Troubleshooting supply chain woes really boils down planning, building long-lasting business relationships, mitigating risks, and giving your collaborative partners visibility of upcoming needs. Doing those key things can keep raw materials flowing in and contract manufacturing production running as smoothly as possible, even with supply chain disruptions or massive shifts in demand.
Yes, there is global uncertainty–tariff issues, delays at port of entry, wars, and labor challenges–really a continual whipsaw environment, but when you plan for your risk level, supply chain woes become less and less worrisome.
Commodity Challenges
Many organizations began to experience a growing snowball of commodity issues during the pandemic. Some raw materials saw extensive supply issues, including delays and pricing fluctuation. It has been a perfect storm, and no industry has been spared.
The medical device and flexible packaging industries have been especially impacted with extensive and unprecedented disruptions, but due to proactive planning, open lines of communication and strong relationships, Vonco Products has and continues to deliver for its customers. We’re proud to say we maintained 97% on-time delivery over the years of the pandemic and continue to do so today.
How’d We Do it?
It may sound simple, but doing the basics well makes all the difference when things get bumpy. We’ve seen that recently within the foil packaging markets as new tariffs are applied to overseas suppliers of high oxygen barrier foil. It’s forced medical device, diagnostic and consumer OEMs to be reactive and look at replacement strategies sooner than anticipated. We saw the writing on the wall and were prepared with alternative foil solutions for our customers.
Vonco prides itself on working with customers to build resiliency and minimize demand and supply chain fluctuations. We strongly believe in geographically diversifying our sourcing and production (with multiple manufacturing sites and material suppliers in low-risk regions of the U.S.) while prioritizing continuous improvement activities (like lean manufacturing) and working to continually evolve automation solutions to make the labor factor less of a concern.
Supply Chain Management Game-Changer
Vonco supports some of the world’s largest healthcare and consumer companies. For those companies the game-changer within supply chain management has been service platform programs that effectively:
- Manage inventory
- Look at long and short-term strategies
- Provide good buffer
- Keep pricing consistent
- Provide production flexibility & quick response
- And deliver on-time, every time
It’s difficult to get good service these days, and it is unpleasant having orders deprioritized on a whim. Proactive communication, transparency, and forward-looking is appreciated by our customers. It keeps the guessing and surprises out of it and takes risk off the table.
Tired of the woes? Go back to the basics and partner with your contract manufacturer and packaging solution provider for dynamic service platform programs that benefit both of you.