Here are some good articles that I found over the past few months. 'Made in China': the smart revolution blueprint set to bring Beijing into the digital age After Germany's "Industry 4.0" strategy, China unveiled an equivalent document … [Read more...]
Archives for August 2015
NPD Process for SMEs Buying from China [free e-book]
Over the past few months, our engineering team helped me write a 19-article series on the NPD (New Product Development) process. We dived deep into the details. However, the general feedback has been along the lines of "this is for big … [Read more...]
THE Guide on China Company Investigation
Last year, Jeremy Gordon from China Business Services mentioned he was collecting information for a book. He asked me a few questions about factory audits. Well, the book came out recently and is called Risky Business in China. It is a … [Read more...]
Food safety standards: ISO 22001, HACCP, GMP
As one might expect, the food industry takes safety issues (i.e. not making consumers sick) very seriously. The main standards don't focus on "quality" (i.e. making sure the taste is good) but on "safety". It seems like not a month goes … [Read more...]
What Does the RMB Devaluation Mean for Importers?
Over the past few days, China's central bank has let the RMB slide by a few percentage points. Is it big news? For importers who make a slim margin on what they purchase from China, obviously it is. In the long run, this trend was … [Read more...]
Do Penalties for Poor Quality Make Sense for your Suppliers?
Should you charge penalties to suppliers when there is a quality issue? And, if so, how to do it? I discussed this topic with David Collins, one of my partners at China Manufacturing Consultants, and we agreed that the answer is … [Read more...]
How 4PLs Can Help Reduce Costs Across a Supply Chain
Recently I had an interesting conversation with the founder of a 4PL agency. They help some large companies reduce their costs along a supply chain. But first, what is a 4PL (4th party logistics services provider)? You probably heard … [Read more...]