Danny Coyle and Steven Weng just came up with a pretty good “Guide to manufacturing knitwear in China” (see part 1 and part 2), and I think their advice is applicable to buying any product here.

They make a list of steps for knitwear production, but they also point out the major opportunities for delay. And they give advice to avoid these production delays. I took the freedom to rewrite their article from my perspective:

Step 1: design and sample approvals

Get this done as early as possible, be clear and precise. Delays will usually come from the customer side.

If the factory really does not care about you (or about the trading company that you purchase from), it will also make the process longer.

Step 2: production by the sub-suppliers

This is not always obvious to buyers, but most Chinese factories they deal with only do the final assembly and the packaging. They have to purchase materials and components from other companies that have their own priorities.

If there is a busy season for production of your items in China, try hard to avoid it. If it is impossible, know that your supplier might not get the key inputs in time–especially if they have to be customized for your order or if you purchase small quantities.

You can purchase the materials yourself, but it has some downsides. Don’t do it unless you really need to control the materials/components.

Step 3: production by your own supplier

Once they get their inputs, you should be on their back regularly. You should check if they start working for you early and with enough workers/machines to finish your order in time.

There are mainly two ways to avoid delays at this stage:

• Have a regular presence in the factory. If you can’t be there yourself, send an inspector during production. The objectives are (1) to catch issues early and make sure the factory implements corrective actions, and (2) to get an idea of production status.
• Promise penalties for late shipment. Other buyers do it, so if you will have less weight than them if you don’t.

Step 4: finishing, inspection, packing, shipping

This is usually not a source of long delays, except in certain cases:

• The inspector finds some unacceptable issues, and the factory has to rework/reproduce the goods,
• The buyer appoints a supplier of labels who is late,
• The buyer wants to consolidate several shipments in one container, and waits for another supplier to be finished with his orders.

One last piece of advice

Experienced importers add a couple of weeks to the shipment date promised by their suppliers, in their own planning. They know that delays happen anyway!

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For more reading about ways to avoid delays:

Kelly’s 1st & 2nd Laws of China Sourcing, on the Passagemaker blog;

What can you do about late shipping?, by David Dayton;

Managing urgent shipments in China (published last year on this same blog).