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5 Marketing & Sales Mistakes Hardware Startups Tend To Make

John Teel from Predictable Designs (a great resource for hardware startups, with a focus on electronic design & engineering) just launched his podcast, and I thought the third episode was quite interesting. The interviewee was Dave Millman of BizDev Global, a company that helps B2B tech startups find their first customers. Here is a summary of what he shared. … [Read more...]

A Good Way To Analyze Data to Drive Process Improvements

I just read the book Measures of Success by Mark Graban, and I found it does a great job of covering the basics of how managers should work with data. His whole approach is largely based on concepts from Don Wheeler's books. If you are not familiar with Don Wheeler, he is the most respected manufacturing-focused statistician of the past 30 years. Graban covers what to do in two cases managers don't like to see.   Case 1: an unstable process leading to a widely fluctuating … [Read more...]

What Are Some Of The Most Promising IT Applications for Manufacturing Quality?

There has been a lot of talk about the "factory of the future", and the role of "quality 4.0" will play in that picture. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of IT applications, sometimes supported by IoT devices, have been developed. But what are the few key applications for manufacturing and quality management that will really drive business value? … [Read more...]

7 Typical Pitfalls for Hardware Startups Producing in China

A few years ago, I remember reading about the Coolest Cooler, a nice product that raised an amazing amount of money on Kickstarter: over 6,000 people bought it for a total of 13 million USD!! Yet, they went bust leaving a lot of frustrated backers and interested onlookers scratching their heads as to where it all went wrong for one of the most famous hardware startups of recent times and indeed the most funded Kickstarter campaign of 2014. In this post, I'll explore what went wrong for them … [Read more...]

Does ISO 9001 Actually Prevent Process Improvements?

As I wrote before, I believe that a good implementation of ISO 9001 does help a manufacturer quite a bit, while a bad one will only create issues. And the reason is simple. ISO 9001 allows an organization to set any system it wants, as long as they make sense and they respect a set of minimum requirements. The problem is, many factories think "we would get more customers if we had that certificate", so they go out and find templates and make it all look like it is alive in their company... … [Read more...]

Why Pay Close Attention To Your Factory Managers’ Personalities?

  A few years ago, I wrote an article on '7 Common Mistakes Revealed by Factory Org Charts'. I described two issues I have seen many times in Chinese factories: Mistake 1: not having a quality department Most small workshops don’t have personnel dedicated to checking quality on a full-time basis. The problem is, very often nobody checks quality at all! That’s a serious problem and only importers who can station inspectors on site 24/7 should do business with such … [Read more...]

New Importer from China? Beware the Credulous Foreigner Syndrome!

After about 40 years of openness, and about 15 years of 'direct trade' without Hong Kong trading companies, one might expect that foreign buyers take more precautions when dealing with Chinese suppliers. And, to be sure, some buyers do pay attention to risks. They have heard a few horror stories. They have read about common misconceptions, typical pitfalls, assumptions to avoid, and best practices for supply chain management. Unfortunately, it seems that a majority of people who haven't … [Read more...]