QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

  • Home
  • Articles
    • An Importer’s Guide to New Product Manufacturing in China
  • 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.

Supply Chain Risk Management: No, Toyota Doesn’t Always Do Just-In-Time

April 12, 2021

Supply Chain Risk Management: No, Toyota Doesn't Always Do Just-In-Time

I ran into a very interesting article from Bloomberg entitled How Toyota Steered Clear of the Chip Shortage Mess. Nearly all automakers announced that they would have to cut their production numbers due to a serious shortage of semiconductors. This was made even worse by a recent fire in a Japanese manufacturing plant. One might think Toyota would be seriously impacted by the general market situation and by one of their suppliers being temporarily unable to produce. Apparently, Toyota … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supply Chain Risk Management Series Tagged With: jit, just in time, minimizing risks, risk management, supply chain disruptions, supply chain risk

Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 4: How Much Inventory Do You Need?

July 13, 2020

Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 4: How Much Inventory Do You Need?

If you make sure to sit on 6 months of inventory for every one of your major products, you will run much lower risks of being unable to supply your customers with what they need. You might even be able to cut a current manufacturer off and ramp up a new one, without any impact on your customers. There will be downsides, though. Working capital is expensive. Warehousing and transporting all these goods are not cheap. You may have to write off damaged, lost, of rapidly obsolete materials. (It … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supply Chain Risk Management Series Tagged With: inventory, risk management, supply chain disruptions, supply chain risk

The Biggest Manufacturing Risk These Days: Short Term Focus

April 24, 2020

The Biggest Manufacturing Risk These Days: Short Term Focus

Back in February (which seems to be a long time ago), I wrote that that number 1 manufacturing risk for importers was quality issues and the number 2 was delivery delays. (I also mentioned "lower demand on your market" because we were "getting to the end of a long cycle of economic expansion". That proved to be number 1 risk, actually!) But, let's get back to the suppliers' quality & delivery performance and why short term focus has continued to impact them and their reliability... … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supplier Management Tagged With: manufacturing risk, minimizing risks, risk management

Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 2: The Business Continuity Plan

April 19, 2020

Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 2: The Business Continuity Plan

In this post, let's focus on disaster prevention, and more specifically on the business continuity plan, with a simple example. We will also provide you with a free template. This is the second post in our series of Supply Chain Risk Management, which will come out gradually over the next few months. … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supply Chain Risk Management Series Tagged With: business continuity, planning exercises, reacting to disasters, risk management, supply chain management

Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 1: What are VUCA and Black Swans?

March 30, 2020

Risk Management, Part 1: What are VUCA and Black Swans?

We seem to be at a pretty low point right now: Billions of people are confined at home. Economists are predicting a disaster and seem to think 2020 will probably be worse than what most of us can remember. The behavior and effects of this novel coronavirus are still partly unknown. It could still mutate and become more dangerous, for example. And, most amazing of all: the situation has been changing dramatically every 1 or 2 weeks. I am starting this new series on supply chain … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supply Chain Risk Management Series Tagged With: Black Swan, risk management, Sourcing, VUCA


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.

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

  • The New Apparel Development & Production Process [Podcast]
  • Going from 1 Prototype to Mass Production directly is Dangerous
  • Should North American Importers Leave China For Countries Like Mexico or Vietnam? (Feat. Andrew Hupert) [Podcast]
  • Inspecting Productions with Very Few Defects: Dump the AQL
  • Answering Your Questions on Fabric Quality, US Tariffs, & Volatile Material Prices.

Categories

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

Archives

© 2022 QualityInspection.org