Every year, thousands of inexperienced buyers are coming to China to find a supplier and launch production. However, getting a perfect pre-production sample is not enough. Do you know who is going to make your products, and in which conditions? Launching production in China soon? Follow these steps... Here are the steps buyers should be following when launching production in China in order to maximize success and avoid the major pitfalls: Visit a factory (and write its address down), … [Read more...]
Sourcing Agents in China: The Good, the Bad,and the Ugly
A reader recently asked me how to find good sourcing agents in China. Many dark stories involving rogue sourcing agents have shaped my opinion on this topic. My response will probably sound radical to first-time importers. The way I see it, you have two options if you need someone on the ground to source and follow new suppliers... … [Read more...]
ISO 9000 factory audits for your China suppliers
Factory audits in China and other Asian countries are often (loosely) based on a checklist inspired by the ISO 9000 series. That means the main part of these audits consists in looking for holes in the factory's quality system. Why are ISO 9000 factory audits important? Because they directly impact the factory's reliability (how likely are they to have quality problems and to miss deadlines). Performing such an audit on a small workshop is over-kill. They probably have no system at all, … [Read more...]
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