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.

I’m developing a small handbag brand and I’m trying to find the right manufacturer for premium-looking non-leather handbags, mainly structured bags, shoulder bags, top-handle bags, etc.
I’m specifically looking for PU/faux leather, not genuine leather.
My initial requirement would be relatively small, roughly 50–100 pieces per style, potentially starting with just a few styles and scaling successful designs later.
I’ve already tried sourcing in Dharavi, Mumbai, speaking with several karigars/vendors. Unfortunately, the samples I’ve received so far have looked like inexpensive wholesale-market products rather than the quality level I’m targeting. The construction, material feel, structure and finishing weren’t good enough.
So I’m wondering whether I’m simply looking in the wrong part of the manufacturing ecosystem.
I’m currently considering:
Delhi/NCR, India
Mumbai/other parts of India
Guangzhou/Guangdong, China
potentially Vietnam or other manufacturing hubs
I’m not looking for the cheapest manufacturer. Quality and the ability to develop a good sample are much more important initially.
The kind of quality I’m aiming for is closer to a premium contemporary fashion brand rather than a generic PU/wholesale handbag.
For people who have actually manufactured handbags:
Where would you look for this type of manufacturer?
Is India capable of producing genuinely premium PU/faux-leather handbags at 50–100 pcs/style, or is China significantly better for this?
Are there particular manufacturing regions/clusters I should investigate?
What should I look for when evaluating a factory’s sample quality?
How do you distinguish a real manufacturer with an in-house sample/pattern-making capability from a trading company or small workshop?
Are there specific things I should specify for PU/faux leather, lining, reinforcement, edge finishing and hardware?
If you’ve personally worked with a manufacturer you would recommend, I’d especially appreciate hearing about your experience.
I’m happy to pay properly for good sampling, I’m not trying to squeeze the factory on price. The priority is finding someone who can actually execute a premium product at small initial volumes.
I’d especially appreciate responses from people who have personally manufactured or developed handbags, rather than generic supplier recommendations.

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?

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.

Need advise

I am an independent manufacturing consultant with 30+ YoE. I advise companies on all aspects related to manufacturing, production, quality and efficiency. I also
hold a black belt in six sigma.

I have leveraged my network and other expert network platforms for independent consulting in the last few years. I have now reached a point where I am unable to figure out further growth. Clients have exhausted and i am unable to see any way further.

Pls advise / suggest on how do I grab more projects. Would appreciate any leads/ firms looking for independent consultants.

I’m in my family’s tractor spare-parts business in India, mainly dealing with gears and transmission parts.
Honestly, I find the traditional aftermarket distribution model pretty fucking boring and slow-growing. From what I understand, it can take 10–15 years to build something substantial.
OEM manufacturing seems much more attractive, but there’s a catch.
If you’re a relatively new manufacturer, no OEM is going to commit a big order and tell you to invest first. And if you wait for an OEM commitment before investing, you could potentially spend 1–1.5 years just waiting for orders/development/approval.
There are also already a lot of established manufacturers competing for these OEM contracts.
So I want to hear from people who have experience in manufacturing/OEM supply:
Is taking a calculated loan and investing upfront to build OEM-level manufacturing capability a reasonable strategy, or is it too risky without guaranteed orders?
And realistically, how difficult is it for a new manufacturer to break into tractor/automotive OEM supply when there are already so many established suppliers?

"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.