Tell Chinese manufacturers that you can help them achieve substantial reduction of costs, and they will listen. They might not believe that it is possible without applying new technologies, but at least that's a topic they are interested … [Read more...]
Archives for 2012
Lean transformation: how it drives costs down
Whenever I am in front of a Chinese factory owner, the dialogue goes like this: Me: "you know, you can drive your costs down significantly simply by re-organizing your production." Chinese boss: "Hmmm... I don't know what you are … [Read more...]
Design and engineering should be close to production
From time to time, a journalist writes a really insightful article about recent development, and we all take pause and reflect. Charles Fishman did just this. If you haven't read The Insourcing Boom on The Atlantic, it is worth 10-15 min … [Read more...]
Ensuring product traceability through China production
Traceability is like genealogy, but for production. It allows you to know the origins of each batch of finished products. It is very useful when a few products are found to have serious problems: You can investigate, try to find the … [Read more...]
Chinese New Year: how to manage the disruption?
My friend Brad Pritts was kind enough to share the advice he gives to importers who are not familiar with the Chinese New Year production planning. I reproduced it below. I think the "approach" paragraph is very useful and practical … [Read more...]
Conducting factory audits for continuous improvement
Factory audits are a very standard service offered by all third-party quality control agencies. They are typically used by buyers who want an evaluation of a manufacturer, before they start a business relationship. Different aspects of a … [Read more...]
7 interesting links for curious readers
Whenever I find an interesting article, I save it. Here are the most recent ones. Have a nice weekend! China Manufacturing Payment Terms. Limit Your Risks. Steve Dickinson describes the way 80%+ of importers pay their Chinese … [Read more...]
Most useful articles about China sourcing
The good thing about a blog is, a visitor who comes back every week will see something new on top. The bad thing about a blog is, the best articles gets buried under the new content. Therefore I have refreshed the content of the pages … [Read more...]
What should be in a purchase order (PO) to a Chinese supplier?
I see a lot of small companies buying in China without a purchase order (PO). They simply accept the pro-forma invoice from the supplier. I think this is dangerous. It shouts "inexperienced buyer" to the supplier. But that's not the main … [Read more...]
The myth of social compliance in Asia
Another horrible accident occurred last Saturday in a Bangladeshi factory. I took some excerpts from a good article (Bangladesh Factory Fire Puts Ethical Sourcing, Factory Conditions in Spotlight) I found: A garment-factory fire in … [Read more...]
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