Small Chinese factories offer lots of pros and cons, and it is important to weigh these up before taking a leap with a supplier. They can give you the attention that a large factory can’t. They can spend extra attention to detail on your products, but smaller factories cannot turn an order around as fast as a large factory and they cannot produce very large orders in a short time. They will also have a higher overhead overall and their...

Some buyers don’t worry so much about the production schedule in China and instead only pressure for the products to be finished in time for the shipping date. In my opinion, this is risky and is partly the cause of generally low quality and defective products in western markets. If the onus is on production and logistics department to rush its workers to finish on a deadline, quality measures can be easily ignored. Your order will not...

Production Drawings and Samples Every purchaser/buyer whether they are developing new or producing existing products should have a detailed set of drawings and samples of their product to ensure that no changes creep into it over time. We have all heard nightmare stories of manufacturers over a period substituting cheaper, lower quality components to increase their profit margin. A local eye on the materials used and manufacturing process...

As we have all experienced, once it is in the hands of the production facility more often than not there is a lot of confusion over what the production schedule actually is. This is usually due to a breakdown in communication between departments. The production schedule the sales department agree with you will often be a different date to the actual production department’s. If you’d planned to visit you might find out that your order...

Nobody wants the aggravation of moving production facility to a new supplier but your business should always have a backup plan in place. You need to be prepared for every eventuality. Raw material prices, wages and taxes are always on the rise and everyone finds their profits squeezed at some point. If there are manufacturers with better connections, facilities and experience that can alleviate the pressure you are facing in your market...

For those of us who are attempting to or have already created a brand, we know the many challenges involved in getting it recognized and noticed. There are numerous marketing, advertising and promotion techniques and many pieces of literature that can help inform you of the best ways to build your brand. They may not all be relevant but you will find ideas that you would be willing to try in order to build a stronger and more recognizable...