Lessons Learned from Recent Reshoring Initiatives

For decades, most U.S. manufacturers followed a clear sourcing playbook: move production to low-cost countries, particularly in Asia, to reduce piece-part prices. That approach worked—until it didn’t.

Tariffs, rising freight rates, supply chain disruptions, and more tariffs have pushed manufacturers to rethink their sourcing strategies. The result? A surge of interest in reshoring manufacturing to the U.S. and Mexico.

But if your procurement team has spent the last 15 years focusing on China, finding and qualifying capable North American suppliers—especially in Mexico—can be a challenge.

Over the past two years, APD’s Rapid Reshoring service has helped companies in dozens of industries—from automotive sensors to agricultural equipment—identify qualified suppliers for categories like castings, fabrications, stampings, extrusions, and injection moldings.

In the process, we’ve learned what works, what doesn’t, and what will save you time, cost, and frustration.

This article shares those best practices and lessons learned to help you succeed in finding suppliers in Mexico or the U.S.

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10 Best Practices for Nearshoring and Onshoring Suppliers 

1. Create an Ideal Supplier Profile up-front to align stakeholders and avoid wasting time. 
2. Tap your network to quickly identify capable suppliers. 
3. Develop a mini-business case that explains to suppliers why they should want your business. 
4. Be realistic about timelines when sourcing in categories where capable suppliers are scarce. 
5. Seek suppliers whose size, capacity, and strategic direction align with your needs. 
6. For Mexican supplier searches, leverage purchasing professionals who are fluent in Spanish and understand Mexican business culture. 
7. Use a disciplined process to define requirements, identify suppliers, and select supplier partners. 
8. Confirm available capacity as well as supplier capabilities. 
9. Simplify supplier management with suppliers that can cover multiple commodities. 
10. Move fast to identify multiple capable suppliers in 4 to 5 weeks.

1. Align Stakeholders Early with an Ideal Supplier Profile

Too many reshoring projects fail before they start because the team skips the step of consolidating requirements across all stakeholders.

Engineering may have one set of must-haves. Quality may have another. Purchasing may focus on cost and payment terms. Without alignment, you waste weeks talking to suppliers who could never meet all requirements.

Best Practice: Create an Ideal Supplier Profile before you contact a single supplier

• Identify 15–20 attributes that matter most for the category.
• Define both ideal criteria and minimum acceptable criteria for each.
• Confirm with all stakeholders so there’s no debate later.

Example:

When a global manufacturer needed turned-parts suppliers for three divisions (automotive, electrical, aerospace), each division’s Ideal Supplier Profile looked different.

Aerospace wanted titanium and stainless steel machining with AS9100 certification. Automotive needed engineering and alloy steel machining with IATF 16949. Electrical required copper, brass, and aluminum with ISO 9001. Without clearly documenting these differences, the search would have been a mess.

Lesson Learned:

Meeting up-front with stakeholders to define your company’s Ideal Supplier Profile for a category can save you months of wasted effort.

2. Tap Into Networks—Not Just Google

Web searches and LinkedIn queries can help, but they’re blunt tools. They produce long lists of suppliers, most of whom aren’t the right fit. Worse, many capable suppliers—especially in Mexico—don’t have polished websites or active marketing.

Best Practice: Prioritize network-based supplier identification

• Start with your internal network: colleagues, supplier quality, engineering
• Next, talk to your external network: former employees at your current company, as well as people you worked with at other companies
• Use your LinkedIn contacts (offer to trade information).
• Tap “single-shingle” consultants with decades of category- and industry-specific sourcing experience.

Example:

For an automotive supplier establishing its first North American plant, we were able to quickly find suppliers for several categories – such as stainless steel polishing and EPDM extrusions – using our known network of regional suppliers and web searches. 

But one category proved to be difficult – a complex 3-layer painting process required by a luxury automotive OEM.    

By tapping our external network, we identified 15 potential suppliers in days – 5 of whom had both the capabilities and open capacity.

Lesson Learned:

Networks dramatically shorten the search and improve hit rates for capable suppliers.

3. Present a Mini-Business Case to Win Supplier Attention

North American suppliers are busy. Many are running at or near capacity and can be selective about who they take on as a customer. If your first contact is just an RFQ, expect low (or no) response rates.

Best Practice: Lead with a mini-business case that explains why they should want your business.

• Share your company background, size, and growth trajectory.
• Highlight big-name customers if your company name isn’t well recognized.
• Emphasize the potential for a long-term partnership.

Example:

In a project for a commercial architectural fittings company, the client’s existing suppliers were in China. They wanted to shift production to Mexico.

We created mini-business cases for each commodity group—stainless steel fabrications, aluminum extrusions, brass tubular, etc.—which increased supplier engagement and reduced quoting delays.

Lesson Learned:

Suppliers respond faster and more thoroughly when they understand the long-term potential your business means to them.

4. Expect Supply Base Gaps and Plan for Workarounds

Mexico has strong supplier bases for certain categories—like large fabrications in Monterrey or aluminum extrusions in central Mexico—but gaps exist.

The same holds true in the U.S., just different categories. In specialized categories, the search may take longer and require a broader geographic sweep.

Example:

A manufacturer needed small-volume ductile iron sand casting suppliers in Mexico. Large foundries were easy to find, but the ideal smaller suppliers with metallurgical labs and certifications were spread across four different states.

The search took twice the normal 4–5 week timeline.

Lesson Learned:

Be realistic about timelines when sourcing in categories where capable suppliers are scarce.

5. Match Supplier Size and Strategy

Many reshoring projects fail because the supplier is either too big to care about your volumes or too small to scale with your needs.

Best Practice: Seek suppliers whose size, capacity, and strategic direction align with your program

• For small-to-medium initial volumes, avoid mega-suppliers unless you have leverage.
• For future growth, avoid small shops with no expansion plans.

Example:

One client sourcing fabrications wanted a medium-size supplier ($10–50M annual revenue) that could grow with them.

They found seven that fit perfectly – big enough tpo have the desired quality systems and certifications, small enough to value their business.

Lesson Learned:

Fit is an equal consideration to technical capabilities.

6. Use Bilingual, Culturally Fluent Contacts for Mexican Supplier Engagement

Even in a globalized manufacturing world, language and cultural fluency can make or break supplier relationships—especially in Mexico.

Best Practice: When searching for Mexican suppliers, leverage purchasing professionals who are fluent in Spanish and understand Mexican business culture

Example:

In multiple projects, our lead consultant – an experienced Mexican purchasing professional – conducted supplier interviews in Spanish, ensuring clear communication, faster answers, and stronger rapport.

Lesson Learned:

Fluency isn’t optional if you want speed and accuracy in supplier qualification.

7. Structure the Process in Three Phases

The Rapid Reshoring methodology uses a repeatable three-phase structure:

1. Define Requirements – Build the Ideal Supplier Profile(s) and mini-business cases.
2. Identify and Qualify – Use networks, targeted searches, and initial interviews to build a shortlist.
3. Engage and Select – Conduct technical interviews, facility visits (if needed), and introductions.

Example:

For a global manufacturer seeking turned parts suppliers for three divisions, this structured approach delivered 15 suppliers, vetted against their unique needs, in nine weeks.

Lesson Learned:

A disciplined process beats ad-hoc searching every time.

8. Vet for Both Capability and Capacity

Finding a technically capable supplier is only half the job. Many suppliers—especially in high-demand categories—lack available capacity.

Best Practice: Always include capacity as a mandatory attribute in your Ideal Supplier Profile.

Example:

In a fabrications search, seven suppliers met technical requirements—but only those with confirmed open capacity moved to the final shortlist.

Lesson Learned:

Capability without capacity equals wasted effort.

9. Consider Multi-Commodity Opportunities

Some suppliers can cover multiple commodities, reducing your onboarding and qualification workload.

Example:

In a project to find six different commodities—stainless steel fabrications, aluminum extrusions, brass castings, etc.—several suppliers could support multiple groups.

This simplified supplier management and increased potential leverage.

Lesson Learned:

Look for overlap in capabilities to consolidate the supply base.

10. Organize to Move Fast

When the process is executed well, reshoring projects can deliver results far faster than most procurement leaders expect.

Example:

Rapid Reshoring project routinely identify 3–4 capable suppliers per category—vetted for capability and capacity—in just 4–5 weeks.

Even complex, multi-commodity projects usually wrap in under three months.

Lesson Learned:

Speed is possible if you align requirements early, tap networks, and present compelling opportunities to suppliers.

Final Thought

Reshoring and nearshoring aren’t just reactionary moves to tariffs or freight spikes.

Done right, they can build resilience, shorten lead times, improve total cost of ownership, and strengthen supplier partnerships.

The key is to approach supplier identification and qualification with a structured, network-driven, and capacity-aware process. If you do, you can compress timelines, avoid missteps, and set up your reshoring initiative for long-term success.

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