Enforcing Secondary Production Volume Allocation Schedules across Tier Two Suppliers

Allocation

Splitting component volume between primary and secondary vendors only creates redundancy if the secondary plant maintains an active production cadence. In cross-border supply chains feeding Tier One assembly, OEMs often split volume 70/30 or 60/40 across two sub-tier stamping, molding, or casting operations. The secondary plant, stuck with the smaller share, ends up absorbing unrecovered fixed costs, uneven production runs, and secondary access to raw material stock.

When demand spikes or the primary plant goes down, that secondary vendor rarely manages to ramp output. The capacity committed on paper either sits as idle machinery or was quietly handed off to domestic accounts with steady weekly orders.

Managing secondary sub-tier capacity comes down to unit economics at low run rates. Sub-tier factories operate on tight gross margins ~ typically between eight and fourteen percent for precision metal pressings and injection-molded enclosures. Running at thirty percent of a press line’s rated weekly output drives up changeover costs and labor downtime.

Without minimum batch guarantees or locked run windows, the secondary supplier will reallocate maintenance cycles, skilled toolmakers, and prime raw material lots to higher-volume domestic work. Securing that capacity requires commercial enforceability rather than purchasing advisories.

Mathematical Logic of Dual-Sourced Sub-Tier Capacity

Production scheduling for secondary vendors depends on balancing machine occupancy against setup costs. When an overseas buyer mandates a split, the factory has to amortize setup time across fewer total stroke counts. For instance, a 250-ton stamping press requiring ninety minutes of die installation and calibration burns through margin quickly if the production batch runs for only four hours.

If the primary plant produces 70,000 units monthly across seven days of continuous operation, a secondary plant receiving a 30,000-unit share faces twice the setup frequency per unit whenever the buyer insists on micro-lot dispatches.

Secondary scheduling has to group volume into predictable, contiguous production windows. Forcing a sub-tier vendor into fragmented daily shipments causes shop-floor friction, prompting factory managers to batch orders secretly. In practice, the supplier runs the entire monthly allocation in a single five-day push at the start of the month, then stashes the finished goods in an unconditioned warehouse until the weekly release dates.

This practice degrades dimensional tolerances in sensitive plastic resins due to moisture absorption and leads to false inventory reporting during audit cycles.

Secondary capacity commitments fail on the shop floor whenever short-run batching costs exceed the contractually agreed unit margin.

To prevent unauthorized batching while preserving sub-tier capacity, procurement agreements must establish minimum continuous run lengths alongside fixed weekly dispatch slots. Tier One assembly schedules must align directly with the sub-tier vendor’s tool changeover matrix. Aligning these calendars prevents the sub-tier factory from bumping the secondary allocation off the production schedule whenever primary commercial lines experience demand spikes.

Contractual Split Ratios versus Shop-Floor Batching

Nominal split ratios set in master purchase agreements rarely survive daily factory operations without explicit batch-level scheduling. Primary sub-tier plants receive priority scheduling because their volume justifies dedicated tooling, continuous line operation, and assigned quality engineers. Secondary plants often run shared tooling on multi-purpose presses, switching dies between domestic automotive components and foreign buyer electronics enclosure orders.

Every die changeover introduces dimensional variance and scrap waste during the calibration phase.

The table below outlines the operational parameters separating primary and secondary sub-tier manufacturing environments across key metrics.

Contractual split ratios must account for material lot sizes. Slitting full-width steel coils down to narrow strip widths for secondary stamping operations generates edge trim waste that scales inversely with batch volume. When a secondary vendor receives an allocation below the minimum economic slitting weight of a standard six-ton master coil, material costs per unit escalate rapidly.

The buyer must either absorb the slitting scrap premium or allow the secondary vendor to draw from shared material stock, introducing alloy grade substitution risks.

Secondary volume schedules remain stable only when minimum order quantities match the raw material unit lot size. If a secondary vendor processes engineering plastics such as polybutylene terephthalate with thirty percent glass fiber reinforcement, opening a fresh 25-kilogram sealed moisture-proof bag for a small production run exposes the remaining resin to ambient humidity. Sub-tier operators routinely mix opened resin bags with regrind material to avoid scrap, compromising mechanical performance.

Scheduling must specify full-bag or full-pallet material runs to protect structural integrity.

Capacity reservations at secondary plants require transparent operational boundaries. A contract stipulating thirty percent volume allocation without defining weekly machine hour reservations leaves the vendor free to fill empty slots with local commercial work. When the primary factory breaks a die and the buyer demands an immediate volume shift to the secondary vendor, the secondary facility cannot clear its presses without violating local customer contracts.

Enforceable allocation schedules explicitly buy standby capacity through reserved machine hours rather than contingent purchase orders.

Standard procurement routines fail to secure sub-tier capacity because they treat secondary facilities as elastic backup buffers. True operational readiness at a secondary plant requires a steady baseline volume that covers fixed overhead, tooling wear, and shift staffing. Setting this baseline below twenty-five percent of the plant’s line capacity inevitably leads to resource reallocation away from the buyer’s product line.

A resilient secondary production model matches allocation splits directly to sub-tier lot size economics.

Gauge

Verifying actual volume output at a secondary sub-tier plant requires direct physical inspection of production metrics rather than reliance on weekly Excel status reports. Sub-tier vendors frequently report completed manufacturing runs that exist only as unpunched raw material or partially stamped components. Distance distorts operational visibility.

Factory managers under pressure from domestic clients routinely divert shared press lines, delaying secondary export runs while transmitting reassuring schedule updates to overseas buyers.

Direct verification relies on hardware-level operational telemetry, physical raw material audits, and stroke counter reconciliation. Modern mechanical presses and injection molding machines carry non-resettable digital or mechanical stroke counters hardwired to the main drive assembly. Inspecting these physical counters during unannounced plant visits provides an accurate audit trail of total machine cycles, exposing discrepancies between reported production logs and real machine activity.

Which Production Signals Expose Sub-Tier Capacity Diversion?

Discrepancies between reported output and physical activity show up across the plant floor. Inspecting a sub-tier facility means walking the production line to check raw material intake, scrap bin accumulation, and finished goods staging. A factory claiming to have produced twenty thousand aluminum heat sinks over three days leaves clear physical traces.

Without aluminum swarf, empty coolant tanks, or stamped scrap skeletons, that production run simply did not happen during the reported window.

Evaluating sub-tier performance requires systematic verification of physical shop-floor indicators:

• Tooling Stroke Counter Logs recorded directly from mechanical die counters during weekly visits expose unauthorized tool removal or dry-running.
• Electrical Power Consumption Records drawn from dedicated machine panel meters indicate true press uptime versus idle standby hours.
• Raw Material Staging Quantities measured against incoming mill certificates verify whether raw stock was allocated to the intended purchase order.
• Scrap Weight Certificates cross-referenced with production volume confirm actual manufacturing activity rather than fabricated yield figures.

Scrap weight certificates offer an unalterable benchmark of physical activity. Stamping cold-rolled steel generates a precise percentage of off-cut scrap based on the nesting layout of the die design. If a progressive die design generates eighteen percent scrap weight per stroke, a run of ten thousand parts consuming five tons of sheet metal must produce approximately nine hundred kilograms of scrap.

If the scrap bin holds only two hundred kilograms, the factory either substituted thinner material, altered the part geometry, or did not run the production allocation on that press.

Power monitoring offers another solid checkpoint. High-tonnage hydraulic and mechanical presses draw heavy electrical current under load, leaving distinct consumption spikes during active runs. Comparing utility sub-meter data for an assigned press bank against shift logs shows right away whether machines ran as scheduled or sat cold while operators ran competing jobs.

Raw Material Balance Reconciliation Mechanics

Material reconciliation audits track raw stock from the receiving dock through final dispatch. Sub-tier vendors often blame raw material shortages for missed volume allocations. In reality, suppliers often take specified material sent by the buyer or approved distributor, divert those prime lots to local clients paying cash margins, and sub in cheaper domestic stock for the buyer’s order.

Auditing raw material coil weights against sub-tier receiving logs on a bi-weekly cadence prevents unauthorized stock diversion to local accounts.

Executing a material balance reconciliation involves calculating the total mass of incoming stock against finished parts plus verified scrap. A material balance audit at a Zhejiang sub-tier facility uncovered a twelve percent discrepancy between delivered copper coil tonnage and finished terminal pin output. Prime copper stock had been diverted to local transformer manufacturing while the production run waited for lower-grade replacement wire.

Material input must equal part weight multiplied by production count plus scrap weight. The equation below defines the strict material balance audit formula used to verify sub-tier throughput:

M_input = (N_completed W_part) + W_scrap + W_rework_loss

Where M_input represents the certified weight of incoming raw stock from verified heat lots, N_completed is the count of passed finished parts, W_part is the nominal weight per part, W_scrap is the measured scrap weight, and W_rework_loss is the untracked loss from process setup. When M_input exceeds the right-hand sum by more than two percent, material diversion or unrecorded scrap generation has occurred.

Conducting material audits requires physical access to mill test reports and heat number markings stamped on master coils or resin Gaylord boxes. Prime resin suppliers print lot numbers directly on bag seams. Sub-tier factories attempting material substitution often store grey-market material in unbranded white bags near the hopper loaders.

Inspectors must check hopper loading bins directly, taking resin samples for differential scanning calorimetry or melt flow index testing if material density variations appear in finished mold samples.

Tooling wear patterns tell a similar story. Injection molds and stamping dies show predictable surface wear, erosion, and burr height growth as cycle counts build up. A secondary die logged at only five thousand cycles should still have crisp shear edges on cutting punches and mirror-finished mold cavities.

Heavy cavitation wear, microscopic heat checking, or heavy tool maintenance grinding marks prove that the die was run extensively on unrecorded domestic production shifts.

Sub-tier verification must extend to secondary processing sub-contractors. Sub-tier stamping plants often send stamped components out to local plating, heat-treating, or powder-coating shops. These secondary processors represent a major blind spot in volume tracking.

Secondary processors batch work from dozens of local factories, holding up production allocations until their processing tanks reach full capacity. Direct audits of secondary plating logs and chemical dip tank load sheets prevent sub-tier vendors from blaming external processing delays for internal scheduling failures.

Physical verification of sub-tier manufacturing throughput remains the only defense against systemic volume diversion. Automated status dashboards updated by factory clerks reflect planned schedules rather than shop-floor reality. Standing in the press aisle, reading physical stroke counters, weighing scrap hoppers, and verifying material heat numbers removes ambiguity and establishes firm operational accountability across secondary production operations.

Failing to physically audit sub-tier machine counters and raw material inventories guarantees that secondary allocations will be displaced by local factory priorities.

Routing

Logistical dispatch cadence links sub-tier manufacturing output to Tier One assembly operations. When secondary sub-tier production schedules slip, the breakdown usually originates in poor routing synchronization between the secondary plant and the primary assembly facility. Tier One plants maintain lean assembly lines, operating on limited buffer inventory windows.

A delay of twenty-four hours in shipping component lots from a secondary sub-tier plant can stall a main assembly line, triggering heavy contract liquidated damages.

Managing secondary dispatch routes requires establishing tight, non-negotiable transit milestones. Sub-tier vendors frequently hold completed production lots on their loading docks to aggregate shipments, attempting to cut local trucking costs. This aggregation practice destroys the continuous dispatch flow necessary for lean manufacturing, converting a steady stream of secondary components into chaotic, high-volume shipments that overwhelm Tier One receiving docks and quality control inspection stations.

Managing Tier One Schedule Distortions on Sub-Tier Plants

Tier One assembly plants frequently amplify minor demand adjustments into massive scheduling shocks for sub-tier vendors. This phenomenon forces secondary suppliers into defensive scheduling habits. When a Tier One planner adjusts a weekly component forecast upward by ten percent, purchasing agents often pass a thirty percent increase down to the secondary sub-tier vendor to build a safety buffer.

The sub-tier factory, aware of this historical over-ordering pattern, discounts the purchase order update and maintains its baseline production rate.

Direct schedule integration between the buyer, the Tier One plant, and the secondary sub-tier plant resolves this communication disconnect. Providing the secondary sub-tier plant with direct line-of-sight visibility into real-time Tier One assembly consumption rates eliminates intermediate schedule padding. Sub-tier managers can then schedule press shifts based on true assembly consumption rather than distorted purchase order updates.

Establishing clear operational procedures stabilizes secondary sub-tier volume delivery during unexpected demand shifts:

1. Confirm secondary plant machine reservation slots forty-eight hours prior to scheduled production start.
2. Audit incoming raw material stock availability at the secondary facility twenty-four hours before press setup.
3. Verify pre-production die calibration and first-article dimensional checks immediately upon setup completion.
4. Log completed batch quantities into the shared dispatch system directly from the staging dock.
5. Authorize immediate less-than-truckload transit dispatches upon lot release to maintain continuous dock delivery.

Continuous dispatches prevent dock congestion at both ends of the freight corridor. Dispatching partial shipments on tight, fixed schedules maintains steady inventory movement, allowing quality engineers at the Tier One facility to process incoming lot inspections in manageable quantities. It also ensures that any quality defect originating from a worn secondary tool is detected after a small batch is produced, rather than after an entire monthly allocation has been stamped and shipped.

Weekly Operating Cadence for Secondary Volume Dispatch

A structured weekly operational rhythm governs successful cross-border sub-tier enforcement. Operating across multiple time zones demands predictable communication protocols and clear escalation triggers. The table below illustrates the standard weekly cadence executed by cadence managers to hold secondary sub-tier plants to their assigned volume allocations.

Weekly review calls must center on hard shop-floor data rather than generalized progress promises. Review meetings that rely on verbal assurances from factory sales representatives routinely conceal schedule slippage until deadlines pass. Reviewing physical stroke counter photographs, material weight receipts, and signed quality release sheets forces factual operational discussions.

Requiring stamped bills of lading and physical stroke counter photographs during Friday review calls eliminates verbal schedule evasions.

Buffer inventory placement strategically shields the supply chain from secondary plant disruptions. Storing finished sub-tier buffer stock at the secondary vendor’s plant invites local management to draw down that buffer to satisfy domestic clients during shortages. Buffer stock must sit in a neutral, third-party logistics warehouse located near the Tier One assembly plant, accessible only with joint sign-off from the buyer’s supply chain manager.

Routing enforcement depends on clear transport protocols. When secondary sub-tier shipments fall behind schedule, sub-tier vendors routinely opt for cheap, slow consolidated road freight options to save on logistics costs, exacerbating delivery delays. Contracts must specify approved freight carriers, maximum transit hours, and mandatory GPS tracking feeds for all inter-plant movements.

Dock delays are often blamed on freight handlers refusing small-lot pickups during peak windows, though the root cause remains the factory holding cargo to cut road haulage costs.

Discrepancy

Volume shortfalls at secondary sub-tier plants carry financial consequences that extend far beyond the unit price of missing components. When a secondary vendor delivers only sixty percent of its scheduled volume allocation, the resulting line stoppage at the Tier One assembly plant can cost tens of thousands of dollars per hour in idle labor, delayed vehicle shipments, and emergency air freight charges. Commercial contracts must explicitly define financial remedies for sub-tier volume discrepancies.

Pricing structures for secondary allocations must reflect true manufacturing costs at lower production volumes. Sub-tier vendors often accept low unit prices during initial contract negotiations to secure business, intending to make up operational margins by batching production or substituting cheaper raw materials later. When unit prices fail to cover setup overhead at low volumes, the factory naturally deprioritizes the contract.

Fair, tiered pricing models adjust unit costs based on actual volume ordered, eliminating the economic incentive for factory management to stall secondary production runs.

Worked Unit Cost Adjustment for Shortfall Volumes

Evaluating the financial impact of secondary volume deficits requires calculating the landed unit cost variance across production run sizes. A secondary sub-tier plant contracted to manufacture 20,000 precision die-cast aluminum housings monthly at a target unit price of $4.50 operates under specific fixed and variable cost allocations. Fixed costs per run include $1,200 for die installation, thermal pre-heating, and machine calibration, alongside $800 in administrative setup and quality setup charges.

If the plant experiences operational downtime and delivers only 8,000 units in a given month, fixed costs must be amortized over the reduced output, elevating per-unit production costs. Furthermore, the buyer must source the missing 12,000 units from the primary vendor under expedited conditions, incurring premiums. The financial breakdown below models the actual unit cost variance resulting from a 60% volume deficit at the secondary plant.

Fixed Setup Costs per Run = $1,200 + $800 = $2,000

Contracted Amortized Setup Cost (at 20,000 units) = $2,000 / 20,000 = $0.10 per unit

Actual Amortized Setup Cost (at 8,000 units) = $2,000 / 8,000 = $0.25 per unit

Direct Manufacturing Variable Cost per Unit = $3.20 (material, energy, direct labor)

Contracted Total Unit Cost = $3.20 + $0.10 + $1.20 (vendor margin/overhead) = $4.50

Expedited Recovery Cost from Primary Plant (12,000 units) = $5.80 per unit (including overtime and expedited tooling wear)

Air Freight Premium for Shortfall Volume = $1.85 per unit

Net Financial Impact of Volume Shortfall = 12,000 ($5.80 + $1.85 – $4.50) = $37,800

The calculation proves that a 12,000-unit shortfall on a $4.50 component generates $37,800 in direct landed cost losses. Contract structures must assign this cost differential directly to the defaulting sub-tier supplier through clear debit note mechanisms against pending invoices.

Tooling Amortisation Adjustments and Volume Offsets

Tooling ownership and amortisation schedules represent critical levers in enforcing volume compliance. Buyer-owned tooling located at a secondary sub-tier facility is often amortized over a contractually agreed unit total, such as 500,000 strokes. If the secondary vendor fails to achieve scheduled volume targets, tooling amortisation rates must be recalculated to prevent the vendor from pocketing unearned tooling allocations included in the piece price.

Secondary supply contracts should enforce clear debit note parameters for non-compliance:

• Unabsorbed Fixed Overhead Recapture calculated as the difference between planned and actual amortized setup costs per delivered lot.
• Expedited Freight Cost Pass-Through charging the sub-tier vendor for air freight charges resulting directly from missed production schedules.
• Tooling Amortisation Recalibration reducing per-unit tooling reimbursement payments when monthly output falls below 80% of schedule.
• Tier One Idle Line Indemnification establishing capped hourly charges for assembly line stoppages caused by secondary delivery failures.

Recapturing losses via debit notes requires contractual rights to set off claims against outstanding accounts payable. Without express set-off provisions in the master agreement, sub-tier vendors routinely reject standalone debit notes, forcing the buyer into lengthy disputes or legal proceedings in local courts.

Master supply agreements must include explicit debit note set-off clauses allowing buyers to deduct verified volume shortfall penalties directly from open invoices.

Contractual remedies must adhere to local enforcement frameworks. In China, liquidated damages clauses that impose punitive penalties far exceeding actual demonstrable losses face reduction by arbitration panels under Article 585 of the PRC Civil Code. Penalty structures must reflect genuine pre-estimates of direct operational losses, backed by clear documentation of freight receipts, primary vendor overtime invoices, and line downtime logs.

The contract clause below illustrates an enforceable volume enforcement provision tailored for cross-border sub-tier agreements:

“If the Supplier fails to deliver at least ninety-five percent (95%) of the scheduled Weekly Volume Allocation specified in an issued Release, and such failure is not attributable to Force Majeure or Buyer-caused design changes, the Buyer shall have the immediate right to purchase shortfall quantities from an alternative source. The Supplier shall indemnify the Buyer for the positive price differential between the alternative source unit cost and the Contract Unit Price, together with all verified expedited freight expenses incurred to maintain Tier One production schedules. The Buyer may set off such indemnification amounts directly against any outstanding payments due to the Supplier under this or any other Agreement.”

Setting up clear financial remedies transforms volume schedules from non-binding forecasts into binding commercial obligations. Sub-tier factory management prioritizes production runs that carry immediate, enforceable financial penalties for non-performance over runs that carry only informal procurement complaints.

Enforcing contractual debit notes requires maintaining a rolling balance of open accounts payable sufficient to offset potential volume deficit claims.

Liability

Contractual enforcement across sub-tier manufacturing networks requires multi-party legal structures that bridge the gap between foreign buyers, Tier One integrators, and Tier Two part suppliers. Foreign buyers often discover too late that they hold no direct contract with the secondary sub-tier plant. When the Tier One integrator signs the purchase order with the Tier Two vendor, the foreign buyer lacks legal standing under local contract laws to audit the secondary plant, inspect tooling, or enforce volume allocations directly.

Tripartite agreements overcome this legal isolation. Constructing a binding tri-party contract between the Buyer, the Tier One Integrator, and the Tier Two Component Supplier establishes direct legal relationships, granting the buyer enforceable audit, tooling control, and volume scheduling rights without disrupting the commercial purchase flow between Tier One and Tier Two entities.

Tripartite Allocations and Sub-Tier Contracting Architecture

Tripartite contracting architecture must explicitly define ownership, liability, and performance parameters across all three tiers. Tier One integrators often resist tripartite structures, preferring to manage their supply chain independently to preserve commercial margins. Tier One integrators frequently lack the technical field staff necessary to monitor secondary plants in real time, leading to hidden supply chain vulnerabilities.

Establishing direct buyer-to-sub-tier legal covenants ensures that secondary volume commitments are enforced directly on the shop floor.

Under the Civil Code of the People’s Republic of China, specifically provisions governing supply contracts and sub-contracting obligations under Articles 590 and 777, contractual rights must be explicitly stated to be enforceable against sub-tier entities. A clause in a foreign purchase order claiming rights over a sub-tier plant holds no legal force in local PRC courts unless the sub-tier vendor has formally executed an agreement containing those specific covenants.

Direct tri-party contractual agreements must incorporate critical operational covenants:

• Direct Audit Access Rights granting the buyer’s quality engineers unannounced access to sub-tier manufacturing floors, raw material warehouses, and machine maintenance logs during operating hours.
• Tooling Ownership and Immediate Repossession Covenants explicitly recognizing the buyer’s sole legal title to dies, molds, and specialized fixtures, bypassing general sub-tier creditor claims in insolvency scenarios.
• Irrevocable Volume Allocation Schedules binding the sub-tier vendor to reserve specified machine capacities and press hours exclusively for the buyer’s production runs.
• Step-In Rights and Emergency Production Transfer Covenants authorizing the buyer to transfer tooling and raw material stock to an alternate facility upon defined performance default triggers.

Step-in rights provide the ultimate operational safety valve. If a secondary sub-tier vendor suffers severe financial distress, labor strikes, or chronic volume shortfalls, step-in covenants allow the buyer to enter the plant, secure proprietary tooling, and transfer production to a qualified backup facility within twenty-four to forty-eight hours.

Tooling Retention Rights and Emergency Shift Mechanics

Executing an emergency tooling transfer from a defaulting secondary plant requires rigorous legal and physical preparation. Sub-tier vendors facing volume disputes routinely lock factory gates and seize buyer tooling, asserting local lien rights over unpaid invoice claims or disputed setup fees under PRC Civil Code Article 447. Retaining physical control over tooling requires establishing clear legal title documentation long before operational disputes arise.

Tooling registration must include clear, physical identification tags permanently riveted onto mold bases and press dies. Property tags must state in both English and local language characters that the tool is the exclusive property of the buyer, citing property registration numbers and listing contact details for legal inquiries. Photos of tagged tooling, accompanied by signed factory acceptance certificates from the sub-tier manager, must sit in the buyer’s legal dossier.

Verifying tooling title documentation at a Zhejiang manufacturing plant prior to contract termination ensures that die property tags match local tax bureau asset filings. Matching documentation prevents the factory from asserting legal retention liens when specialized riggers arrive to pull molds during a production default.

The sequence below details the operational and legal procedure required to execute an emergency tooling extraction from a non-compliant sub-tier facility:

First, issue a formal Notice of Default specifying the uncorrected volume shortfall and citing the breached contract clause. Second, present certified true copies of the Tripartite Agreement, property title documentation, and pre-signed Tooling Relocation Authorization forms to factory management. Third, deploy a qualified third-party rigging team accompanied by a licensed local notary public to document the physical condition of the tooling during removal.

Fourth, transport the tooling immediately to a pre-audited secondary backup facility with pre-configured press beds matching die shut-heights and hydraulic connections.

Emergency tooling transfers succeed only when backup plants are fully qualified in advance. Moving dies to a plant that has not completed first-article inspection or machine validation results in weeks of calibration delay, negating the speed advantage of the emergency transfer. Backup secondary plants must maintain active, small-lot baseline runs to keep process parameters validated and tooling interfaces ready for immediate capacity expansion.

Legal enforcement of secondary sub-tier volume schedules ultimately depends on physical presence and legal clarity. Contracts provide the framework for dispute resolution, but operational leverage on the shop floor determines whether secondary allocation schedules are respected during production crunches. Maintaining direct oversight, enforcing financial set-offs, and preserving immediate tooling control ensures that secondary sub-tier plants deliver their required volume allocations reliably across global supply networks.

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