Capitalizing on US Manufacturing During an Era of Shifting Policies
Changes to Global Trade Tariffs
The US-manufacturing landscape continues to evolve in 2025, in many ways as a result of the ongoing changes to global trade tariffs. However, regardless of the driving forces behind these changes, they’ve presented US manufacturers with an opportunity to capitalize on the ever-shifting landscape—if they’ve already implemented processes and technology to facilitate these changing requirements.
As we’ll see, success during these fluid times is not by accident but rather by strategic efforts. The end goal being to make sure customers are pleased with both the delivered products and the working relationship throughout the process.
STC president Brad Cross provides additional background on how the evolving landscape affects STC: “In some cases, the changes are mainly regulatory and require manufacturers to address their systems to meet new federal requirements. In other cases, the changes are more sweeping and require ongoing coordination with not only our customers who receive STC products—but also with suppliers who provide component parts used within those products.”
Cross then expanded on the specific ways in which STC has responded to the ongoing changes. “It helps to start with the customer and think about how they evaluate their vendors. We need to ask ourselves ‘how do we measure up in areas like quality, reliability, overall cost, and communication?’ We need to be able to answer those questions with data, and many of our customers require detailed data as well. Our history in collecting and providing this kind of information benefits both STC and our customers.”
Cross then focused on specific areas to describe the advantages STC has been able to offer as a US manufacturer.
Uncertainty About Tariffs
The recent elimination of the de minimis exemption means low-cost international shipments must now have import fees collected. Additionally, US tariff rates from many supplying countries remain in flux, resulting in uncertainty as to the delivered cost of imported goods. Because STC customers receive made-in-USA products from our production facility in Illinois, tariffs do not apply to outgoing STC shipments.
Reliability & Risk Management
One factor that plays into both reliability and risk management is supply stability. One example is when a customer has ordered a large number of parts from overseas, to be transported in recurring shipments. At some point, there may be a defect detected in a particular build. By the time the buying customer catches the defective part, there are likely already shipping containers with many more of those same builds on the way.
Simply put, less incoming material from your international supply chain improves the stability of your supply.
Quality
STC has their own testing protocol, which requires specific test protocols for different suppliers, depending on their supply history, including delivery and reliability. Our experience identifying new suppliers and working with our long-term suppliers provides additional value to our customers.
STC is also experienced in source traceability, so if there’s any kind of issue with a high-reliability part, we can trace manufacturing steps to the employees who actually built it, as well as the associated Quality Inspector and vendors. Some of our customers certify STC staff as source inspectors within their own quality system.
Shorter Lead Times
This is a matter of distance combined with STC’s inventory and production capabilities, which includes magnetics, printed-circuit assembly, and system design. Shipping costs and delivery times are reduced because of proximity.
Cross concludes, “US manufacturers who are prepared to deliver in each of these areas—and meet the required certifications—have a distinct advantage as trade policies and production requirements continue to change.”