Over the years, China has emerged as one of the largest producers of all kinds of industrial products at a surprisingly lower cost than any developed country can ever produce. Therefore, if you want to make your business competitive then you have got no other option other than partnering with a certain Chinese company.
To identify the right manufacturers in China, you may need support from an experienced China sourcing company. They can help you to identify the suitable factories in China that can partner to support your product manufacturing requirements.
China has a large source of well-trained manpower, excellent infrastructures, very cheap labour source and can be an ideal partner where you must make an effort to develop a suitable source, where you can produce your custom made products.
There are a large number of companies in the USA and other European countries that are partnering with certain Chinese companies and can manufacture many different professional-grade as well as consumer-grade of products.
Their products are now meeting all the international standards and these days, all you can find on the market are Chinese-made products.
However, developing a suitable manufacturing partner may not be a cakewalk. There are plenty of initial efforts are necessary to develop a suitable manufacturing company in China that will be able to produce your products as per your manufacturing standard and quality.
In this small article, let’s explore all the necessary steps that you will have to take to develop a suitable company in China that can be your prospective collaborator in the future.
If you have got any custom-made product in mind that you are want to produce on a mass scale and looking for a suitable manufacturing partner in China, then to start with your product design must be completed. You must have a few prototype samples available to show to any manufacturer.
You must have all the related engineering details and drawings about the product with their specifications. Then you must have the details instructions available in writing that should tell in detail how the product has to be manufactured.
Also, you must have the necessary quality manual about your product where all the quality parameters must be explained in detail. The manual should also tell how all these parameters are to be measured and the equipment needed for such testing and measurements.
Before you search for a China sourcing company, all these details must be available in writing in a well-documented manner so that your future collaborator who has got the necessary experience of such products must easily understand them.
This will be your starting point before you start discussing with any suitable company that is going to be your manufacturing partner in the future.
- You must have your criteria for selecting any company
When you are going to search for a suitable manufacturing partner in China, then you must have a few written down criteria with a certain category.
- The first category should be a few must-haves where there will be no compromise.
- The second category can be where you may be ready to make certain amendments looking at the actual situation.
- The third category will be certain things that will be nice to have but you can accept what is available.
- Search for a suitable factory in China
Based on the above criteria make your search and try to short list at least 3 to 4 such companies or even more (if possible) with whom you can start your initial discussion.
- Visit and inspect the company
When you feel that a few of the companies that you have shortlisted are fulfilling your criteria, however, with more discussion, you will be able to understand them better. You must visit those companies and audit their facilities and rate them.
- Find a cost break up of manufacturing in China
Select only those companies whom you have rated very high and try to find if you go with them then what will be the cost implications. A detailed cost analysis will be very essential so that you can decide what will be your profitability by going with the China production facility.
There is no point to go with a certain company if the project is not viable.
- Ask the company to produce a few samples
After you have chosen a few companies to be your future partner, then offer them your technical manual and a prototype so that they can produce a few samples.
You will need a very detailed discussion and training with your prospective partner so that all their clarifications and doubts are fully clear before they make samples.
- Check the quality of the sample products and approve
After they submit their samples, then do a thorough quality checking in your own facility and make sure that it meets all the quality that you had expected. There may be a few shortcomings that you need to discuss with them whether they can resolve them or not.
Finally, you must have a completely approved sample from them that may need a few iterations.
- Settle any issues related to intellectual property and compliance
You have the option to apply only to the country where you will sell. If you are working with a China sourcing company, then they can also use the China patent for preventing a large number of small companies from replicating your product.
This can prevent your new product to become your competitor and keep the pricing consistent for a longer time.
- Make your contract
Once you have approved a few companies for the production then negotiate the suitable contact or agreement for manufacturing.
- Go for mass production
Thereafter you can go ahead with your mass production once the whole process has fully stabilized.
During the initial teething period, there can be many different issues related to quality or other conformance. Also, due to language differences, there can be many issues related to understanding. However, you need to be patient and steer this stage with proper understanding with the support of an experienced China sourcing company.
Once your process gets settled then there will be no looking back, however, you must keep proper track of the quality-related issues.
