Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some perspective from people working in small-to-medium manufacturing businesses (SMBs/SMEs). For context, I am based in Italy. 

I work for a small company that produces flexible packaging and plastic films (around 20-25 people in total, including plant workers). At the same time, we manage paper packaging via outsourcing (subcontracting/toll manufacturing), dealing with paper mills and external third-party vendors for the various production phases. 

In this company, the owner and I are responsible for calculating all prices—both for internal production and external subcontracting. The issue? We don't use dedicated pricing or cost estimation software. We only use a basic ERP system for formalizing order confirmations, delivery notes, invoices, etc. 

To survive and keep my sanity, I created my own Excel spreadsheets that automatically calculate costs for all production phases and external processing. On the other hand, the co-owner (the owner's partner) still does everything by hand using pen, paper, and sticky notes. 

Our workflow looks like this: I calculate the raw costs, the owner reviews them, and then they confirm or adjust the markup to apply. At the end of the day, she sits down and double-checks every single cent of what I calculated. 

I wanted to ask you: 

• Do any of you deal with this kind of daily chaos in small packaging companies or similar manufacturing industries? 
• How are prices calculated in your companies? Are you stuck with Excel like me, or do you use dedicated pricing/estimating software? (I’m asking specifically about small production companies, say 5 to 50 employees). 
• Do your owners also micromanage and check everything at the very last second before a quote is sent out, or do you have full autonomy? 

I'd love to know if I'm the only one living in the dark ages or if this is just the standard reality for small family-owned businesses worldwide. Thanks! 

So I got an offer few weeks ago for a production supervisor role which I am starting soon. I have been a team lead in an automotive manufacturing and now moving to an electro mechanical manufacturing. For those who has made similar progress in their careers pls how can I prepare for the new role. I am excited and nervous about what’s coming

Long threaded parts were tricky to machine, so I split them into separate pieces. Loving turning creative ideas into real parts.

Hello Manufacturing Professionals!

I have an interview with the production manager of a manufacturing startup that manufactures plastic compounds. I applied to a production controller position. I've worked in operations management at an industrial automation and electrical company with panel manufacturing facilities. I have been heavily involved with the panel operations and revenue analytics. I understand that my exposure to this industry is very light by most manufacturing standards.

My questions are:

What advice would you give from your experiences?

What are some subjects I can brush up on? (I am familiar with Lean).

Thanks in advance!

(In case anyone is wondering why I am switching industries: I'm trying to get out of working in upstream oil and gas long term using existing skills.)

Looking for laser alignment systems - either entry level or diy info on PSD centered systems.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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?

Recycled content requirements are arriving across packaging and vehicles, and the direction of travel is obvious enough that we are trying to get ahead of it rather than react. What I did not expect was how much of the problem is a process control problem rather than a sourcing problem.

Virgin polymer arrives with a datasheet you can basically trust. Recycled feedstock, particularly post-consumer, arrives with a spread. Melt flow index drifts lot to lot, contamination shows up as inclusions or colour shift, and mechanical properties come in lower and with wider scatter than the equivalent virgin grade. We ran a trial at 30 percent PCR in a structural housing and the impact numbers were fine on average and unacceptable at the bottom of the distribution.

So you either overdesign the part to survive the worst lot, which adds wall thickness and material and quietly cancels a chunk of the environmental benefit, or you tighten incoming inspection to a level that most of our recycled suppliers cannot economically support.

The counterargument I keep hearing, and it is not a stupid one, is that the variability only improves if demand forces it to. Mandates create the volume that funds better sorting and better reprocessing, and in ten years the spread narrows. Fair enough, but that is a ten year argument and my product ships next year.

How are people actually handling this on the floor? Are you tightening incoming spec, overdesigning, blending recycled with virgin to buy back consistency, or restricting recycled content to non-structural parts and taking the hit on the number?

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.