In recent years, the manufacturing industry has undergone significant changes compared to previous years.

The demand for tight-tolerance, high-quality parts with fast turnaround times is generally on the rise, whereas many shops lack the capacity to meet this demand.

While this issue persists, skilled experts are retiring at an increasing rate, with only a few young machinists entering the industry.

Many companies thus overwork the few experts available, causing them to burn out. That’s not all, machines are overworked, deadlines are missed, and workflows remain disrupted every month.

Although several average U.S. shops continue to struggle with this issue, many top shops are collaborating with Asian manufacturers to meet this demand.

These are shops that value on-time delivery and customer satisfaction, appreciate outstanding performance, balance workflow and consistent revenue, and they go all out for it.

In this blog, I’ll walk you through these significant shifts. The primary reasons many top U.S machine shops partner with Asian manufacturers.

The New Reality Facing U.S. Machine Shops

Compared to past years, customers demand tighter tolerance parts across several industries. And even requires a fast turnaround.

Many U.S. shops today, however, lack the capacity to meet this demand, with available experts aging faster compared to young talent taking on the roles.

Lead times are shrinking faster than internal capacity can respond

I have seen firsthand many shops struggle with turnaround times. As customers scale up production, demand increases with faster lead times.

Investing in a new 5-axis CNC machine and hiring more engineers takes longer. Whereas customers expect delivery within days. To meet these demands, staff are overused, leading to burnout.

Skilled labor aging, with fewer young machinists entering the field

Many shops within several regions in the U.S are occupied with machinists who are 50 years and above.

In fact, there are shortages in apprenticeships compared to previous years. Many young individuals look forward to automation roles, which leads to a significant decline in the number of machinists available.

Customers are demanding tighter tolerances and stricter documentation

With years of experience working in various businesses, I have seen many customers request tolerances as tight as ±0.001mm, accompanied by full material traceability, inspection, and documentation.

The demand for high-quality, precise parts across various industries is generally on the rise, despite the limited available resources.

Why Top Shops Look Beyond Their Own Walls

The need to create a workflow balance, prevent team burnout, focus on high-budget recurring jobs, and improve the company’s performance and revenue has led many top shops to outsource to external partners.

Internal teams need stability, not constant overload

Teams deliver the best job once the schedule is balanced. From emergencies, quick iterations, expedites, and rapid prototyping, the workflow becomes disrupted. A top machining shop then loses its effectiveness.

While many U.S shops still struggle with this, others are taking active steps to offload multiple jobs to Asian companies.

External partners help absorb engineering-heavy, low-margin chaos work

Over the years, I have come to understand how complex geometry parts can require more engineering time. Multiple iterations, emergency design, and all inhibit workflow. This, in turn, disrupts income flow.

Rather than focusing on hectic, low-margin tasks, outsourcing becomes the best step to improve production efficiency.

Having a second source increases confidence when quoting bigger projects

Many shops aren’t confident enough to accept high-budget projects that’ll span across several years. Problem sourcing materials, fear of sudden machine or tool breakdown, and shortage of machinists all contribute to the lack of confidence.

With a reliable partner by your side, you quote with confidence. I have many records of U.S. shops that tripled their revenue by accepting bigger projects and outsourcing to me.

Strategic Reasons Behind Partnering With Asian Manufacturers

My conversations with top U.S. shops had made me understand why they value Asian manufacturers. No complications. They appreciate our advanced machining facilities. Trust us to deliver urgent orders and prototypes, and offer them flexibility.

Ability to run parallel prototyping and pre-production

Prototyping often comes with a fast turnaround time, coupled with quick material sourcing, consistent communication, and special fixturing and tool setup, which can disrupt production workflow.

With a partner at their right hand, many U.S. shops have learned to outsource prototyping and pre-production projects to Asian companies.

“Globalization isn’t a choice. It’s a reality of how modern manufacturing works.” -Jeff Immelt

Access to 5-axis, EDM, and specialty processes without new investment

More than 80% of the sophisticated shops don’t have all the machines and tools they need readily available. A shop might have the capacity for Torneamento CNC but not Maquinação por EDM.

With Asian manufacturers, U.S. shops complete projects that require advanced tools and machines. Rather than saying we don’t have the capacity for that process, they say we can handle it.

More flexibility for fluctuating volumes, seasonal spikes, and urgent jobs

Month after month, week after week, the workload differs. There are days when labour are overwhelmed with jobs and days when they are idle. Seasonal spikes, urgent demands, and production scale-up all contribute to fluctuating workflow.

While most successful shops collaborate with partners to meet new excessive demand, others wallow in burnout. And this sets the difference. The clear difference between thriving and surviving shops.

Cost advantages applied where appropriate—not for “cheap work,” but for capacity balance

Many people assume U.S shops partner with Asian manufacturers to cut costs. But it's far beyond that. Achieving capacity stability is much more crucial.

While cost plays a role, these shops are more concerned with keeping their internal workflow smooth, reducing pressure and burnout, maintaining sophisticated machines for high-margin projects, and improving overall performance. And this is where real capacity building lies.

What I’ve Learned Working With Dozens of U.S. Shops

Over the years, working with U.S. shops, I’ve learned that the best-performing ones are usually those that consistently collaborate with external partners, maintain on-time delivery, and preserve their internal facilities for recurring high-margin projects.

The best-performing shops use external partners *quietly but consistently*

Top-performing shops usually are those that consistently work with external manufacturers. Quietly but consistently, they grow in performance by outsourcing jobs. No pressure. No rush orders that disrupt work patterns.

But here come the positive results. Smoother schedules, efficient workflow and delivery, and outstanding performance that keeps average shops wondering how the system works.

They protect their internal machines for profitable, recurring work

When top-performing shops say, ‘Let's maintain our machines for recurring high-budget projects.’

Average shops continue to overwork their assets day in and day out, disrupting operations by combining prototyping, rush jobs, redesigns, and mass production all within one facility.

Top shops have learned that by outsourcing specific non-recurring jobs, machining becomes more efficient and generates more revenue.

They maintain higher on-time delivery because their schedule is smoother

When schedules are smooth and workflow is balanced, consistent on-time delivery becomes a pattern.

Other resulting benefits include customer satisfaction and an increase in recurring projects. This is achievable mainly by partnering with external companies, which top U.S shops prioritise.

Many came to DEK after burnout cycles proved internal-only models unsustainable

When many shops eventually come for a partnership with me, the same conversation is brought up. How they overworked their teams until they were burned out, how a machinist suddenly became ill, how their major tool broke down, and how deadlines were missed.

However, as our collaboration progresses, the changes become increasingly apparent. No more burnout. Less stress but more output.

Common Concerns — and What Actually Happens

Even shops that are yet to partner with Asian companies actually desire to. But fears still hold them back.

They care about quality and their customers' perspectives. The fears are valid. However, quality depends on system control, not the country, and customers care about results, not location.

“Will quality drop?” → Quality depends on process maturity, not country

Whether or not quality drops depends on a company's operational system, rather than the country in which it operates.

Tooling and machines, inspection, documentation, and traceability, expertise and teams, as well as Fixtures available, all contribute to quality output.

I have seen several shops from top countries deliver low-quality jobs, and I’ve seen small shops located in small towns in Asia deliver top-notch jobs. Quality depends on system control and not regions.

“Will customers know?” → Customers care about results, documentation, and reliability

Customers care about results and not the country. Does the machined part meet exact specifications? What about the finishing? Is it perfect? Can you provide complete documentation? Can you deliver on time?

These are what matter to the client, not the region where the parts are machined.

“Will I lose control?” → Control comes from standards, precise drawings, and communication—not from doing everything in-house

The ability to deliver beyond standards, maintain precise drawings, and consistent communication gives control, not location.

From experience, I’ve seen many shops lose control and customers' trust due to poor communication and low quality, even though they maintained in-house production.

How the Smartest Shops Structure Their Partnerships

Top shops take strategic steps to make partnerships work for them. First, they engage partners in low-risk projects, then transition to complex and urgent deliveries, share engineering context for improved manufacturability, and establish long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

Start with repeatable low-risk parts to understand capability

Top shops start partnerships with low-risk, simple components. The goal here is to learn the partners’ systems and workflows.

They monitor their lead times, check if they’re able to meet the required tolerance level, analyze their documentation and inspection process, communication flow, and so on. The goal is to study the partner and build a healthy relationship first.

Move to complex or urgent components once trust is built

From there, these shops focus on more complex jobs that require more expertise, advanced facilities, high-grade materials, thorough inspection, and consistent communication.

They also request urgent orders to be completed. Once this phase is completed successfully, both partners build trust, creating a foundation for consistent collaboration.

Share engineering context, not just drawings, for better manufacturability decisions

Top shops with the best performance not only share drawings with me, but they also share engineering perspectives for better manufacturability.

They share other vital notes and documents, customers’ major desires, critical surfaces, and assembly needs. Little extra Information equates to better output. Better manufacturability with no errors.

Treat partners like part of their operating system, not a backup plan

Most top shops don’t consider partners as a backup plan. They see us as part of their operating system. They build a long-term collaboration with us, maintain consistent communication, and are open to new ideas.

The result is a healthy, mutually beneficial relationship with a balanced workflow from both ends.

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.” - Henry Ford

My Perspective

With my extensive experience in manufacturing and as the CEO of DEK, I've gained valuable insights into U.S. machining shops, ranging from those that carry out all operations in-house to those that outsource.

One truth is that both can’t be compared. Partnering with external manufacturers helps maintain workflow balance and improve performance, which cannot be achieved when everything is done in-house.

Partnership enables shops to take on more jobs, increase income, reduce team burnout, and prevent machine and tool breakdowns. Embracing partnership isn’t a weakness; it’s a healthy way to improve performance.

And whether we like it or not, most competitive U.S. shops are quietly and consistently collaborating and building connections with Asian manufacturers. They believe that with reliable partners, they can scale as much as possible. And that’s the ideal mindset for growth to take place.