The Advantages of Offshore Investment Casting
Offshore sourcing is a good way to strengthen your competitive position. If done right, it will yield significant cost savings, particularly when you need large quantities. However, there are some challenges.
How do you find dependable suppliers on the other side of the world? How do you scale up from small quantity production? And how do you manage inventory and administration?
The answer to these questions is simple—work with a company that handles these issues for you.
Barron Industries provides a reliable offshore investment casting program that delivers the benefits of moving offshore without complications. Customers get access to our deep foundry expertise and domestic casting capabilities, plus the advantages of low-cost country production.
Read on to learn about the benefits we can offer.
Reduced Costs
Take advantage of Barron’s unique hybrid approach, combining our domestic casting capabilities with our well-vetted, established offshore partners, which have lower labor costs and potentially further reductions in materials.
Certain offshore locations have more accessible or cheaper raw materials due to local availability and/or lower transportation costs. Together, these add up to significantly lower production costs.
Improved Supply Chain Efficiency
When companies start exploring the benefits of offshore manufacturing, inventory and lead time are often two primary concerns. Choosing the right offshore partner allows you to increase production capacity provided by larger scale operations and favorable labor supply. With offshore partners, you have the advantage of a wide range of choices, reducing the risk of potential disruptions due to economic, political, or natural factors.
Savings on labor, materials, and overhead can also help you allocate resources more effectively elsewhere in the supply chain, such as in research and development. Additionally, operating in different time zones can allow non-stop production, which is particularly beneficial if you need to maintain continuous production cycles.
High-Volume Production Capabilities
Quantity needs can vary greatly throughout a production cycle. Typically, the process starts with prototypes and samples before ramping up to full-scale production and eventually ramping down to demand for spares. One of the biggest benefits of our unique approach to offshore manufacturing is our ability to work with you at every stage. When you need small quantities, we produce them here at our domestic facility in Michigan, and as demand grows, we can transfer production offshore. Our carefully selected partners have high-volume investment casting capabilities with state-of-the-art facilities for casting, machining, and testing for both ferrous and non-ferrous alloys.
Access to Specialized Expertise
Investment casting uses advanced technology to produce precision components used in demanding applications. Barron incorporates additive manufacturing, advanced modeling simulation software, and the latest robotic technology in our vertically integrated manufacturing process.
Achieving consistent high quality requires specialized expertise, which Barron and our offshore partners provide. Our strategic partnership with India foundries has been an integral part of our company’s value proposition for over 20 years. They have been carefully selected and work exclusively with us for the North American market. Barron’s India partners are best-in-class leaders in the investment casting industry, operating to the highest AS9100, ISO, and IATF standards. The result is that our customers receive top-quality parts but with the offshore manufacturing benefits they expect.
About Barron Industries’ Offshore Program
Barron Industries eliminates all of the primary concerns manufacturers have about offshoring.
Our program works like this:
- All prototype and low-volume parts are quickly produced at our domestic manufacturing facility in Michigan.
- A detailed technical review is conducted jointly with Barron and our offshore partners, resulting in the development of a customized production plan.
- The finished product is shipped to Barron’s domestic facility, where we inspect, warehouse, and ship based on customer needs. All inventory management and logistics are handled by Barron. We keep two to four weeks of safety stock in-house, at our cost, for your peace of mind.
Barron takes full responsibility for any customs clearance fees, overland freight, duties, and other import fees. In addition, you maintain a single-source contact with Barron, and all purchase orders and payments are made directly to us. You benefit from always dealing with the same U.S.- based company and avoiding “letter of credit” requirements.
Additionally, we’ve worked with the same offshore partners for many years because they follow our stringent AS9100 standards. And, as mentioned earlier, every casting received into our Michigan manufacturing facilities is inspected before it’s shipped to further ensure quality. And, should design changes or bridge production be needed, we can handle that directly in-house.
Learn More Today
Barron Industries is proud to be an award-winning, U.S.- based casting foundry. We have a long history and extensive knowledge of investment casting and continue to produce high-quality parts for demanding applications in industries like aerospace, defense, and energy. We also adhere to stringent AS9100 and ISO 9001 quality requirements and hold several certifications from DFARS, ITAR, CMMC 2.0, and NADCAP.
Contact us today to learn more about our offshore investment casting program or to request a project quote.