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 … [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 … [Read more...]
How Chinese factories treat their customers
After my post about how Chinese factory owners treat their workers, here is a post about how they treat their customers. Much could be said on this subject, but I gave a shot at summarizing it. Some customers are more equal than … [Read more...]
Transferring the responsibility onto the exporter
When sourcing in China, importers often ignore that some tools are at their disposal for reducing their risks. The key lies in transferring the responsibility onto the exporter. There are mostly three types of risks regarding the … [Read more...]
When a relationship turns sour with a Chinese supplier
Foreign buyers working with Chinese suppliers take time to grasp the subtle but determining differences in the way business is done here. One of these "Chinese things" was exposed in a good post from Jack Perkowski, entitled America's China … [Read more...]
Letting a supplier ship the products after a failed inspection
I got an interesting question today, by email: I appointed an inspection company, the result was failed. But I needed the goods, so I let the Chinese supplier ship them to me. In this case, what can I do? Can I ask for compensation? And … [Read more...]
Do you control your operations? And what do you do with that info?
This morning I was waiting for a bus, and I couldn't resist taking this photo: The Chinese policeman is standing by the scanning machine, to make sure all luggages are checked. But his colleague, who watches the screen, is away (he … [Read more...]
How to make sure factories respect quality requirements?
Most Chinese manufacturers are not aware of the quality requirements of foreign consumers. I think anybody who has spent some time here in factories to fix production issues has come to this conclusion. Chinese production people and "cha … [Read more...]
The short term view of chinese suppliers
Foreign buyers are often shocked by the behavior of their Chinese suppliers. They are themselves often trying to grow their business by making unprofitable deals with new customers. And when they ask for some help from their supplier, they … [Read more...]
Who takes the final decision to let the factory ship the products?
It is always amazing how some Chinese suppliers can take advantage of a situation, and then reject the fault on another party with a straight face. I just fell victim of it, because of a supplier that didn't wait for his customer's shipping … [Read more...]