Manufacturing Assembly Career Guide and Counseling

Question: Outsourcing manufacturing and assembly. Who do I contact to get started? I am currently working on a engineering project in which we have brainstormed multiple options to develope a low cost version of our core compentancies. One of them was to outsource the manufacturing and assembly of the unit. This is the first time I have been delegated this task and I'm really struggling with finding contacts who can get me started in the right direction. Is there a list of firms, contacts, or sites that someone can direct me to? Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Answer: Hello, depending on the type of product you have, there are many considerations for which country will fit your needs best. Mexico, Asia, Eastern Europe, Vietnam, and Malaysia are all viable options. How big is your product (transportation considerations), is it high tech or low tech (technical skill resources required) and are you concerned about pirating? If this is the first time you are trying to move the manufacturing of a product outside your facility, you may want to consider hiring a Supply Chain consultant to help you. Outsourcing can be an excellent option for cost savings, and it can also be a very expensive disaster if you do not choose carefully upfront and manage the transition vigilantly. If you do not have anyone local to help you do this, please consider our company. We can be reached at www.swpurchasing.com. We specialize in helping U.S. companies remain competitive in this Global Market, and helping our clients outsource some of their manufacturing is one of the options we provide. Good luck to you either way! The Supply Chain Gal

Question: How much should I ask for as a salary for an entry-level manufacturing/assembly job? I have no direct experience but have some relevant experience to the position. I also am 18 and have a huge student loan from my one failed year of college to pay down.

Answer: you don't ask - you take what they offer - you have no bargaining power

Question: Does Hershey use process manufacturing or the assembly process?

Answer: All volume manufacturing companies use both methods as part of quality control and quality assurance.

Question: What are some examples of direct labor (other than assembly) for a calculator manufacturing company?

Answer: Maybe running the molding machines to make plastic parts or running punch presses to stamp out metal parts.

Question: what is importance of assembly sequence while manufacturing heat exchanger?

Answer: It is important as it is for any other assembly. Otherwise you can end up building a boat in the basement and can't get it out. Or in other words, you can paint yourself into a corner.

Question: I am trying to understand Very Light Jet Assembly and Manufacturing Process. Please suggest if anyone knows.? I like to know Very Light Jet Assembly Process and Manufacturing Process

Answer: Sorry--You are asking for several college courses worth of information. Building a jet airplane--even a small one--is an enormous process involving several engineering disciplines, technical work of all kinds, management and financial issues, facilities, all sorts of law and regulatory matters, and much more. If this is for a school paper, you should choose some aspect of the process (for example, human resources management or final assembly facility) and go to the library. Ask the media specialist to help you find the information you need. For a quick overview, try an internet search on "aircraft manufacturing." There will be more information than you can absorb, but it will be interesting. Good luck!

Question: I need to know the applications of PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices) e.g. an manufacturing assembly line?

Answer: Limitless. Google and ye shall find. http://www.embedded-computing.com/produc… http://sales.digikey.com/arm/MicroSites/…

Question: Any idea of the manufacturing, component, and/or assembly costs to make an advanced hand-held translator?

Answer: This is a complex question which involves many variables affecting start up costs and overhead for components and plastic moldings necessary for a product enclosure. In addition to these considerations you will have to factor in assembly line equipment acquisition and setup. The single largest monetary expenditure would probably be the building and real estate it sits on. Then you will need assembly line personnel, but more importantly engineering personnel, drafting and design craftsman and technicians. Aside from those personnel, you will probably need maintenance electricians unless you were to out source such work. The original construction costs for the facility and equipment. would be quite staggering. An alternative to such a conventional approach to establishing a manufacturing industry might be to enter into agreement with a product design and development organization for the delivery of your initial blue line drawings and both electrical and mechanical specifications for you product with your direct assistance in the customization of the desired initial product. You could either make minor investments and prototype it yourself or out source that as well. All aspects could be handled by a variety of contractual arrangement, leaving you with just the sales and marketing efforts to place the product in the hands of consumers and whomever else you have in mind as prospective customers. Once your product took off and caught the bullet, as they say, you could then begin devising a business plan and meet with potential backers and financiers Years ago I joined an engineering design team in the subsidiary of one of the nations largest petro-chemical companies. Over a two year period we designed from the ground up, an ultra sonic flow meter to be used in the frigid winters of the upper Midwest and Canada as they experienced tremendous difficulty with the electromechanical devices that were in contemporary use at the time.. It involved the implementation of the Zilog Z 80 micro computer , an eight bit single substrate device that was the forerunner of all the modern day micro devices that fill so many roles in the live of humans, including forming the heart of the machine you are using to access the Internet. Two solid state electronic ultrasonic transducers were mounted in a pipe to form the measuring elements, being mounted at a 45 degree angle to one another on opposing sides of the LPG flow path. Using what is known as the Doppler effect we designed an algorithm that would calculate product flow based on alternate transmissions pulses between the transducers. Very simply, in one direction the flow of the product in the pipe path added to the speed with which the signal was received by the opposite transducer, in the next instant, and we are talking milliseconds here, the signal sources reversed transceivers and the other transducer then propagated a signal against the flow of the product in the pipe path. By deducing the respective times and differentials through an adequately developed algorithm, one was able to assign a rate of flow to the product being pumped through the pipe directly proportional to the algebraic function between the speed and rate of electronic pulses delivered through the product between the respective transducers. That is making it sound more simple than what it really was, as all sorts of other elements of physics came to bear on error values when compared with a standard calibration flow test unit. One of the most onerous was the varying viscosity through the pipe which varied with product density, pipe wall friction and ambient temperatures. Within 9 months of striking out we had prototypes being tested both locally and in Minnesota. Another six months and we were in full production. After the product was developed and taken to market I separated from the company and accepted other gainful employment. Good thing too, because within a year that Process Controls division was insolvent and filing for reorganization. The ultrasonic flow meter was eventually sold to an eastern seaboard corporation and people started seeing pink slips fly all around. The company came back, but only in its original role as a refinery support group and pipeline instrumentation maintenance unit. I told this anecdote so that you might understand even a very solidly financed and organized organization can fall victim to financial distress. I think it is excellent you have a very positive entrepreneurial attitude. We all know America could use more like you. Just be careful as you move forward with your plans should you be fortunate enough to do so. Explore all the options and don't be afraid to be a little unconventional in your business plan. Good luck.

Question: Probability problem please help!! An assembly operation in a manufacturing plant requires three steps that ? can be performed in any sequence. how many different ways can the assembly be performed? Thank you!!

Answer: 3 x 2 x 1 =6

Question: I heard that ITEC Manufacturing Does Assembly Work- Cheaper than China - has any one heard of this before? Itec Manufacturing is in Utah. www.itec-mfg.com

Answer: Itec manufacturing builds the little giant ladder as seen on TV - it is calculated that the US based company can build products 16 times faster than any one else thus labor becomes a non issue. The idea is to keep all manufacturing in the US.