Very good post, over at Evolving Excellence, entitled How Do You Like Them Apples?. Bill Waddell, a consultant with strong experience in operations management, analyzes Appleās procurement of iPods. He tries to demonstrate that Apple … [Read more...]
Explain your quality standard: be simple and concrete
Many importers don't fully understand the reports they get from inspection companies. The concepts are not really complex, but one needs a little guidance to grasp them correctly. That's why I write articles such as Quality Control … [Read more...]
Preventing Chinese suppliers from subcontracting: the bike lock theory
The China Law Blog just released an interesting post, introducing the "bike lock theory of Chinese law". Dan Harris makes the point that lawyers can help prevent quality issues by crafting a good contract. And he takes an example: how a … [Read more...]
Complex supply chains in China
I skimmed through All The Tea In China today. It was written by a founder of an American trading company specializing in China importing and exporting. It is aimed at a general public and basically tries to answer the question "where are … [Read more...]
Resolving conflicts in China
I finished reading Mr. China by Tim Clissold and I found it quite interesting. It is the story of an investment fund that lost hundreds of millions of dollars in China in the 1990s. The author describes in great details the traps his … [Read more...]
Preparing a list of quality defects for QC inspectors
During a product inspection, one of the main tasks is looking for defects on samples, categorizing them (critical/major/minor), and reporting them. The maximum number of defects that is allowed is based on the AQL, which has to be set by … [Read more...]
Chinese suppliers and subcontracting
I just came across an interesting post ("6 conversations and a couple of cultural lessons") on the SRI blog. In the last paragraphs, David Dayton evokes the sub-contracting habits of Chinese manufacturers: Chinese factories ALWAYS sub work … [Read more...]
Lack of quality control: impact on consumers
The general shareholders meeting at Carrefour (2nd largest retailer in the world) recently took place. Many newspapers wrote about the complaint from a small shareholder, speaking in public to the CEO (see this article from Le Monde, 10th … [Read more...]
How can importers renew their product line regularly?
A few weeks ago, I was asked what a small importer can do to "keep his pipeline full". Many importers of general consumer goods need to renew their products regularly, for many reasons. But how to get new product ideas and develop them on … [Read more...]
Garment inspections: assessing the conformity of measurements
Earlier this week I was with a client, during one of their China trips. They import garments, and one of the most important criteria is the respect of size charts. If measurements are out of tolerances, the garments might be … [Read more...]