Inventory Management

Working with a financially capable manufacturer on inventory management systems for your CNC parts is a great way to reduce costs and improve efficiency. Not only that but with the new world we live in, the most important aspect of these programs is that we can reduce your lead time down to 24 hours at no additional cost to the customer. For more than 20 years, our parent company, Epec Engineered Technologies, has been working closely with customers so that they can get the best of both worlds – very competitive prices and short lead times.

How Do We Do This?

Using our dual sourcing CNC business model, we can manufacture your prototypes at our facility in Southbridge, Mass., and then build your production at our low-cost facilities overseas and keep inventory in our warehouse to ship to you when you need it.

How Does It Work?

Customers give us a PO for a quantity that they will use for 3, 6, or 12 months, and we will build all of the parts at once so that you can get the best cost. Then, we will hold the inventory in our warehouse to ship to you weekly, monthly, or whenever you need it. This way you are never more than 24 hours away from having parts on your production floor.

Our Product Inventory Stocking Programs Include:

Kanban Programs

At our facility, we can manufacture and store inventories that can be available on a Just In Time (JIT) basis. We can accept releases via phone or email.

Blanket Orders

Metal Craft can manufacture and inventory your parts at our facility to fulfill your manufacturing scheduling requirements.

Consignment Stock

Metal Craft can manufacture parts on a consignment basis. Inventory may be stocked at either your facility or at our warehouse.

Investment To Help Our Customers

We have invested heavily in being able to manage our own and customer inventory using our sophisticated MRP and accounting system so that we can offer:

• First In-First Out inventory management
• Date code tracking
• Document control for certificates of conformance
• 100,000 sq. ft. of environmentally controlled warehouse
• Inventory availability within 24 hours
• Additional services available:
  Customer-specific labeling (upon request)
  Bar code labeling (upon request)
  Specific packaging requirements available (upon request)

Common Questions

Q: I don’t buy in large volumes. Is this program still an option?

That is what is so great about our program: you don’t have to as we can do these types of programs for quantities as small as 100 pieces. Would it make sense to do a program like this for 100 parts that cost $1? No, it wouldn’t as the freight and paperwork cost would negate any price savings that you would see. But 100 pieces at $50? Absolutely. We could break that into 4 shipments of 25 pieces and minimize your on-hand inventory.

Q: What about material shortages?

The biggest challenge today for anyone buying CNC machined parts is the availability of materials and then the lead time of production. With this system, you don’t need to worry about that as the parts are done sitting in our warehouse waiting for you to use them.

Q: Do you manage everything with the offshore option?

Working with our team will remove the uncertainty of dealing with offshore vendors and removes the hassle of inspecting, surveying, and questioning a new supplier. Our team has visited, completed quality surveys, and established relationships with ALL our manufacturing partners as we have only qualified the right factories for every order. Our staff of 30 people located in Southern China works diligently every day to ensure that all of our products are right and on time.