We often talk to people who have a great idea to improve on an existing product. They have thought of special features that differentiate it from the competition, but they see a large amount in front of them, to develop their own new product. They are often tempted to go for a shortcut: working with a manufacturer that has been making very similar products (an Original Design Manufacturer, or ODM), and that's when things get pretty risky for the buyer. … [Read more...]
What Are the Process Inputs & Parameters to Keep under Control?
In our daily jobs, we are in contact with hundreds of different manufacturing processes. We don't always have time to observe the process and use tools such as flow charts, FMEAs, and so on. If that's the case, how do we keep control more easily? … [Read more...]
What If Your Chinese Supplier Offers To Make Your Product in Vietnam?
We heard of several Chinese manufacturers that are opening a Vietnam factory, in order to serve their American customers better by avoiding Trump's tariffs. Sometimes that makes sense, and sometimes it doesn't... If one of your suppliers tell you about their ability to produce in Vietnam, what should you do? … [Read more...]
Incubators in China for Developing a new Electronic Hardware Product
Many articles have explained why Shenzhen is the best place to develop a new electronic hardware product that is targeting a high sales volume. If you want to do things faster and cheaper than in your home country, this is the place to be. Some founders stay in their country and work on the design, marketing, and distribution, and they pick a local partner for handling some of the engineering work. Others decide to relocate to Shenzhen -- these ones are often interested in getting help from … [Read more...]
Avoiding Mold on Imported Products Shipped in Ocean Containers
Several clients asked me recently about a way to avoid mold on imported products shipped from a Chinese, Vietnamese, or Indian factory. This is a serious problem. The reason is usually a combination of these 5 factors: The products are contaminated while in the factory, and/or The products are too wet when packed, and/or They are packed with wet packing materials, and/or There is a lot of air in the packaging and that air is very wet, and/or The air in the container is or … [Read more...]
Why First-Time Buyers Fall for Trading Companies in China
Let's say you are looking for a supplier in China to make your innovative product. You know that traditional sourcing agents are not the solution -- they simply don't have the ability to assist you with design reviews, engineering work, certifications, and so on. And you can't justify setting up a company in China and hiring local staff -- that's a lot of extra expense. So, the choice often ends up being between a trading company (which will be your supplier, even though they don't do … [Read more...]
What Certifications are Necessary for a Given Product & Country?
If you are buying products from China, you probably asked the following questions: What type of certification is needed? How to be compliant? What is mandatory and what is only advised? Getting the right information immediately is difficult. I just discovered an easy-to-navigate and very useful website from UL: https://ul-certification.com The process is simple: Select the geographical area(s) Select the product category Click on a mark (e.g. UL Listing, CE...) Read … [Read more...]
Making Components’ Shipment and Presentation Easier (Before Assembly)
This article was written by Kevin Howard, a packaging engineer and owner of Packnomics. A few days ago, we wrote about Design for Distribution. In this article, let's focus on the design of the components of a product, and the impact it has on shipment from the component suppliers to the assembler. Design for Distribution should also apply to components that are inbound to the Contract Manufacturer sites. I have worked on many components, where I show the product engineer how to add … [Read more...]
Benefits of ISO 9001 for a Chinese manufacturing organization
I wrote recently about ISO 9001: What are the standard and the certification process 10 ways it can get poorly implemented in a factory To summarize my view on this topic: It is a good standard, keeping in mind that it was designed to apply to all sorts of organizations Many companies did not implement it the wrong way, as they took shortcuts and they were only interested in the 'marketing impact' of a certification The real culprit is the way registrar bodies audit and … [Read more...]
Design for Distribution: What Hardware Startups Need To Know
I had an interesting conversation about Design for Distribution with Kevin Howard, a packaging engineer and owner of Packnomics. (Kevin wrote before about packaging optimization on this blog.) What is Design for Distribution? Design for Distribution is the analysis of the impact of the product design on logistics costs, and the choice of appropriate laboratory testing methods in order to avoid both high damage rates and excessive logistics costs. If your company plans to produce relatively … [Read more...]
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