Counter Gray Market Sales with Enterprise Risk Management Solutions

Today gray marketing and counterfeiting are two of the greatest headaches faced by legitimate manufacturers and distributors. Though many consider gray marketing and counterfeiting as one and the same, the fact of the matter is these two are entirely different in concept. Therefore let’s first understand the basic difference between the two before delving further into the topic.


Wikipedia defines a gray market as “the trade of a commodity through distribution channels which, while legal, are unofficial, unauthorized, or unintended by the original manufacturer.”


While counterfeiting is, “the process of fraudulently manufacturing, altering, or distributing a product that is of lesser value than the genuine product.”


Simply put, gray marketing is the sale of legitimate and original goods or products that find their way into the gray market when a manufacturer’s authorized channel releases the products to unauthorized dealers who then sell them at high discounts. Hence, gray market goods are in no way counterfeits but they can be older products, which have been dumped because newer models are available.


Though gray market goods are legal goods, they are as damaging and costly as counterfeits to a manufacturer. Not only manufacturers, it affects customers as well as distributors. Let’s see how:


* Customers


The gray market goods have no factory warranty and the customers who buy it do not get any customer support from the legitimate importer. Moreover, the customer would not get any software and firmware updates. The customer  does not get any service, as the specialized parts are available only from the importer or the original manufacturer. Hence, the sales of these gray market products have a negative impact on customers who are expecting the original manufacturer’s warranty.


* Distributors


The entire gray market sales process takes sales away from new products and affects distributor loyalty.


* Manufacturers


Gray market products create disruptions with the distributors especially the ones who are keeping their agreements in the channel. If they believe that there is unfair competition from a growing gray market, they will drop the particular manufacturer from their list.


Instead of considering gray market activity as “the cost of doing business” as most of them do, enterprises need to invest in good enterprise risk management solutions to proactively recapture lost revenues, market share and brand reputation. This can be achieved by tightening value chains. The SaaS-based software has a proprietary search capability that can help the manufacturers find where and at what price their products are being sold globally. Not only that, it tracks the distributors who are responsible for unloading these products on the gray market. Thus, armed with this data, enterprises can take action against the violators and thereby stop the erosion caused by gray market products.


Read More About: Brand Management

Outsourced Aerospace Engineering Ensures a Systematic Approach & Enhance Profitability

Pressures to reduce costs will be the primary drivers of decisions by aerospace and defense companies to use external outsourcing engineering services in the coming years.  With the ongoing demand to reduce the cost and carbon release of air travel, aircraft manufacturing companies are increasingly compelled to reduce development costs and improve the operating efficiency of  aircrafts. The outsourcing of engineering services is therefore playing a significant role, enabling manufacturers to maintain margins and lower costs with no compromise on excellence.


Outsourcing in the aviation industry has come a long way from the low-end projects undertaken earlier. The aerospace industry , taking an example lead from the automotive sector, started to wake up to the fact that outsourcing projects held many advantages. Outsourced engineering services not have a large pool of highly-trained engineers but also have tremendous cost advantages coupled with a highly systematic approach. For the aerospace industry operating at low margins, such an advantage over competitors was highly welcome. Most organizations dealing in engineering consultancy services absorbs experienced engineers having a sound knowledge in the latest equipments and technologies and their respective applications.


Engineering outsourced companies help build and deliver products that are better and cheaper, minimize development costs, reduce lead times and maximize resources. By partnering with a reputed service provider, your business is bound to receive  unmatched support across the entire product life cycle the best offshore engineering services that can transform your company into a global force. Such service providers also have a unique Global Product Development framework that can help leverage local presence and global reach to not only support globalization initiatives, but also gain  from better and faster solutions that deliver more value.


They have the necessary expertise in outsourced engineering services ranges from concept design, detailing and analysis, to product realization solutions in aerospace, civil structures, power generation, industrial products, oil & gas and transportation. An efficient outsourced engineering service company offers a whole gamut of engineering services that provides its clients a one-stop opportunity to meet their end-to-end requirement of engineering services, including engineering analysis is an important part of engineering services that provides crucial insights to enable the sound execution of any project. Engineering services outsourcing will increase at a rapid speed is estimated to be 70 per cent more than what it is at present in the year 2015.


Outsourced engineering services help the aerospace engineering businesses to make their efforts concrete and offer them with excellent support to meet customer expectations.


Related links: global engineering services, oil and gas engineering services

Services Offered By Aerospace Engineering Outsourcing Services

The aviation industry is a well acclaimed one today and has undergone important changes over the years. Keeping in mind the present day diverse market needs and demand the manufacturing procedures concentrates more on a industrious blend of engineering services, technology and precision machining. In addition to that, there are extensive analysis and research work being carried out on aerospace technology and other associated up scaling work that is necessary to cater to overseas clients and end users better. As a result of which, outsourcing aerospace manufacturing services has become the order of the day.

 

Companies specializing in aerospace engineering outsourcing services gives emphasis on expanding their customer and support base to the entire aerospace vertical, by offering ready to fit aerospace precision machine parts. These services have the ability to cover more than 45000 hrs per year and are well equipped with the finest and advanced state-of-the-art machinery for precision machining aero engines and aero parts for complying with strict quality criteria in the aerospace industry. The machining technology comprises of the following:


* 3/4/5 axis machining centers

* 2/3 axis CNC turning and milling

* 3 axis vertical turret lathes

* Assembly and other bench work activities


Apart from this the inspection facility too includes the following elements:-


* Fully equipped inspection center

* Coordinate Measuring Machine (CMM)

* Leica microscope and Millipore testing for Dirt and chip level content (Clean room)

* Other essential inspection instruments and gauges


Materials have an essential role to play in aerospace manufacturing services. The recent  researches indicate that aluminum, steel and titanium are some of the commonly used raw materials. Organizations engaged in manufacturing service have also expanded their manufacturing base to:


* Process planning

* Assembly process planning

* Tooling design and development

* Value engineering and value analysis

* Reverse engineering

* Assembly tooling design

* Development and CNC program coding


Today aerospace manufacturing enterprises are getting involved in new manufacturing procedures, sequences and are introducing advanced manufacturing systems to recognize the improvements that are necessary to attain greater success. This procedure is said to be a beneficial one as it reduces the production lead time that helps in maximizing the production flexibility and bring down its total cost. Furthermore, the number of processes and manufacturing operations that are needed to complete a vehicle build is lessened. End users can experience the manufacturing process reducing its complexity level and minimize the rework and scrap levels to reduce expense and non-value added works.


Related Links: Global engineering services, oil and gas engineering services