Industrial supply chains need to stay strong between Thanksgiving and the New Year. Learn how to make the most of your relationship with Elasto Proxy, an experienced custom fabricator of industrial rubber products.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Here at Elasto Proxy’s world headquarters in Boisbriand, Quebec, the leftovers are long gone from our Canadian Thanksgiving, which we celebrated on October 12 this year. Now it’s time for our Simpsonville, South Carolina office to enjoy a well-deserved holiday. Manufacturers have much to be thankful for this year, but consumer behavior will soon capture most of the headlines. What, if anything, can industrial buyers and design engineers learn?
The Importance of Planning Ahead
We know that Black Friday shopping follows Thanksgiving Day – and that some U.S. stores won’t even stay closed until midnight. Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday come next, and then the race to Christmas and through New Year’s Day. It’s a joyful season, to be sure, but also a busy one. So how do you handle holiday stress, both at home and at work? After all, production deadlines don’t stop for holiday office parties.
Planning ahead is a sound strategy. There are also specific tactics that you can use with more than just your holiday shopping. Making a list and checking it twice is a good start, but you can’t do it all alone. That’s why you need to pick a custom fabricator that’s a trusted partner, and not just another supplier. The business decisions you make now can strengthen your supply chain not just for the rest of 2015, but for the year ahead. Let’s take it one step at a time, though, and conquer the rest of Q4 first.
Industry Knowledge and Application Experience
For over 25 years, Elasto Proxy has specialized in the custom fabrication of low-to-medium volume quantities of industrial rubber products. From rubber seals and custom gaskets to EMI shielding and acoustic insulation, we apply our industry knowledge and application expertise to your design and manufacturing challenges. By listening to all of your needs and analyzing all of your requirements, we can recommend the right solutions and meet your sales forecasts.
As we head into this holiday season, we’d like share what it’s like to work with us, and what it takes to keep your manufacturing supply chain strong. We hope this information is helpful, and wish to remind all of our readers that Elasto Proxy closes for the winter holidays at noon on Thursday, December 24, 2015 and reopens on Monday, January 4, 2015. Please submit your remaining 2015 orders as soon as possible, preferably by December 1. Again, planning head is always a sound strategy.
Lead Times and Compound Selection
Technical buyers and design engineers need to account for lead times, even when the next planned downtime is months away. Some suppliers, such as large manufacturers of stock materials, rarely stop production unless it’s for maintenance activities. That’s because the orders they fill are large, and the cost of machine downtime is cost-prohibitive. As a custom fabricator that buys stock materials from trusted partners, we know which compounds are available – and which suppliers can meet demand.
The complexity of your product design can affect lead times, but we can’t custom-fabricate products from materials that we don’t have and can’t source right away. For example, let’s say that you need rubber gaskets made from standard elastomers. Elasto Proxy keeps over 700 rubber profiles in-stock, and can readily source compounds such as commercial-grade EPDM, neoprene, or silicone. The challenge comes if you need materials such as military-grade silicones that a compounder may not have available.
How Can We Help You?
Which types of industrial rubber products do you need to source for the rest of Q4 2015, and even into Q1 2016? How can Elasto Proxy help you to meet your seal design and gasket manufacturing challenges? Don’t miss your company’s holiday part because you’re facing a deadline. Plan ahead and contact Elasto Proxy today.
