When it comes to creating the products that your business is going to sell, there’s a good reason that a lot of business owners choose to outsource it. Manufacturing is costly when it goes right and those costs can grow if you’re not careful. If you’re looking to cut costs, here are a few ways to do it without sacrificing the quality of the products that you’re making.

Look over the design again

Material costs are going to be some of the highest that you have to deal with throughout the manufacturing process. The more materials you need, the more you pay for storage, logistics, and your suppliers. By revising your product’s design, you might be able to find the places where you can make it a little smaller, a little simpler, without compromising its integrity or the appeal of its design. Even a small adjustment that saves a tiny bit of material per product will accumulate to become significant savings made.

Get a little outside help

You don’t need to give up control over your manufacturing entirely to benefit from outsourcing. There are some cases in which it might cost more to buy certain pieces of equipment that are only used for a small part of the overall production process than it would be to outsource them. A key example of this is additive manufacturing for rapid tooling. You can have other professionals take care of the steps in your manufacturing process while you still take care of the rest. Otherwise, you could be paying for machinery and expertise that you don’t use enough to justify those costs.

Manage your inventory better

Keeping hold of materials is expensive, everyone who has worked in manufacturing knows that. However, having too few of the materials you need causes delays, which are also costly. Inventory shortages and inventory surplus can both be expensive, leading to additional shipping costs, not to mention dissatisfied customers. For that reason, it’s worth taking the time to invest in a manufacturing inventory system for the business. When you have a better idea of what you’re going to need, and what you’re likely to have too much of based on data-driven projections, then you have more time to act and cut the costs associated with them.

Pinpoint the sources of human-caused loss

A lot of, or even the vast majority, of problems that lead to higher costs in manufacturing, are going to be systemic. However, individuals still play a role in those systemic problems and you can address the sources of those often by working more effectively with your employees. For instance, you should make sure that your manufacturing employees are frequently trained so that they can better work fast to keep pace with growing customer demands while cutting down on the sources of loss due to their mistakes.

With the tips above, you can hopefully make a much more cost-effective manufacturing process, while still maintaining a high standard for your finished products.