The Thomas Blog

5 Risks Of Exporting Manufactured Goods — And How To Avoid Them

With tariffs and trade impacting the supply chain, a lot of the discussion has focused on the importing of goods and services. However, it has also sparked a renewed interest — and intensity — in exporting.

As standards of living continue to improve throughout the globe, foreign companies have more buying power than ever before. Couple that phenomena with the rise in global supply chains, and exporting represents one of the best opportunities for industrial companies to grow.

The ABC's Of Making The Industrial Buyer's Shortlist

As you know, industrial/B2B buyers looking to establish a long-term relationship with your business may vet you quite thoroughly. This could include visiting your facility, checking your finances, talking to customers and more.

However, before they get to that point, today’s buyers prefer to evaluate suppliers anonymously, then create a shortlist of potential partners before contacting them for further vetting.

Of course, evaluating you anonymously as they create their shortlists means learning as much as they can about you online. This blog post will help you make sure your online presence doesn’t have any holes that leave you short of making those shortlists.

Opportunities For Business Growth During The Summer Slowdown

Every year, thousands of manufacturers around the country shut down their plants and facilities for a few weeks in the summer. They do so for a variety of reasons — to allow for vacation time, to take care of deferred maintenance, or to retool for the second half of the year.

While these activities are certainly important, too many manufacturing companies let the summer slowdown distract them from one of the most important activities of all — generating new business.

Top 6 Benefits Of Local Sourcing

In today's increasingly global business landscape, it's no secret that many manufacturing and industrial businesses maintain supply chains that stretch all over the world.

However, what may be a secret is just how much procurement professionals would prefer to source locally instead.

Top 3 U.S. Manufacturing Challenges And How To Overcome Them

Is the glass half empty or half full? It’s an age old question, and there’s no right answer; it’s all about perspective. How about this question: Does the U.S. manufacturing industry have challenges or opportunities?

American manufacturing stands at a critical point in its long history — and how industry leaders view and react to the changing landscape will influence its future. As technology, demographics, and economic climate shift, manufacturers must innovate in order to stay competitive. Manufacturing in particular is positioned for domestic growth and, more than ever, industry leaders must guide their organizations strategically. Let’s take a look at some of the issues facing the industry through the lens of both challenges and opportunities.

10 Tips For Growing Your CNC Machining Business

Starting a new business can be a challenging endeavor, especially if the entrepreneur is entering a crowded market with large, well-established competitors already in place. Small CNC machine shops face hurdles similar to those of other small businesses, and, like their non-industrial counterparts, have the same potential for securing contracts and growing within the industry despite these obstacles.

Here are some tips and suggestions that may help in establishing or expanding your small CNC shop. 

5 Quick Tips For Improving Quality Control On Your Shop Floor

Even if you think your operation couldn't get better, there's always room for improvement. Thanks to rapidly developing technology, you have new options to implement quality control on your shop floor. With a few tweaks to your process, you can see distinct improvements in quality while maintaining a lean manufacturing process.

Priceless Advice: Buyers Weigh In On How You Can Win More Business

The internet is chock full of "experts" — marketing executives, consultants, sales people — with advice for boosting your industrial sales. But wouldn't it be better if you could hear from the real experts — the people who are actually buying your products — and get their advice?

How Augmented Reality Will Disrupt The Manufacturing Industry

Virtual reality and augmented reality are in the same vein when it comes to modern technology. They both deal with digital content relayed through an immersive environment or experience. The difference, however, is how encompassing that experience truly is.