Dirk Dusharme, editor in chief at Quality Digest, wrote a well researched and thoughtful article about the progress of China's manufacturing sector, the challenges it faces, and what importers should do about it. Part 1 ('China’s exploding middle class drives improvement') focuses on the trend for better quality. It rightly points out that certain brands have emerged (e.g. Huawei, Oppo...) and are competing successfully on non-price factors with the best foreign brands. And, at the same time, … [Read more...]
Expert Guide for Importing from China
Freightos just released a pretty comprehensive guide for importers. I was invited to write a chapter, and some other service providers and software vendors were invited to, depending on their experiences. It was written mainly for the buyers of consumer goods (luxury market excluded), particularly those selling through e-commerce. Having said that, I found several chapters that cover topics I seldom write about (freight, Customs, drop-shipment, and so forth) and do a very nice job of … [Read more...]
US Compliance Documents When Importing from China: Q&A With an Expert
American importer often ask us questions about the compliance documents they need when importing products from China. I thought it would be interesting to ask Fredrik Gronkvist, from Chinaimportal.com, to answer the most frequent questions we get asked about US compliance. He has a firm grasp on this complex topic that can seem complex and confusing. 1. Do I actually need some documents to prove that my products are compliant with US safety regulations? Documentation is in many ways part … [Read more...]
Example of Indiegogo Project Made in China: NAOX
The number of new products to be launched on Kickstarter or Indiegogo has grown very fast. It seems not a week passes without a start-up team contacting us for either developing a new product or for help on their production in China. Some projects are very successful and raise important amounts of funding on these platforms. Most projects raise more modest funds and don’t receive much publicity. However, some are worth studying. Not just because their products can be pretty innovative, but … [Read more...]
What To Do If You Are Afraid of Poor Quality from Your Chinese Factory?
A client asked for my advice about a common situation: They are about to give a relatively large order to a factory. They had a bad experience with that same factory in the past. They had too many defective products and it was quite costly. I have met with many importers in this situation. Here is what I usually tell them. First, why keep working with the same factory? Have they promised they would improve? On what basis? In most cases it doesn't happen, and the next production run … [Read more...]
Why a First Article Validation Can Save an Entire Production from Quality Issues
Planning the start of production so that a first article can be made and checked before the rest of mass production takes place... That's not something the average Chinese factory does, unfortunately. I am not referring to the pre-production samples, but to the first piece out of 'real' mass production. By real mass production, I mean this piece has to be made in the same material and/or components, on the same equipment, by same people, etc. as mass production. Why do many … [Read more...]
How the Kingfisher Group is Re-organizing Sourcing Operations To Cut Costs
Last week I was invited to speak at the Sourcing Shift conference in Hong Kong. And the first two speakers described a very interesting case study: how the Kingfisher group (owner of retail chains such as B&Q, Castorama...) is re-organizing itself to respond to competition and to cut costs. Amazon is starting to have an impact on the do-it-yourself home improvement market in Europe. Other actors have been quite aggressive too. In response, Kingfisher looked at other strategies that … [Read more...]
How China Is Losing Competitiveness… On Paper
Three years ago, in Comparing Wages Across Asia to Make Sourcing Decisions, I showcased 2 analyses large companies tend to do before they decide on their sourcing strategy. These data are key measures of the competitiveness of producing countries. At the time, I explained: Naturally, most companies that want to compare Asian countries tend to do so on the basis of easy-to-find numbers: minimum wage levels. The conclusion is usually “China is not competitive; the future is in Vietnam, … [Read more...]
Helping a Chinese Factory while still Holding Them Accountable
If you have quality requirements that are challenging to one of the factories you work with, or if you are working with them to develop a complex new product, you might discover that it makes sense to help them. It sometimes makes very good business sense. Spending 10,000 USD might save your company 1 million USD in the end! And yet, there is a point where you can't keep "helping" them all the way, as they start to take the habit of being "baby-sitted" and they reduce their … [Read more...]
Avoiding Plastic Injection Molding Defects: Key Preventive Measures
Plastic injection molding is one of the most common production processes here in China. And most Chinese manufacturers are not very good at setting up and maintaining their presses and their molds... If the right polymer is used, and if the factory adopts the right process control measures, there is a low probability for things to go wrong. I have met many manufacturers that don't understand that... There are a multitude reasons for parts to be rejected. Some of the more common defects are … [Read more...]
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