What could possibly go wrong during production?
If your organization has neglected its due diligence and preparation work, the answer is “just about anything”
Which is why you or your China manufacturing agent must complete the required preparation work needed to minimize avoidable negative outcomes. And there are many.
There are companies offering quality control services in China that can help you stop shipments of inferior quality product. But, what happens after that?
The goal isn’t NOT to ship low-quality product. The goal is TO ship high-quality product.
Managing a production order will be a complex venture if you are manufacturing anything more complex than screws.
Most people who have been working with China manufacturing agents for many years usually forget the headaches of being involved in a badly mismanaged production order. This is because good China manufacturing agents prioritize completing prep work and due diligence before production starts. It’s the best way to prevent undesirable eventualities. Minimizing these eventualities has to be of the utmost importance; production orders can easily go awry if the orders aren’t managed well from beginning to end.
Whole libraries can be filled detailing situations you don’t want to find yourself in during a production order, especially when lots of money is at risk. Anything can go wrong at any time. You can receive shipments of incorrect raw materials or poor-quality materials; the factory may process orders according to the wrong instructions; shipments may arrive late; in rare cases, the factory may even go bankrupt half way through production…
China order follow up: Challenges
Some manufacturing partners will fully cooperate with you. Some won't. Working in these circumstances is very challenging
It’s true that companies who provide quality control services in China can alert you when situations go awry. But isn’t it better to have a game plan that will make sure everything goes well?
As already mentioned, it is very difficult to ensure every procedure goes smoothly each and every time you go into production. More complicated production orders require more complicated processes to reduce the margin of error. For example, a simple product like a plastic fork most likely won’t have many setbacks in the hands of a capable factory. The process will be smoother than the production order of a complex medical device requiring multiple high precision sub-assemblies.
Delays can still occur for various reasons, regardless of the production order’s simplicity.
The device may require new technology the manufacturer doesn’t possess. The factory may be inexperienced producing your product. Manufacturers may attempt to raise the price after a financial commitment has been agreed upon or they may prioritize other orders over yours. Or maybe the factory recently suffered a string of resignations for key positions.
Any of these scenarios risk throwing your production order into disarray and derailing the entire project. The only way to truly avoid these pitfalls is by completing factory due diligence. Due diligence includes order risk assessment, order management, and a follow-up plan agreed between you and the factory are an absolute must.
Due diligence is worth very little by itself; it has to be guided by experience, and close observation of the factory, even from the production floor.
Without the right experience, red flags and can go unnoticed.
If these skills, experience, and short notice production floor presence are not available in your organization, you may want to consider hiring a China-based manufacturing agent
The secret sauce:
Your team in China.
Work with the right factory.
Plan in advance.
You cannot make an omelet out of eggshells.
Before you choose a product manufacturer you should run a simple or thorough risk assessment to, design a target vendor profile.
There’s no need to run a risk assessment If you already have a trustworthy manufacturer that you’ve worked with previously. If that isn’t the case, however, make sure to utilize a tested and proven factory sourcing process followed by a management quality system audit. This guarantees you complete your due diligence and have solid reasons to believe working with this factory is safe and will result in on time shipments of quality product.
If your organization does not possess the needed experience to handle the prep work, utilize CSO’s manufacturing services. We will support your organization with a team possessing a vast amount of experience operating in China.
Risk Assessment
Once you choose your vendors, our experts will review the order process with them.
They will identify important milestones and critical issues that require close attention. Together with you, we will approve a timeline and subgoals that must be completed at the factory approaches each milestone. Depending on your level of confidence in the manufacturer, you can decide how to follow up the order and receive reports. All these have to be arranged with the factory in advance.
Sometimes the factory may not agree immediately with you about the best way to follow your order.
They may think it involves unnecessary additional work and that “you shouldn’t worry, everything is going to be just fine”.
The primary goal of this stage is to settle on an order process; open and honest communication is very important.
Factory Approach
Different factories may react differently to your attempts to gain more control over the situation
Some factories are happy to see their customers involved in monitoring the order process.
In this case, the manufacturer can rest assured the customer will be able to make critical decisions to correct issues that arise and reduce unplanned costs.
In some cases, the factory management will push to reduce transparency and your company’s involvement during the order process. This allows them to make decisions quickly and independently, and hopefully avoid troubling the customer with problems they can solve themselves. This can be considered to be a good vendor practice unless the manufacturer’s problem-solving methods produce results that work against your company’s agenda.
In general, you want to know about everything that can potentially damage your business. If you trust your manufacturer, you can have the factory send reports with pictures on a regular basis. They should be satisfactory so long as the information makes sense when you cross reference it with other information you possess (like former reports).
Working with an unfamiliar manufacturer
Follow up from the production floor is an effort well worth the cost
But when dealing with an unfamiliar manufacturer, following up important milestones and critical issues, from the production floor is an effort well worth the cost. No report can replace seeing all the machines busy working on your product. You don’t want to be in a situation where the factory is having difficulties purchasing raw materials, yet you are left in the dark, being assured production is on schedule.
If you are not a China veteran, it all sounds too trivial. But for those with enough experience operating in the middle kingdom, these are issues that, are best verified either with your own eyes or by a third party you trust. Having a full time dedicated team in China is a very expensive resource that consumers not only money but also requires a significant time investment. CSO is uniquely formatted to be your team in China whenever you want us, for as long as you need us. With us, your business will benefit from the support of a highly experienced team whose interests are 100% aligned with yours. At the same time, you refrain from tying yourself to long-term fixed costs that erode your profit.
Who is this service for?
This service is designed for non-Chinese companies who are currently producing or are planning on manufacturing their product in China
It is for companies in search of factories with the ability to manufacture a great quality product at a competitive price.
It is also designed for companies that meet the following criteria:
We realize the one resource more important to our customers than money is time. This is why we designed this service for SME’s that have little or no presence in China. We offer a professional and experienced team with an extensive local knowledge that helps companies follow up their orders and alerts them in real time when important issues arise.
We designed this service keeping in mind production in China is a complex project that exposes many of our customers to big risks. This service minimizes those risks while remaining affordable.
Larger organizations with their own team in China can still benefit from hiring an outsourced team designated to following up the production process. Especially if the team is dedicated to non-operational tasks like sales and marketing.
Service Packages
We offer you two service packages for maximum flexibility
click the service title to learn more
This service combines regular communication from the office and factory with periodical visits to the production sight to make sure nothing passes below the radar. Use this service if your business wants to confirm factory reports using an objective pair of eyes from a third party.
This service is carried out from our China Office. We communicate with the factory by phone, email, and other digital communication channels. Use this service if you are reasonably comfortable with the information your manufacturer is sending and you are mainly concerned with improving communication with your manufacturer.
- Production order project mapping
- Weekly progress reports
- Help trouble shooting where necessary
- Send you factory’s QC report
- CSO factory visits (per agreed schedule)
- CSO independent visit report
OFFSITE
Min $1000
- Production order project mapping
- Weekly progress reports
- Help trouble shooting where necessary
- Send you factory’s QC report
- CSO factory visits (per agreed schedule)
- CSO independent visit report
ONSITE
Min $1500
- Production order project mapping
- Weekly progress reports
- Help trouble shooting where necessary
- Send you factory’s QC report
- CSO factory visits (per agreed schedule)
- CSO independent visit report
We Have Enjoyed Helping These Clients
Like always, we keep things simple
How It Works
We will complete the following process for the offsite service only:
We will complete the following process for the offsite service paired with the onsite service:
Find the best factory for you – Fast!
Use a tested and proven method to boost your supplier network