QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

China Massive Lockdowns (March 22): The Domino Effect In Full Force

China is fighting tooth and nail to contain the current wave of covid infections. And this is going to be a long and painful battle. Most people I talked to do not believe Beijing will change its "covid zero" objective anytime soon. They recently adapted it a bit to "dynamic zero", but the objective remains zero. In short, there are outbreaks all along the East coast, and hyper-connected megacities like Changchun (in the Northeast, home to very large VW production facilities) and Shanghai … [Read more...]

How War In Ukraine Could Negatively Affect Global & Chinese Supply Chains [Podcast]

In this episode… We discuss how wars like the one waged on Ukraine by Russia right now could affect global supply chains. In particular, could China be affected, and if so, how? Is the West likely to decouple from China in the future in a similar way as they have done with Russia? Finally, Renaud leaves you with some guidance on ways to diversify your suppliers and therefore reduce the chances of supply chain disruptions and risks.   Just hit the play button to start … [Read more...]

China Power Cuts In Late 2021. Will Your Supply Chain Be Affected? [Podcast]

In this episode... Sofeast's CEO Renaud Anjoran dives into what's causing the power cuts around China that are affecting many manufacturers around the country in late 2021. Some manufacturers are having to close for days at a time or work night shifts, but normal people have also been affected, too. Many importers will be wondering: "Is my supplier affected?" and "Will my order be delayed?"  Given that this is affecting most o the major manufacturing provinces the likelihood is that it … [Read more...]

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...]

The End Of Just In Time Manufacturing? [Podcast]

A number of blog posts, such as this one, have been popping up lately casting doubts on whether just in time manufacturing can survive post-coronavirus. They share some pretty strong words: Recent trade tensions between the US and China, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic, have highlighted that this supply chain model is increasingly untenable. Listen to this episode of the podcast to hear my take... … [Read more...]

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...]

COVID-19: What Are The 7 Major Risks for Importers of China Goods?

As an importer, you are probably wondering how the COVID-19 epidemic in China is going to impact your business. Beijing says things are rapidly improving and hints that the situation will nearly be back to normal on the coasts by the end of February. They are still planning to hold the Canton fair. Let's all hope they are right. Let's hope there is no relapse (the epidemic starting again in certain cities) in the coming months. The situation is still far from clear. In the meantime, … [Read more...]