They will want to find similar support from U.S. suppliers. Broaden your value-added offerings.
Buyers often ask a salesman, “Can you match the Chinese price?” Your response should be, “Probably not, but let’s see if I can offer you a lower total cost that increases your profitability.”
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