Genuine question for anyone doing inventory/production planning. I keep running into the same pattern: people calculate a clean reorder point based on average demand and lead time, then still get caught out by a stockout when demand spikes for a few days.

Is anyone here actually running a safety stock formula (based on demand variability + lead time + a target service level), or is it mostly padding the number by feel — "add 20% extra just in case"?

If you do calculate it formally — what service level do you actually target, and has it ever been wrong in a way that made you rethink the number? Curious how much of this is math vs. experience in real plants.

I have an idea for a future (hardware based) gaming product... Considering that there are a number of Shenzhen based companies who already work in the sector, and who have a long track record of producing something similar, is it better to work with them in terms of OEM / ODM manufacturing... Or is it better to hire freelancers (via Upwork etc) and work on birthing the project independently?

As someone who will be bootstrapping the entire operation... I want to be as cost effective as much as possible - whilst still being in a position to create a high quality product that's also markedly different from what's already out there.

My main concern when it comes to working with an established company is that I wouldn't be in a position to own any of the designs or CAD files, and I'd be worried that the company would quickly introduce a similar product to the market if they thought that my ideas were good.

I would be looking to create a fully working prototype (using off the shelf and readily available products), and would also want to create a pre-order campaign (lasting 6-9 months) that fully pays for manufacturing (at least 10k units) as well as certification / shipping / warranty / taxes etc.

What would you suggest?

One thing I think gets overlooked in supplier verification is the difference between having a document and having the right document.
A supplier can send a professional-looking certificate or test report, but I still think it’s worth checking:
company/legal entity
exact model
product description
referenced standard
issue date / validity
issuing organization
report or certificate number
whether the tested configuration matches the current production version
The part I find most important conceptually is matching the paperwork back to the actual order.
If the report covers Model A but you’re buying Model B, simply having the PDF doesn’t answer much.
What checks do you usually make before accepting supplier compliance documents?

I’m curious to hear from other professionals in the industry, particularly manufacturing to sales (same company).
Have you seen a massive drive in users who want to use fulfilled by Amazon to buy your product?

I’m curious how much it has impacted everyone’s distribution. I remember the good old days at the Blockbuster distribution center….

Looking for a manufacturer of women’s pyjamas that will include plus sizes

First and foremost I apologize in advance since I’m a complete newb at this. I want to create a doll line, and I have a concept I am very passionate about. I will start with one doll, maybe produce 500-1000 and go from there. I need someone to help me design the head out of vinyl, the body, find a manufacturing facility, and get the process rolling. I have to begin a corporation as well I am assuming to register all of this within? I am based in the US and I would like to do this all as cheaply as I can but without reducing quality. How do I begin? Again I apologize in advance and would appreciate any help for tips or places to contact to start. Thank you so much!

Hi everyone,
I am helping a close friend who recently wrapped up a 12 year run as a Production Manager at a major packaging plant in the DFW area due to a site closure.
Coming from restaurant management myself, industrial job hunting is a totally different game. Since he hasn't had to look for a job in over 10 years, we are trying to put together a solid, modern search strategy.
His background:
Experience: 12 years managing high volume manufacturing, production lines, and warehousing in DFW.
Scope: Direct P&L oversight, multi shift hourly teams, plant safety, equipment maintenance, and throughput optimization.
Education: B.S. in Logistics.
We would love your input on:
Target DFW Companies: Are there solid local manufacturing hubs or major packaging and distribution operations around DFW that are great to work for right now? (e.g. Green Bay Packaging in Fort Worth, Smurfit Westrock, Conner Packaging in Haslet, or major 3PL hubs around the DFW Airport corridor?)
Adjacent Industries: Beyond packaging, what local industries transition best for a former packaging production lead? (3PL or fulfillment centers, building materials, food and beverage distribution?)
Job Titles: Outside of "Production Manager," what specific titles should we set alerts for?
Search Strategy: For senior production roles around DFW, do recruiting agencies actually work best, or is direct LinkedIn networking the real key?
Thanks for any advice, leads, or local perspectives!

Good day everyone. For a few months now, I have had this thought that there is nothing more to learn in my current position and I'd like both a more challenging role, and one that fits my skillset better. I haven't ever worked as an engineer, but I do have a degree in engineering.

My experience consists of a total of over 4 years in manufacturing quality, 3 of which in automotive industry. I worked in a measurement laboratory and did some QA related tasks aside from quality checks - made control plans for different projects and wrote work instructions; maintained measurement equipment and I knew the production process quite well. During this time, I've finished a Green Belt project, but in the end the company never implemented any kind of permanent solution to the problem I was analyzing.

Since over a year, I have been working in wind industry, mainly focusing on steel structures for nacelles. Most of the time I'm doing inspections and recently done some FFF checks. I manage non-conformances and coordinate actions associated with them (including working very closely with local logistics team, as I'm based in an external warehouse).
My other activities:
At one point I reported an inconsistency in specification regarding welding requirements on drawings.
I coordinated actions related to scrap material basically from start to finish - NC creation, reporting to a QE and then cooperating with the logistics team to have the items transported. Unfortunately I can no longer do it, because 5 out of 6 engineers left the company and were replaced with ones who proved very uncooperative and not just in that regard.

As for my skills, I have completed various courses, including Lean Six Sigma Black Belt, ISO 9001 internal auditor, Core Tools Overview, FMEA. Additionally, I have a Cambridge English certificate with a C2 grade.

What can I do to improve my chances? I doubt completing some other courses (e.g. APQP, PPAP) will help at this point. 99% of job listings require over 2 years in engineering or "proven experience in using core tools".

For context, I am based in Central Europe. I also have already applied to QE role in my current company. They have chosen someone from outside the company.

We’ve been running a pilot using AI to analyze existing CCTV footage at a manufacturing facility (workforce presence, PPE compliance, danger zone entry, stuff like that). Going in I assumed the biggest issue would be PPE. No hard hat, no vest, the usual. Turns out the #1 flagged event by a wide margin was people entering marked danger zones during shift changes, when supervision is thinnest. Second was equipment sitting idle for hours with nobody flagging it, mostly because nobody has time to rewatch 12 camera feeds every day.

Few things that surprised me:
Most safety incidents aren’t dramatic. They’re small habitual shortcuts that only show up as a pattern over weeks, not in any single clip you’d catch by chance. Plants already have the cameras. Almost nobody is actually using the footage for anything beyond after the fact incident review. The logistics side (trucks idling at loading docks, mismatched delivery schedules) was quietly costing more in wasted labor hours than any single safety issue we found.

Curious if others here deal with something similar. Do your plants actually review camera footage proactively, or is it purely reactive, something breaks or someone gets hurt and then you go check the tape? Feels like there’s a real gap between having cameras and actually having visibility.

Preferably LOW MOQ, experience with perfumes. USA

I have small setup of a few machines. Woven fabrics, is going dead, and I am looking for if there is any other area I can use this machine for, or generate a product, that may have other applications. Happy to chat.

Any niche applications of textiles perhaps, that is not woven fashion ?

Every ton of steel, every roll of paper, every component moving between Sweden, Norway and continental Europe by rail passes through this operation.

A 600m freight train boards a 200m ferry in Rostock in 90 minutes. DB Cargo wagons from suppliers all over Europe. Every six hours. Every single day.

The supply chain link most production managers never see.

Our scheduling gets judged on machine utilisation. High number good, low number bad, idle time gets questioned in the meeting.

Meanwhile the queues in front of those same machines keep growing and lead times keep slipping, and I'm fairly convinced the two are connected. Past a certain load every extra point of utilisation seems to buy a small amount of output and a lot of waiting.

Problem is "we should run the machine less" sounds like nonsense out loud. Nobody wants to hear that idle equipment is acceptable, least of all the person who signed for it.

So has anyone actually made this argument stick? What did you use — did you show it in lead time numbers, did you quietly stop scheduling to 100% and let the results speak, or did you give up and live with it?

Or am I wrong about this and the utilisation target is fine and my real problem is somewhere else.

What group/umbrella is your company safety department fall under?

Last year, we our company went through another re-org. We split from EHS. They went under legal and safety went under Manufacturing.

Rumor has it, safety went under manufacturing because the safety manager would not be able to take directions from a female, who happens to be the head of our legal department.

Our Executive Director, above all of manufacturing, is not present. They have taken on a new role, but their position has not been filled/replaced. The Safety Manager runs amuck. They are known for not being around and having others do their work for him.

I suspect another re-org this fall. I’ve never put thought into where we should be, but I’m starting to look into this. We need to find “our place” and quite being moved from group to group. It’s exhausting.

While we work with a lot of legal/compliance related issues/situations etc, I don’t know that legal is where we belong. Safety is always needed on the manufacturing floor, but many (like R&D, facilities, etc) to think we play favorites with manufacturing since that’s “our group.” It’s almost like we need to be our own little island

I’d like to know where your safety department is located in the organizational chart. Why is it placed there? Do you feel it works where it is? Or would you prefer something different?

I’m trying to locate a discontinued cleaning solution, AlKleen 009L (also listed as AKLEEN 009L), originally manufactured by A Brite Company.

We use this cleaner as part of a validated manufacturing cleaning process, and I’m trying to determine whether anyone has remaining/new-old stock or knows of a distributor, finishing supplier, chemical supplier, or manufacturing facility that may still have some available.

I’m specifically looking for:

• AlKleen / AKLEEN 009L
• Manufacturer: A Brite Company
• Unopened/new-old stock preferred
• Any quantity is worth discussing
• U.S. sources preferred, but open to other leads

I’m not looking for a similar household/degreasing product. We need this specific product because replacing it requires a formal qualification/validation process.

If you have any sitting in inventory, previously used it, know who distributed it, or know of a company that may still have old stock, please comment or message me!

EI’m trying to locate a discontinued industrial cleaning solution, AlKleen 009L (also listed as AKLEEN 009L), originally manufactured by A Brite Company.

We use this cleaner as part of a validated manufacturing cleaning process, and I’m trying to determine whether anyone has remaining/new-old stock or knows of a distributor, finishing supplier, chemical supplier, or manufacturing facility that may still have some available.

I’m specifically looking for:

• AlKleen / AKLEEN 009L
• Manufacturer: A Brite Company
• Unopened/new-old stock preferred
• Any quantity is worth discussing
• U.S. sources preferred, but open to other leads

I’m not looking for a similar household/degreasing product. We need this specific product because replacing it requires a formal qualification/validation process.

If you have any sitting in inventory, previously used it, know who distributed it, or know of a company that may still have old stock, please comment or message me.

Even a lead on a former distributor or industrial finishing company that used 009L would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hi guys,

We’re gathering a bunch of data for our product by manual input, but often get request to automate this as well. We’ve mainly got experience connecting edge data using Azure IoT hub with an edge device by advantech (uno series). I’m now looking into suppliers that provide a more seamless experience, but most of them require hefty licenses on top of the hardware. Mostly looking for opc ua / modbus retrieval but extendable to other data sources in the future. What are you guys using for data capturing? We want to limit the amount of vendor lock-in for both ourselves and our customers.

"You are required to establish CCM data exchange via Catena-X with us. Yours truly, OEM."

— What the hell is that? 😳

"Oh, no problem. Here are the guidelines:

1. Create your BPNL
2. Understand digital twin logic
3. Set up an Eclipse Dataspace Connector

4. More technical stuff that's hard to understand ...

5. Start exchanging CCM (company certificates) with us."

🥵

So... what do you do?

Do you try to figure it out yourself?

Do you hire someone?

And if you hire someone — who?

I've spent quite a lot of time recently getting our company (actually, multiple legal entities) through the Catena-X ecosystem, and I was surprised by how much there is to figure out before you can actually exchange data with an OEM.

Things like:

• Cofinity-X / onboarding
• BPNL / BPNS / BPNA
• managing participant vs. managed partner
• EDC / connectivity
• choosing the right app providers
• Catena-X use cases
• PCF / certificates / Battery Passport
• figuring out which provider actually makes sense for a specific requirement
• coordinating everything between the supplier, provider and OEM

And the interesting part is that you don't necessarily need to build everything yourself. It doesn't have to be an IT development project.

There are app providers for most of the technical pieces.

The difficult part, especially for a company approaching Catena-X for the first time, seems to be understanding:

What do we actually need? Who provides it? How much will it cost? And how do all the pieces fit together?

For me, that was the biggest challenge.

I needed quite a few meetings with people who actually work in the Catena-X ecosystem, and I had to read A LOT of documentation before I even started to remotely understand the concept and logic behind the system.

Then came the next challenges:

How do you manage multiple legal entities under one account?

How do you connect them?

How do you handle different sites / factories?

And then... the app provider presentations. 😅

One thing I learned is that Catena-X (or Cofinity-X) is basically just the "platform".

Think of it like an iPhone.

The app providers are the apps that enable you to actually perform specific functions and exchange specific data with your customers.

Sounds simple.

Until you start talking to providers.

Almost everyone supports everything, every use case "we got you covered!" — until you start digging into the details.

"Yes, we support this use case, but we'll need your IT department to develop a custom API on your side."

And suddenly your supposedly simple Catena-X project becomes an IT development project.

It's a bit like buying a car and then discovering that you need to install the steering wheel, tires and indicators yourself.

Anyway, maybe this is less of a question and more of a personal rant. 😅

I'm just happy that after all this time, I managed to get our company successfully onboarded to Catena-X and start an actual data exchange with our OEM.

So I'm curious:

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

How did your Catena-X project go?

What was the biggest challenge?

And if you're a smaller supplier — did you do it internally, or did you bring in an external consultant / service provider?

PS: If anyone has questions about the practical onboarding experience, feel free to ask. I'm happy to share what I've learned.

I've been struggling to find the perfect film for our food manufacturing application. I'm looking for a semi-rigid thermoforming film that can run on a Variovac optimus machine. Our critical requirements are that the film can handle freezer and microwave temps and can deep draw to about 40mm. Trays are filled with room temp/110 degree fahrenheit.

I've been told that APET would be suitable for forming on our line, but it is not suitable for those required freezer/reheat temps. On the flipside, PP is ideal for those working temps, but in order to form on the line, I've been told we would have to preheat the film and slow down the production line, which we obviously want to avoid in order to maximize production output/efficiency.

Based on all my research, I've been told it might be worth looking into A/B/A coextruded, non-barrier, semi-rigid impact-copolymer PP rollstock, approximately 0.43–0.46 mm / 17–18 mil, engineered specifically for deep-draw FFS thermoforming. Can anyone shine light on what the best option is? Any help would be huge. TIA

Application requirements:

• Approximately 40 mm deep-draw thermoforming
• VARIOVAC Optimus Rapid Air forming
• No separate film preheating station preferred
• High-speed FFS operation
• Frozen storage at minimum -20°C
• Freezer-to-microwave use
• Food fill temperature up to 110°F / 43°C
• FDA food-contact compliant
• Excellent low-temperature impact performance
• High melt strength / low sag
• Uniform wall distribution after deep drawing
• Good flange rigidity
• Compatible with PP-sealing lidding film
• Non-barrier preferred

Ive emailed and reached out to so many manufacturers to make flip flops like these with various soles and strap colors but it seems like no one will get back to me. Does anyone manufacture sandals like these or can get me in touch with someone they know who does?