In this episode... Many importers are new to sourcing from China so we've been creating a mini-series of episodes that explores the sourcing process with advice and best practices from Sofeast's CEO Renaud Anjoran. In this series of episodes, we’re exploring how to do your own sourcing from China, from finding suppliers for your products to getting them made. We’ve moved onto soft skills, and last time we spoke about building rapport with your suppliers. Now, we’re going to look at how … [Read more...]
Sourcing from China (Part 3): Project management & checking quality early in production. [Podcast]
![Sourcing from China (Part 3): Project management & checking quality early in production. [Podcast]](https://qualityinspection.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/SourcingfromChinaPart3Projectmanagementcheckingqualityearlyinproduction.Podcast-1140x445.jpg)
In this episode… We continue to explore what importers who're new to outsourcing manufacturing to suppliers in China need to be able to handle themselves when sourcing, developing products, and manufacturing there. In part 2 of the series (episode 75), we went through the terms you need to negotiate with your chosen supplier, how to keep leverage over them, and how and why to clearly describe what you actually want from them at the pre-production stage. As pre-production is done, we're … [Read more...]
Good Project Management With Chinese Suppliers From A Product Designer’s Perspective [Podcast]
![Good Project Management With Chinese Suppliers From A Product Designer’s Perspective [Podcast]](https://qualityinspection.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/GoodProjectManagementWithChineseSuppliersFromAProductDesignersPerspectivePodcast-1140x445.jpg)
Let's hear from an experienced product designer about project management with Chinese suppliers... In this episode, we catch up with Andy Bartlett, a friend of Sofeast, who is an enormously experienced product designer from the UK, to discuss his project management best practices and observations from his 'designer's' perspective for when developing a new product and manufacturing it in China. If you're developing a new product and have Chinese suppliers, you'll love this episode. Andy … [Read more...]
Service Providers: Escape the Commoditization Trap
We compete with a number of other service providers, and over the years I have seen stark changes happen in some verticals. An interesting case study is the TIC (Testing, Inspection, Certification) industry. In 2005, importers were paying 500+ USD per man-day for QC inspections on consumer goods. Over the years, salaries and other costs went up, but the market price tended to go down. (I wrote before why some buyers always want a lower price.) What are the reasons? It is a combination of … [Read more...]
The Problem With Visual Management Boards in Factories
Visual management boards of some kind are now basically the norm in all factories belonging to a multinational group, so they must be effective, right? I'm not so sure. Not that they cannot be useful (they CAN be VERY useful), but, in most cases I have witnessed, these boards just aren't contributing as much to lean initiatives or process improvement as factory management would like them to be. … [Read more...]