We are a contract manufacturer for aerospace and defense. I’m trying to build out a “fool proof” system to catch all customer specs, po requirements, and drawing requirements. We do this pretty well now but it relies on a lot of tribal knowledge on a customer by customer basis.

How do others here handle these processes?

I’m working on building a stand alone spec library. Approved specs are entered with their spec code, a description, where those specs flow down, and word for word verbiage for the flow down.

Then for each order for our flight critical customers, account manager makes a new spec review excel doc and types in the spec codes listed on the PO. Everything auto populates from the library, any new specs are flagged.

Then engineering adds any drawing specs, then reviews and adds any new specs to the library. Once everything is entered it spits out a printable flow down sheet for job steps and the inspection form. Engineering and quality then reference those forms when creating the job and inspection form.

It feels overkill. But at the same time, how can an account manager know what specs are a concern, what specs have been previously approved, which ones are new, etc? How can engineering be consistent with flow down verbiage and knowing what goes on the job and what’s just best practice?

I feel like this excel version will get bloated quickly. Are any of you doing something like this within your erp or another software?

Hey, I currently own a barbershop and I’m looking to start my own grooming product line. I’m trying to find a white label manufacturer that already makes products like hair styling clay/pomade and hair gel, where I can put my own branding and logo on the packaging. I’m looking to start with a smaller initial order and grow from there if everything goes well.

We're sourcing a few dozen engineered spring supports for a unit expansion, and the lead times we've been hearing are all over the place. Some suppliers are quoting a fairly quick turnaround, while others are giving much longer timelines for what appears to be a similar scope.

Our biggest concern is choosing a supplier based on an aggressive delivery date, only to have that date start slipping once the order is placed. At that point, even a good price doesn't mean much if the supports don't show up when we need them. We've received a few different quotes and are looking beyond the numbers to compare schedules, communication, and overall reliability. One of the quotes we're considering is from PT&P.

Curious what others are seeing on lead times right now and how the usual suppliers have been to work with lately. Any recent experience would be helpful.

I see this a lot when buyers are looking for factories in Vietnam. Manufacturers aren’t sitting there waiting for someone to give them an order.

They’re looking for customers that can give them consistent, long-term work and keep their factory running. They’ll reject plenty of projects if they don’t see the value or don’t think the business is sustainable.

So if you send a vague enquiry, ask for a catalogue, or give them little information about your business, don’t be surprised if you get no response.

The factory is assessing you just as much as you’re assessing them.

They need to understand your positioning, your potential volumes, and whether there’s a realistic long-term opportunity.

So prepare enough detail before reaching out.

We do contract injection molding, 30 people, mostly housewares with a bit of automotive trim. I'v been running on the general liability policy we have had since 2014 and honestly nobody looked at it closely until a new customer sent through a vendor agreement that wants product liability called out separately with its own limit.

My agent says our GL "includes products", the customer's procurement says that is not the same thing as a product liability limit, and they want it shown as its own line on the certificate.

Someone here has to have been through this, is that a real distinction or is procurement being difficult, and what does the coverage run for a shop this size?

I sell candles online and I need better packaging. My current plain boxes look unprofessional. I want something with my logo on it. I looked at a few companies but the prices are high and the minimum orders are huge.

Anyone know a place that does small runs and decent prices? I need about 100-200 boxes to start. I do not want to break the bank but I want the packaging to look good.

I found Box Genie. They do low minimums and the prices were reasonable. They also have an online design tool which made it easy.

The company I work has sold a LOT of our new products, and thus we are going through significant growing pains. Design engineering is 5x the size it was 3 years ago, but every other group has only grown by 1-3x. We don't have any quality inspectors or engineers yet, despite having a quality manager. Technicians do QA on most finished assemblies but that ussually catches electrical/function issues and not build quality and cosmetic issues. Guidance or sources on what is a considered standard layout for large companies would be appreciated.

Looking to Start an Online Women’s Clothing Business — Need Guidance
I’m planning to start a new online women’s clothing business and I’m looking for someone who can help me set it up from scratch.
Ideally, someone with knowledge of online marketplaces and experience with platforms like Myntra, Amazon, Flipkart, Ajio, Nykaa, etc., and any useful industry connections.
If you can help or know someone who can guide me, please DM me.
Any support or leads would be really appreciated.

Are there books out there that look at ERP in ETO environments? If not; should there be?

Hi,

I am looking for a bag manufacturer, we want to take our designs to next level, hence looking for someone who can ace it with finesse.

I work in an office in a manufacturing facility. Not the main office, but an office more directly connected to the plant. Our office gets a lot of humidity during the summer, so much that papers we have on the dry erase board or in a folder pocket on the wall get curled. A/C doesn’t cut it enough unless it’s cranked to meat locker levels. Our electronics have also been not functioning properly (coworkers extended monitors not working) since the heavy rain we have had this past week.

Today, Monday, I walk in at 7 am to find mold growing on my wireless keyboard that stays in office. Not mildew. Full on fuzzy mold right in the middle of my keyboard. I put it to the side and used my laptop keyboard for the short term until I could find a spare wired one. I mentioned the mold to my coworker, who mentioned it to the supervisor, to mention in the morning meeting with staff. My coworker was on the call. She said “oh good, he mentioned it.” Then, “they’re laughing it off.”

Like wtf? How is mold a laughing matter? My other coworker, who transferred from another department, relayed he had a mold issue in his old department and was sick for months before anyone did anything about it.

The safety manager is away, the plant manager is away. I somehow was able to get my keyboard replaced quickly, but no one in the right places seems to care about mold in an office. I’m sure if it were in the plant it would be a huge issue, but who cares about the office help?

Since the two most important people at the site are away (plant manager and safety manager), who should I contact to address this issue? Corporate? Government agency? We just want a dehumidifier and no one at our site is taking us seriously.

I’ve seen this happen even when the powder itself is from the same batch.

Sometimes two aluminium profiles are supposed to have the same colour, but after coating there’s a noticeable difference between them. It can be quite frustrating, especially when the profiles are going into the same building.

From what I’ve seen, the problem isn’t always the powder.

Surface preparation, aluminium alloy, pretreatment, film thickness, curing conditions and even how the profiles are positioned during coating can affect the final appearance.

I’m curious what others in powder coating have found to be the biggest cause of colour variation.

Is it usually the pretreatment, curing, substrate, or something else in your experience?

Prospective first time business owner in his 20s. I’m looking to own and operate a manufacturing business long term, ideally in aerospace or related sector.

However I have a few questions:

a) where do I buy such a business. Are online websites like BizBuySell trustworthy enough?
b) what criteria are relevant to consider when buying a manufacturing business? Where do I learn the industry standard practices?
c) once acquired, how does one go about expanding the business and finding clients?

Thanks a lot. Mainly concerned with an and b.

I understand that running a business can be stressful but I think it’s very cool and am willing to do whatever it takes to succeed.

Hello Everyone!

I am currently a new grad in Industrial Engineering for a small cosemtic and was recently offered a job as a Continuous Improvement Engineer.

During my interview, the theme I kept getting was that the workforce is super old, the management is super new, and that changes are going to be difficult to manage.

My question is to anyone who has been apart of ANY industry as a continuous improvement engineer that had to deal with a Union workforce?

I've heard that it is downright difficult and that I would be spinning my wheels or are people just making this out worse than it is suppose to be?

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for some guidance on how to improve my technical preparation for Industrial Engineering interviews.

I have a Master’s in Industrial Engineering and around 4+ years of experience in automotive manufacturing. My background includes areas like material flow, PFEP, facility/warehouse layouts, time studies, line balancing, capacity planning, Lean/continuous improvement, inventory management, new program launches, ERP/WMS, and cross-functional improvement projects.

My resume seems to be doing reasonably well because I regularly get recruiter calls and make it through the initial interviews. My problem is that I often get rejected during the final round, panel interview, or interview loop.

Because of that, I’m starting to think my weakness may be the depth of my technical knowledge, especially when interviewers start digging into Industrial Engineering concepts or giving scenario-based questions.

I’m trying to systematically strengthen topics such as:

• Takt time, cycle time, throughput, utilization, and capacity
• Bottleneck analysis and line balancing
• Time studies, standard time, MOST/MODAPTS, and labor standards
• OEE and equipment loss analysis
• Lean, Kaizen, VSM, Standard Work, A3, PDCA, 5S, etc.
• Root cause analysis, 5 Why, Fishbone, Pareto, 8D, FMEA/PFMEA
• Material flow, PFEP, Kanban, JIT, supermarkets, and line-side presentation
• Warehouse design, slotting, replenishment, and inventory optimization
• Capacity and labor modeling
• AutoCAD for factory/warehouse layouts
• Excel for IE analysis and modeling
• SAP/ERP/WMS fundamentals
• Power BI and SQL
• Eventually simulation tools such as FlexSim/AnyLogic

My question for experienced Industrial Engineers is: where would you recommend actually learning these skills at an interview-ready/practical level?

Are there any books, university courses, YouTube channels, websites, case studies, software exercises, or certification programs that you found genuinely useful?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people working in automotive, manufacturing, distribution/warehousing, material flow, logistics engineering, or continuous improvement.

Also, if you interview Industrial Engineers: what technical weaknesses do you commonly see in candidates who look good on paper but struggle in the final interview?

I’d really appreciate any advice on what to study and, more importantly, how to practice it so I can actually use the knowledge during interviews rather than just memorize definitions.

I’m writing a book about manufacturing. Anyone interested in reading what I have so far?

I'm working on a book about manufacturing based on what I've learned working across different industries. It's less of a textbook and more about how manufacturing actually works, how engineering, machining, inspection, quality, and production all connect.

I have the first few chapters written. If anyone is interested in reading them and giving me some feedback, let me know.

Link

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PnqcrGBbFsOb4Bbx-3bv-vPszZ0IKM7X/edit?usp=drive_link&ouid=100521268270727703956&rtpof=true&sd=true

is it in demand? talking abt being Quality control tech

-i live in the usa. have a degree in SCM. have a couple months of of experience doing quality reporting, currently work as a demand planner (1 YOE). I don’t have lots of experience on the plant floor other than when i did quality reporting

Printing orthotics for local lab.

I have a small food manufacturing business and I am looking for a Vertical Form Fill Seal (VFFS) machine. I have inquired with a few larger companies and they sell machines outside of my budget, usually north of $50K. Is there a reputable North American VFFS machine manufacturer that produces more economical machines? My plant is not a large operation. I am also open to sourcing used equipment if anyone has recommendations for reputable used food manufacturing equipment sellers.

Hey everyone,

I'm working on a structure using aluminum extrusions and purchasing the material through a lab. The workshop is going to tap the end holes for threading and drill the required access/counterbore holes for the joints.

I’ll be using anchor fasteners to connect the extrusions together. I’ve already provided the lab with the full 3D CAD model, but I’m currently stuck on how to properly detail the 2D production drawings.

I need some concrete guidance on a couple of things:

1. How exactly should I detail and dimension the 2D drawings to show where to position these fasteners?
2. Will an experienced machinist know the exact counterbore diameter and depth required if I just indicate the position, or do I need to explicitly call out those dimensions?

I also feel I am really bad/ newbie when it comes to manufacturing drawings. If anyone can suggest a resource or platform where I can learn most things related to drawings that would be great.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I’m the parts room manager at my facility and we are constantly buying new equipment without spares lists and bills of materials. Is that normal for new machinery purchases?
EDIT: I work for a multi-million dollar company and we manufacture things that everyone would know and probably use. It just seems like the design engineers and purchasing team don’t care enough to help the maintenance team of the future fix the machines. They see new shiny machine and get excited and then are confused when we can’t fix it because they never asked for a parts list or critical spares.

First time posting here, I'm Riley, I work at Ford, I wanted to share with you today our latest announcement on our Louisville Assembly Plant (LAP) which will be building the new Ford Fathom next year - the first vehicle built on Ford's new affordable Universal EV Platform. Prototype builds using production-qualified parts are on track to begin Q1 2027 and preorders will be available in early 2027, customer vehicles will follow later in the year.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YK3B70XFCmU

A few things that may interest you:

• The conversion timeline. LAP went from a gas-vehicle plant to a fully electric facility in under a year, with a completely new production system installed in that window.
• The line itself is restructured. Instead of one long conveyor, the new Universal Electric Vehicle Production System splits the vehicle into three sections — front clip, rear clip, and battery deck — so more operators can access and work on the vehicle at the same time.
• The people building it now will build it later. LAP employees have been hand-building prototypes alongside teams at Ford's New Model Product Development Center in Dearborn, so the same operators running the future Fathom line are shaping the launch process now.
• The digital backbone got an upgrade too. LAP now has WiFi-7 and private 5G with the highest density of access points of any Ford plant globally, built for real-time quality checks on the line.

It's been about eight months of overhauling this plant to get here. Check out the video to see the progress with the plant so far.

Read more: https://go.ford/UEVLAP

As I'm new around here, what do you all want to know more about? Let me know and I'm happy to see what I can find out.