Best Resources for Determining Your Manufacturing Process
For your business plan, you'll need to determine how a product like yours is manufactured. Try using sources like scholarly articles, books, and videos. Take notes on machines, materials or processes that are identified and use these words as search terms later.
- ProQuest SciTech Collection This link opens in a new window
This link opens in a new window
Content type(s): Scholarly articles, trade journals, and dissertations on science and technology topics. Useful for learning about materials or processes for manufacturing your product
Dates covered: 1693-present - Scopus This link opens in a new windowContent types: Abstracts and citations for peer-reviewed journals that might discuss how to manufacture products.
Dates covered: 1966-present
- Manufacturing process selection handbook (E-book)Provides manufacturing process information maps (PRIMAs) of 65 processes in a standard format. Offers detailed methods for estimating costs, both at the component and assembly level.
- How Stuff WorksSearch this YouTube channel for a product or process using the magnifying glass next to About.
- Inside the Factory (British TV series)Documentary series that goes inside various factories in Britain.
Best Resources for Finding Suppliers for Machinery & Raw Materials
Once you have an idea about the process for making a product siimilar to yours, you can search for companies that sell the equipment or materials you'll need.
- ThomasNetContent type(s): Directory of U.S. suppliers. Search by the components or materials your product will need, like Lithium Batteries or Polyurethane
Dates covered: Varies - Macrae's Blue BookContent type(s): Directory of U.S. suppliers. Search by the components or materials your product will need, like Fan Blades or Silicon Gaskets
Dates covered: Varies - AlibabaContent type(s): Directory of global. suppliers. Search by the components or materials your product will need, like Knitting Machines or Wireless Earbuds.
Note: Prices often aren't truly reflective of the costs of acquiring, shipping to the U.S., and paying tariffs. Proceed cautiously with Alibaba quotes.
Dates covered: Varies
- ProcurementIQ This link opens in a new windowContent type(s): Analyst reports that assist with buying decisions in supply chains and sourcing.
Dates covered: Current
Best Resources for Estimating Transportation Costs
Transportation concerns the movement of products from a source—such as a plant, factory, or workshop—to a destination—such as a warehouse, customer, or retail store, according to the Encyclopedia of Small Business (2007, p. 1125). It includes both getting materials to your facility for production and distributing your finished goods. Transportation may occur by air, water, rail or road. Transportation costs "generally depend upon the distance between the source and the destination, the means of transportation chosen, and the size and quantity of the product to be shipped."
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Transportation. (2007). In Encyclopedia of Small Business (3rd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 1125-1127). Gale.
A freight rate is the cost of transporting goods from one point to another. The freight rate is affected by the distance the goods need to travel as well as the nature of the goods, including whether they are breakable or perishable (Mayhew, 2023).
Search in Google for international freight calculator to see options like Freightos or Freightfinders. Almost all of these sites will require you to sign up for a free account to see your estimated costs.
Image source: Tiry Nelson Gono on Unsplash
- Logistics Management: Top 30 U.S. Ports in 2023Logistics Management is a trade journal that annually ranks U.S. ports in terms of container volume.
- FedEx Freight Rates and Transit TimesThis overview of what affects freight shipping costs also links to calculators.
Mayhew, S. "freight rate." In A Dictionary of Geography. Oxford University Press, 2023.
The International Trade Association define a tariff as "a tax levied by governments on the value ... of imported products" (ITA, n.d.). The company buying the product pays this tax to the U.S. Custom and Border Protection agency. Tariff rates differ by product category and export country.
Businesses can determine tariff rates by searching the Harmonized Tariff System (HTS).
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- Current U.S. trade agreementsImported goods from these 20 countries aren't subject to tariffs.
- DataWeb: The premier source of free U.S. Trade & Tariff dataUse the Tariff Database to estimate how much it will cost to source an item from abroad.
Tips for Getting the Best Info from Operations Resources
JMU Libraries has created several tutorials in Google Slides to help students use our specialized business resources.
Click on the name of the database to open the tutorial that shows how to search for data and cite the information you find in APA style.
