Manufacturing is at the heart of the American economy, with small businesses making up the majority of the industry. 

Many independent, single-location manufacturing shops deliver quality parts and excellent service. But relying too heavily on small manufacturers creates risk when they’re critical components of your supply chain.

When industry challenges and supply chain disruptions arise, a multi-site manufacturing partner is the best option to provide the stability you need. 

The Supply Chain Risks of Single-Site Shops 

For the security of your supply chain, it’s important to examine your manufacturing partnerships and ensure you’re well-prepared for any scenario. 

An overreliance on small metal manufacturing shops for critical parts or long-term contract manufacturing solutions poses several risks.

1. Succession Uncertainty: Many small shops have owners approaching retirement age. Without careful succession planning, this can result in the shop closing or — perhaps worse — new ownership who don’t fully understand the business and how to meet customer needs.
2. Dangers of Losing Institutional Knowledge: Small manufacturers often rely on the knowledge and skill of a few key individuals for specific manufacturing capabilities that are crucial to the business. If one of these employees retires or moves to a new company, a small shop may suddenly be left without the ability to provide the same services.
3. Labor Shortages: Single-location shops are by definition geographically limited, and as such, are more vulnerable to the labor shortages that the broader manufacturing industry is experiencing. With a limited pool of skilled talent in one geographic area, employee turnover can result in longer lead times and even variations in quality. Experienced sheet metal fabricators and machinists aren’t easy to replace.
4. Environmental Risks: Any single-location business is vulnerable to environmental risks such as fires or hurricanes. Natural disasters could result in a one-location manufacturing shop closing temporarily or even permanently. This would leave customers stranded searching for a new partner on short notice.
5. Limited Purchasing Power: When supply chain disruptions occur, raw materials can rise in cost — and availability may plummet. Larger manufacturers have more diverse supply chains to procure materials when they’re in high demand and can leverage their purchasing power to give you lower costs.

Multi-Site Manufacturing: Strength in Scale and Strategic Redundancy

The scale of a multi-site manufacturing business can offset many of these risks.

Agile Production Capabilities Across Multiple States

More manufacturing shop locations at a company naturally leads to a robust supplier network. For you, this ensures greater availability of raw materials during times of supply chain disruption. You also get the ability to purchase in greater volumes and at lower costs. 

In the case of machine downtime or maintenance, multi-site facilities can seamlessly shift production to another location. 

With this intentional redundancy in precision CNC machining and custom metal fabrication capabilities, production always stays on schedule. 

The benefit to you is accurate and short lead times. 

Experienced Leadership and Skilled Workforce

To provide precision manufacturing services at the scale we do, multi-site facilities build an experienced leadership team that understands the industry and customers’ needs. 

Just as importantly, they’ve usually developed a robust workforce across all of their facilities. Skilled engineers, machinists, metal fabricators, and welders collaborate to create high-quality parts with precision and speed.

Larger teams mean more opportunities for employees to cross-train and learn a variety of aspects of metal manufacturing. This prevents downtime due to lost institutional knowledge. 

A multi-location team is always ready to adapt to the ever-changing manufacturing landscape.

Increasing Your Supply Chain Security with Multi-State American Manufacturing Solutions

At ReNEW Manufacturing Solutions, we have operations in four states and our footprint continues to grow. 

We’re neither an overly specialized mom-and-pop shop or a large multinational contract manufacturer that sees our customers as numbers. We’re a customer service-oriented American manufacturer that’s grown our capabilities and capacity to provide scalable precision CNC machining and sheet metal fabrication solutions that meet the needs of diverse industries. 

With manufacturing facilities across multiple states, a large supplier network, and dedication to precision and quality in custom metal parts, we can help bring security to your supply chain.

Upload your part files to our secure platform and request a quote today or contact us to learn more about our capabilities.