Quality Inspection services in China: advice for importers

Chinese manufacturers are targeting their own domestic market

10 April 2013

Every month, we see data about China’s exports (and the latest ones don’t make much sense, by the way). But who knows a reliable source of data about China’s domestic trade? I was curious to read the findings of the survey of nearly 200 suppliers by Global Sources on this topic (Survey: China makers tap [...]

How to find a CMT apparel factory

8 April 2013

A reader asked me recently how he might find a good CMT factory to make garments. Here is my advice. The first question is: where? For buyers based in Europe: logical choices are Tunisia and Morocco, or Eastern Europe. For buyers based in the US: Central America and Mexico should be good choices. If you want to [...]

The rise in popularity of social compliance audits in Asian countries

5 April 2013

Because of the bad publicity earned by importers such as Wal Mart and C&A after the recent factory fire in Bangladesh, more and more importers are considering social audits as a normal part of their supplier monitoring process. In practice, I guess there are two factors at work: Some retailers are pushing for tougher standards, and [...]

How a Chinese factory can REALLY improve its quality

3 April 2013

Auditing a factory’s quality system, and helping them patch the main holes found by the auditor, is helpful. But is it enough? I used to think so. A good quality management system is supposed to stop defects before it is too late. However, I have seen too many Chinese manufacturers get very high scores on [...]

Don’t rush to produce in China

1 April 2013

Here are links to the interesting articles I found recently. When 5%-10% more is a bargain David Dayton gives us a checklist to go through before deciding to have something produced in China. I wish more people took the time to ask a few questions before going ahead. For example, I am amazed at how many [...]

Production optimization in China. Good luck with that.

29 March 2013

As the pressure on costs is getting more intense, many importers wish their suppliers focused on optimizing their production. In most cases, there are no optimization efforts going on. Why is that? 1. A focus on the golden eggs, not on the goose Most factory owners don’t intend their kids to take the relay once [...]

Importers should not rely too much on Chinese suppliers

27 March 2013

As I wrote before, it is the buyer’s responsibility to pay for independent quality control before shipment. When this is not the case, the importer is relying totally on his Chinese suppliers… and is taking maximum risks. In this article I am pasting (with permission) the story of a buyer who did this mistake. His problems would probably [...]

Chinese factories are offering better working conditions

25 March 2013

First, an important note. Working conditions in Chinese factories are not great (read this if you want an idea of how bad it can be). My point is that they are getting better. They are getting better thanks to market adjustments — a lower supply of migrant workers — and absolutely not because of efforts [...]

Will 3D printing replace China mass production?

21 March 2013

Two days ago I was listening to a few Chinese factory managers who were invited to a Global Sources forum, and one hot topic they discussed was 3D printing. They see 3D printing as a potential disruption to their business, but in a time horizon that is quite unclear. This concern makes sense. There is [...]

Are you unsatisfied with your internal QC inspectors?

20 March 2013

I know many buying offices here in China that have hired their own inspectors. In some cases it works very well. But, in other cases, defective batches are regularly allowed for shipment and everybody wonders how it happened. My friend Hubert Delelis Fanien, who runs a training center for inspectors in Shenzhen, just published a [...]

Benefits of quality control inspections

18 March 2013

As I mentioned in a previous article, more and more importers are switching their focus from standard QC inspections to improving key suppliers. The question is, are inspections useless? What are their benefits, if any? My opinion is, there are benefits but they depend on the kind of inspection. Here is Shingo‘s typology: #1. “Judgement inspection” (prevents [...]

How to keep in touch

15 March 2013

Google just announced that its RSS feed reader would stop service soon. This will impact some of our subscribers: If you have been reading my blog via RSS, there are three solutions: 1. Subscribe by email, and receive a message for each new article Most people get updates via email. Subscribing takes 10 seconds. Just click on [...]

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