Recently I had interesting conversations with a few buyers, who work in Chinese companies, and who need to buy local products that satisfy a high standard. How do they do? Are personal relationships ("guanxi") key? Absolutely … [Read more...]
4 options for managing shipping and Customs issues with China
When new buyers ask me how to manage shipping and Customs issues, I usually tell them to find a freight forwarder in their country. But there are actually 4 options: 1. Do it all internally, for full control I have only seen big groups … [Read more...]
The four levels of Chinese factories
Over the years, I noticed that it is possible to lump most factories in one of four categories: Level 1: the recently-created and unstructured workshop; Level 2: the semi-organized factory that got out of level 1 but that is still … [Read more...]
A realistic dynamic inspection plan for checking China production
Last week I pointed out the limits of QC inspections based on random sampling. My conclusion was: If having 3% of defects in a batch can incur very high costs (likely to wipe your margin out and cause a loss in customer confidence), random … [Read more...]
How to avoid human mistakes in production? The lean approach.
As Shigeo Shingo wrote, "humans are animals that make mistakes". But how often do we make mistakes? For example, trained military technicians make mistakes 20% of the time in simulated emergency situations. Scary, isn't it? You can … [Read more...]
Limits of QC inspections based on AQL & random sampling
I wrote many times that QC inspections before shipment are a good way of keeping quality problems where they belong: in the factory. It is a good tool. But pointing to its limits is important. Misinterpreting its reliability is very … [Read more...]
Statistics about payment terms between importers and Chinese suppliers
Here are some interesting or useful articles that I found recently. Bank transfer most favored payment method among China exporters [Survey] This survey from Global Sources displays interesting data about: The preference for bank … [Read more...]
Lean and ISO 9001 are very compatible
I just read Lean ISO 9001: Adding Spark to your ISO 9001 QMS and Sustainability to your Lean Efforts, and this excellent book opened my eyes on many things. I thought ISO 9001 was too rigid for a true lean culture (control documents … [Read more...]
Quality, cost, or speed: choose 1 or 2, but not 3
I found this funny photo, and I thought all China sourcing agents should show this type of message on their namecards. Source: it was shared on Linkedin by Lisa Short (07826 546236). … [Read more...]
How a purchasing office in China should be organized
From my observations, procurement offices and trading companies that are based in China tend to make the same mistakes. In this article I will explain how they should be organized. The traditional organization Some purchasers … [Read more...]
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