In 2021 Polycon began working with manufacturers in the United States. Why American small and mid-sized manufacturers face familiar challenges, and how we work with them across time zones.
The first US project began with a video call at 7 am Melbourne time and 4 pm in Ohio. A medical component manufacturer had a critical dimension that passed inspection most days and failed on others, and its customer was asking for capability evidence the supplier could not produce. The technical problem was familiar: an unstable process, an unproven measurement system and a capability study run on too little data, issues we had written about in understanding Cp and Cpk. The solution involved the same disciplined steps we use everywhere.
That project, and the enquiries that followed, led us in 2021 to begin serving clients in the United States.
Why the US
The United States has the largest manufacturing base among the countries we serve, and much of it is made up of small and mid-sized companies with the same needs as our Australian, New Zealand and UK clients:
- Plastic part and product design expertise that is hard to keep in-house full-time.
- Support managing tooling and suppliers, at home and in Asia.
- Lean, Six Sigma and Kaizen capability without the cost of a large consultancy.
- Practical help meeting demanding customer and regulatory requirements in automotive, medical and industrial markets.
Reshoring and nearshoring are also creating new demand for products designed for local manufacture, a subject we covered in designing products for local manufacture.
How we work across time zones
The time difference between Melbourne and the US can be an advantage. Analysis, design work and reports can be completed overnight from the client's perspective, ready for review the next morning. In practice, we combine:
- Scheduled reviews in the overlap between US afternoons and Australian mornings.
- Shared CAD, data and project folders.
- Remote coaching and training sessions.
- On-site visits for the work that needs them, such as gemba walks, kaizen events, trials and training workshops.
The remote practices refined during 2020, described in remote supplier management, made this model far more effective than it would have been a few years earlier.
What does not change
Our approach is the same in every country: understand the business problem, measure before acting, work where the problem happens and leave the client's team more capable. Plastics behave the same way in Ohio as in Melbourne, and a stable, capable process is equally valuable to every customer.
If you are a US manufacturer facing a product, process or quality challenge, we would be glad to talk.
