This week my company had a booth on a China Sourcing Fair. I noticed that some questions/remarks came back regularly. A few days ago I wrote about importers who ask us the contacts of good factories. Another hot topic was how easily a supplier bribes an inspector. I had in-depth conversations with maybe 15 prospects, and more than half evoked this issue. Here are just two examples: A Mexican importer told me how, two years ago, one of the largest QC firms produced a report that suggested … [Read more...]
Contacts of “good factories”
These days I am exhibiting on a trade show (China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong). Every time I attend a fair to find new clients, I am amazed by the number of buyers who say “Oh, so you visit factories all over China… You must know some good factories… Can you give me a list?” I can understand them. They see salespeople (who can say whatever they want) and samples (which might come from many different factories). There is no way of making sure what production will look like, whether there … [Read more...]
Managing urgent shipments in China
For some importers, everything (i.e. development, production, and shipments) is always done under intense timing pressure. Nothing can be done about it--it is imposed by their market. So, how can they ensure quick production in China? How to speed up production Some buyers have gone a long way to make their supply chain more responsive. Here are a few examples: Buying raw materials in advance and storing them Organizing the whole production in the same general area, to reduce … [Read more...]
Four simple steps for starting to do quality control
Some importers have been buying from China for many years, and yet they have never done quality control in a professional manner. The science behind inspection protocols seems complex--nearly intimidating. Buyers don't know where to start, and they don't know how their suppliers will react. On the other hand, quality control is a necessity for most shipments. The constant search for cheaper suppliers, the bad habit of subcontracting to lower-grade factories, and the high risk of communication … [Read more...]
Risks of cancelled orders
I was talking with the boss of a trading company in Suzhou (Jiangsu province) earlier this week. I was actually doing an inspection for one of my clients from Canada. We were talking about the North-American market, and she told me that importers there have gotten much more nervous with the crisis. What happens? Sales go down in stores. Retailers have excess inventory in hand, and don't see sales picking up in the near future. They pay attention to discrepancies on the orders they have given, … [Read more...]
Use experienced service providers, not Chinese connections
Every year, I guess thousands of companies decide to start importing from China. Some of them already exist, and others are founded specifically for this activity. But overall, most of these companies know very little about China. They know it can be risky. They heard of all the struggles over product quality. They were told business is conducted differently. So what do they do? They try to work with somebody who knows all the tricks. They hire Chinese purchasers in their country, or they … [Read more...]
Understanding the Chinese system
I am reading River Town by Peter Hessler. This book is packed with insights about what I call the "Chinese system". The story takes place in a small town of Sichuan province, around 1997. The author worked there as a teacher. He wrote about his observations and tried to make sense of them. Granted, Chinese students from other provinces may have gone through different experiences, but generally speaking the Chinese education system is very homogeneous. I reproduced four excepts that I found … [Read more...]
The challenges of foreign brands sourcing in China
A few days ago I talked to the quality assurance manager of an American brand name company. They have progressively outsourced production to China. And they sell mostly to large retailers in the US. An uncomfortable situation This is how they have to manage their business: On one side, their large customers keep pushing for low prices, and expect deliveries to be on time. They impose very strict procedures, and penalties are charged for most deviations. On the other side, the Chinese … [Read more...]
How suppliers can play to avoid QC inspections
Most inspections take place just before shipment. What type of issue does this create? And how can an unscrupulous supplier take advantage of it to avoid inspections? Chinese suppliers know when a shipment is urgent--the buyer is usually pretty clear about it. They also know that some importers value on-time deliveries over virtually everything else. Why? Because the final customers, often retailers in the export country, always notice late shipments... But who knows when quality is … [Read more...]
Quality system: a checklist for factory auditors
Factory audits, like product inspections, need to be performed in an objective manner. A buyer that pays for audits of two factories should be able to compare the findings and use them to pick a supplier. It means auditors should work with the same basic checklist for all their evaluations, and make a few adjustments in function of production processes or client requirements. For audits of labor conditions, the checklist is usually based on the SA8000 standard. For audits of a quality … [Read more...]
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