QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

  • Home
  • Articles
    • An Importer’s Guide to New Product Manufacturing in China in 2020
  • Best Of
  • About Us
  • Contact us
X

Don't miss a post

It's easy to subscribe to our newsletter where you'll receive weekly updates for professional importers and manufacturers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

You are here: Home / Process Improvement / China Factories: 7 Key Factors That Cause Shipment Delays

China Factories: 7 Key Factors That Cause Shipment Delays

March 16, 2020

China Factories: 7 Key Factors that Cause Shipment Delays

Last week, on Linkedin, I ranted about the many (not all) Chinese manufacturers that “fail to plan appropriately, are over-optimistic, and disappoint their customers with last-minute shipment delays”.

Someone commented that I should offer “good advice” to these suppliers instead of complaining. And that’s right, so here goes…

 

Analyzing what causes shipment delays at the level of each factory

The first step is to analyze the problems at the level of each factory. There are usually many factors contributing to repeated shipment delays, so identify the major factors. After that, working on those factors is sometimes very straightforward and sometimes a long and hard process.

Based on my experiences with Chinese factories, here are the usual underlying issues.

(There’s a lot of information to take in, so I drew a mind map to make it a bit more visual.)

Causes of shipment delays mindmap

Note that I only listed the ‘hard’ factors. One could also add ‘soft’ factors such as:

  • A salesperson’s eagerness to please customers with good news, even if bad news will have to be announced a little later;
  • A manager’s strategy to announce delays a few days at a time, rather than saying the truth (“3 weeks late”) up front, as the latter approach often trigger a strong pushback from customers.

 

‘Hard’ factors that reoccur and cause delays

Here is the list of ‘hard’ factors I have seen at play in many situations. If you are aware of them, you can plan to avoid or improve them with your supplier:

#1. Poor planning systems

  • Day-to-day management focus; customers who scream the loudest see their orders expedited
  • Labor, materials, and equipment are not always available at the same time (when needed). People have to wait.
  • No elaborate system to plan; frequent re-prioritized order hurt efficiencies
  • Very low accuracy of shipment date forecasts

 

#2. Staff shortage

  • Many people are still blocked and unable to come back to work (due to the current COVID-19 restrictions)
  • A few people may have decided not to leave their home town this year for fear of infection (this one is speculative… I am not sure it is a big factor)
  • Some key managers, engineers, technicians are sorely missed

 

#3. Equipment is down too often

  • No preventive maintenance
  • Insufficient maintenance skills (especially when key technical staff is missing)
  • Long setups, long changeovers

 

#4. Quality issues: some batches need to be reworked or reproduced

  • Less inspection & testing work done; people are all focused on making production now
  • Poor incoming components quality + insufficient QC
  • Insufficient staff training; some new staff recruited in a hurry (for production, for inspections…)

 

#5. Low efficiency processes

  • Insufficient process engineering
  • Low automation
  • “We’ve always done it this way” mindset

 

#6. Batch & queue model

  • Much manpower wasted for transport, inventory… or large batches
  • Factory focuses on pushing a large batch through production, even if only 20% of the order quantity is needed now

 

#7. Shortage of components

  • Component suppliers are facing the same issues and might prioritize their main customer(s)
  • Insufficient order forecast and/or cash on hand, all leading to inventory not made before CNY (in advance)

 

Now, what about your factory, or your supplier’s factory? How many of these issues do they display in their operations & systems? Let me know by leaving a comment.

Related reading: the team at China Manufacturing Consultants wrote COVID-19: Recover China manufacturing with our Production Expediting Service on this topic, too.

Filed Under: Process Improvement Tagged With: chinese manufacturers, shipment delay factors, shipment delays, supplier management


Weekly updates for professional importers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

This is the official blog of Sofeast.com.

This blog is written by Renaud Anjoran, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer who has been involved in Chinese manufacturing since 2005.

Tweet Renaud here or hit the button below to get in touch.

Contact Us!

Subscribe to our email newsletter

Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
sofeast
sofeast
sofeast

Latest Articles

  • Brands and Retailers: Please Stop Doing Social Compliance Audits in Asia
  • 7 Tips to Manage the Transfer of Production To Another Chinese Factory
  • Good Project Management With Chinese Suppliers From A Product Designer’s Perspective [Podcast]
  • 7 Reasons To Switch To A New Chinese Manufacturer
  • Why Do Importers Need Product Reliability Testing? [Podcast]

Categories

  • Quality Control Tips
  • Sourcing New Suppliers
  • Supplier Management
  • New Product Development
  • Process Improvement
  • Ethical Sourcing

Archives

© 2021 QualityInspection.org