Innovating Quality Products in China

“Just go away and leave us alone.”  Your offshore supplier won’t say that, but they are certainly thinking it when your quality control manager is standing on the production floor evaluating the deficiencies in the latest batch of products.  In my experience, the supplier will quickly shift priorities to correct any production problems to get their customer’s QC inspector out of the factory, and back en route to wherever they came from.  The last thing the supplier wants is the QC manager to camp out for a few days to “help them” solve the problems.

This is an important dynamic for product companies to understand, and it emphasizes the need to have feet on the ground near the factories.  Companies that have been making product in Asia for years understand this; that’s why they’ve established offices in China and elsewhere to manage their sourcing and quality control.  But, companies that are new to offshore production, or companies that don’t have the resources to establish a permanent presence near the factories can be at a significant disadvantage.

Are these Quality Parts? (Yes in this case)

If your supplier knows that you’re an expensive, twenty-hour flight away, they will naturally assume that you’re probably not going to show up for every little problem.  So, they will prioritize other customers who have QC engineers based in Hong Kong or Ningbo, and your project will be bumped a little lower on the priority list.  

So, what options exist for a company that doesn’t have, or doesn’t want a full time presence in Asia?  One option, is to just manufacture domestically, but this can quickly price certain products out of the market – let’s face it, there is a reason many products are made offshore.  Another option is to just fly back and forth to Asia regularly, but this can be very costly, and can get in the way of all the other things you or your company leaders need to do to make your business thrive, like sales and marketing.  A third possible option is to rely on manufacturer’s reps to achieve quality control, but it’s important to understand that their interests usually lie primarily with the manufacturer more than with your business.    

The option which I prefer is to work with an independent sourcing and quality control team that is Asia based, but not tied to any particular factories.  My company has built an alliance partnership with such an organization based out of Hong Kong, and we’ve found it to work exceedingly well for our clients.  Our team can be in a factory the same day an issue is discovered, and since they are local, they can come back every day until the issue is resolved.  Since the factories don’t like having outside QC people hovering over them, they prioritize our projects and resolve the issues.  Our clients get top priority because we’re on the ground at the factory, so their products are made the right way, and are shipped on schedule.  And, our clients (and my US based team) don’t have to fly to Asia every month to get it done!