I bet you are tired of hearing your Chinese suppliers say “this is made by hand, so avoiding defects is impossible”. So am I, because it’s so wrong. Some small factories have decreased their defect rate below 50 parts per million (that’s 0.005%). Some of them, in Japan, employs housewives in the countryside, and their operations are all manual! So, what's their secret for getting so close to zero defects, and how to improve a factory's quality in China along the same lines? The answer … [Read more...]
Sourcing from China 101, Part 13: Developing a Chinese Supplier
Many importers work in one or two product categories. They buy 80% of their volume from 1-4 manufacturers. And many of them make the same mistake: they don’t try developing a Chinese supplier who they are CURRENTLY working with. Instead, they spend time sourcing NEW factories and training them to their requirements, and, consequently, they are taking risks on the first order from a new supplier each time. Is there an alternative? Sure. A supplier development program follows 5 steps. And … [Read more...]
What Can Quality Professionals Do When Most Suppliers Are Off (CNY)?
Do you find yourself with some time on your hands, when your Chinese suppliers are enjoying their New Year holiday? Why not take advantage of it and do some work that will be important to your company's success? Here are 4 suggestions. 1. Data analyses for better decisions If you can easily extract all the issues from QC reports (or if you can use an intern to do that work), this will be well worth your efforts. Ideally, you would classify the past issues per product, per supplier … [Read more...]
Do You Focus on Product Redesign Rather than Process Improvement?
Let's say you develop a custom product (based on your own design) with a manufacturing partner in China. After 2 years, they push for a price increase because their costs are going up. And let's say you cannot raise your purchasing price. You have to find ways to keep costs down in manufacturing. There is definitely a place for product redesign. It can lead to enormous savings. And often, a Chinese supplier can give suggestions, such as: A cheaper grade of steel would do the work just … [Read more...]
Are Preventive Maintenance and Process Control the Same Thing?
I wrote an article a few months ago about manufacturing processes and their control. I illustrated this with the process of making a cup of coffee. A lot of things go into it: How to make a good cup of coffee? By using: The right amount of energy (not too hot, not too cold) The right water (pure enough, clean) The right coffee powder (right taste, properly stored, before expiry date...) The right milk (not expired...) The right sugar (right amount, properly … [Read more...]
3 Basic Process Improvement Tools: Flow Chart, FMEA, Control Plan
Do you wonder why you still suffer from quality issues, even though the process is quite mature and seems to be well understood? Or are you preparing to launch the production of a new product... or production of an existing product in a new factory? And you want to plan ahead to avoid missteps that might be quite costly? There are 3 basic process improvement tools that you can use: The Process flow chart The Process FMEA (Failure Mode & Effects Analysis) The control plan … [Read more...]
The Right Way To Approach Production Automation
The Detroit Free Press just published a good article, Robots descending on Michigan industrial workplaces in record numbers, that describes what happens in the US but has a lot of significance for Chinese manufacturers too. Let's go through a few excerpts, one by one. The immediate future is likely to be a combination of human workers amid automation and not a "lights out" factory devoid of people entirely. Very true. General Motors fantasized about 'lights out factories' in the 1980s … [Read more...]
Understanding Manufacturing Process Controls in Your Factory
Turning raw material into a finished product can be a complex process. It usually requires more steps than a layperson would think and more controls along these process steps. This is where a firm grasp of manufacturing process controls becomes useful. … [Read more...]
How a Chinese Factory Can Get ISO 9001 Certified
I wrote before about the way certain consultants are routinely hired by manufacturers to “make paperwork look good”. It is the norm in China. However, some factory owners really want to manage their business in accordance with best practices. They are not looking for shortcuts. They understand that ISO 9001 is not very advanced but it is already a basis good basis -- if applied correctly -- on the road to operations excellence. So, how can consultants help a relatively small factory get … [Read more...]
The Process FMEA: Template, Use Cases, and Example
Process FMEAs are so useful... and so poorly conducted in China. There is an art to it, just like there is an art to conducting a solid root cause analysis. It is quite a difficult and unnatural exercise for most Chinese engineers, technicians, and managers. What is a process FMEA? It is a formal approach to proactively reducing risks in a process. A failure modes & effects analysis (FMEA) aims at: Identifying potential risks Documenting and keeping track of those risks … [Read more...]
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