Business Chief USA February 2019

TRINITY INDUSTRIES
254
“TECHNOLOGY
HAS BEEN KEY IN
IMPROVING VISIBILITY,
SYNCHRONISATION
AND COLLABORATIVE
PLANNING WITH
SUPPLIERS”
—
Mike Hegedus,
Vice President Supply Chain Management
and Procurement, Trinity Industries
Much of that evolution has been in
strategy. As with many manufacturers,
offshoring is increasingly becoming a
crucial part of the mix. “We segment
our supply chain and certain parts
make sense for offshoring such as
commodity parts. We really leverage,
for example, the low cost of steel and
castings and forgings in China.” The
attendant process of nearshoring is
also increasingly a focus. “The larger
the parts and sub-assemblies need
to be, the more efficient it is to use
nearshore suppliers. We’ve migrated
our production from the U.S. to Mexico
and we continue to manufacture more
in Mexico every year. We’re not just
nearshoring to take advantage of low
cost labor and manufacturing, it’s really
about localising to get them near to our
manufacturing plants.
“In fact, we’ve gone a step further,
where we’re now moving into a phase
where we are co-locating suppliers
on our facilities for even larger subassemblies
– things that might not
be effectively shipped on a truck.
Making railcars, some of these subassemblies
can be very large, so it
makes sense for us.”
FEBRUARY 2020