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Join Renaud Anjoran, Founder & CEO of Sofeast, in this podcast aimed at importers who develop their own products as he discusses the hottest topics and shares actionable tips for manufacturing in China & Asia today! WHO IS RENAUD? Renaud is a French ISO 9001 & 14001 certified lead auditor, ASQ certified Quality Engineer and Quality Manager who has been working in the Chinese manufacturing industry since 2005. He is the founder of the Sofeast group that has over 200 staff globally and offers services (QA, product development & engineering, project management, Supply Chain Management, product compliance, reliability testing), contract manufacturing, and 3PL fulfillment for importers and businesses who develop their own products and buyers from China & SE Asia. WHY LISTEN? We‘ll discuss interesting topics for anyone who develops and sources their products from Asian suppliers and will share Renaud‘s decades of manufacturing experience, as well as inviting guests from the industry to get a different viewpoint. Our goal is to help you get better results and end up with suppliers and products that exceed your expectations!
Episodes
Friday Jan 29, 2021
Could Rising COVID-19 Cases In China Before CNY '21 Affect Supply Chains?
Friday Jan 29, 2021
Friday Jan 29, 2021
In This Episode...
Adrian and Renaud discuss the rising number of COVID-19 cases in China barely a week or so before the Chinese New Year holiday is set to happen where tens of millions of people will travel home around the country.
The outbreak is centered on the North of the country at present, but if it were to spread this could lead to lockdowns throughout the country and the authorities are already raising alertness and preparations to suppress its spread as much as possible.
If you have a supply chain in China it's important to understand how this may affect the holiday, Chinese workers travelling around the country, and your suppliers.
Let's hear what's happening from China directly...
Show Notes
00:00 - Introducing the episode
02:55 - What's the situation with coronavirus in China right now (Jan 28th 2021) and how may it affect manufacturing? Explaining the logistics of tens of millions of people moving around the country during this period. Why the government doesn't want a repeat of the Hubei lockdown.
09:20 - How large family meals and meeting other large households during CNY increases the risks.
10:58 - Could restrictions be more centered around the North of China, or more widespread? There are low, medium, and high-risk areas. Local governments have told companies to try to limit employees travelling home at all and requested stricter adherence to rules, such as mask-wearing. Government employees have been barred from travelling, but private company employees can travel.
14:03 - How tighter travel restrictions have caused perverse effects on the manufacturing industry in China earlier than usual. Knowing that travel will become more difficult and there may be quarantine periods (away from the family) for inter-province travellers, some staff have left to go home for CNY earlier than ever. In the case of key workers, such as machine specialists, this has affected factory productivity and output if there is no one else there who can do their jobs. So some factories have been forced to stop certain work 2 to 3 weeks earlier than usual.
17:53 - Why a lot of Chinese exporters are suffering, despite the 'boom' in exports. The unfavorable exchange rate is not helping companies who export from China, nor is the crazy logistics situation.
19:10 - If many workers don't travel home for CNY and opt to stay in the cities where they work, could this mean that factories get back to work sooner than usual after the holiday? It could be the case, especially in purely assembly or packing facilities which can operate of key people are not present. One problem could be that quality inspectors haven't gone back to work yet, though, which could lead to poorer quality products after CNY than usual.
20:44 - What's the worst-case scenario for importers with a Chinese supply chain? If very strict preventive measures are taken it could put a lot of workers in quarantine upon arrival back to their company's city from their hometown. If areas or provinces are locked down, this could affect your supply from companies in those areas (this happened with Hubei in 2020).
24:08 - A breakdown of some of the restrictions in place (based on info from Sofeast's HR manager in Guangdong). People who travel will need to show a negative test within a week of travelling and on return from some areas will have a mandatory 14 days of health monitoring at home. Restrictions could be stricter for medium/high-risk regions, for instance requiring a negative test within just a few days of travelling and, potentially, quarantining outside of home. The situation is changing every day, so by the time CNY occurs restrictions could be different again.
25:57 - Have any of Sofeast's staff decided not to travel? Yes, although others are waiting until closer to the time to see what happens with restrictions before making a final decision.
27:03 - Key points for importers to focus on during this time. Keep an eye on your suppliers, especially if they're in an area which is moved into medium/high-risk. Also consider sub-suppliers, as if they are locked down it could disrupt your suppliers' ability to fulfil your orders regardless of whether they're at work or not.
27:50 - The situation in Hong Kong. Given that some importers may have suppliers in Hong Kong, too, or wish to travel there, the situation has also recently become complicated due to a couple of localized outbreaks in Kowloon. HK has changed its approach to follow Mainland China more closely, now enforcing 3 weeks of quarantine in a hotel. Visitors can still travel to Hong Kong, unlike China which is only permitting a very limited list of foreign arrivals right now (such as people with a work permit).
31:35 - Wrapping up the episode.
Related content to read next...
- 6 risks importers from China face in January 2021
- China’s Covid-19 outbreaks force caution as Lunar New Year travel rush begins
Get in touch with us
- Connect with us on LinkedIn
- Send us a tweet @sofeast
- Prefer Facebook? Check us out on FB
- Contact us via Sofeast's contact page
Get even more great content or assistance with your own project
- Visit our website at Sofeast.com
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Subscribe to the podcast
There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here:
Friday Jan 22, 2021
Friday Jan 22, 2021
In This Episode...
Adrian catches up with Andy Bartlett, an experienced British product designer who has 25 years of experience in product design, development, and working with manufacturers in China to discuss project management best practices when dealing with Chinese suppliers with a special focus on Andy's take on this from a product design perspective. He covers project management tips and techniques, building good relationships, IP protection, and much, much more!
More about Andy Bartlett
Andy has a deep experience in consumer electronics, toys, and more. Several of Sofeast's clients have worked with Andy with good results. He was Product Design Manager at Worlds Apart for 14 years and has designed products for Disney, LEGO, Hasbro and Mattel including Scruff-a-luvs and GoGlow.
Show Notes
00:00 - Introducing the episode
01:23 - Andy's Bio
02:05 - The 2 ways of engaging with Chinese suppliers: Contract Manufacturers (your 'factory') and Development Houses - When you're developing a new product to bring to market you're likely to work directly with a factory in China and you'll need to go through all of the product development work that has been done and make sure they can deliver, or, if you're at an earlier stage on your project, you may work with a development house first who help you with the development work such as on the product concept and its functions and on NPI work such as deciding on manufacturing processes, techniques, and more.
03:36 - Dealing directly with a factory as a designer when performing the project management - 2 challenges: 1. Protect your interests (design intent) and be clear about what you want to achieve. 2. Structure, organisation, and well-controlled communication channels.
06:22 - Dealing with a development house from a design perspective - about managing costs, schedule and exploring opportunities (which they will be more interested in than many factories who are incentivised to get to production ASAP), but still getting to the factory in time to produce your goods on schedule.
07:55 - The focus on getting to production by factories and why creative people sometimes don't know when to stop 'development.'
09:10 - At what point do you know that your product development is mature enough that you can start production?
12:14 - Why approving the tooling is one of the worst times in the NPD process for anyone who's developing a new product.
13:26 - Exploring some best practices when working with a factory or a development house (good for hardware startups who are new to this). New product development is a tough process, so building a good working relationship is really helpful. Look for good communication and contacts whom you can trust (in factories this can be harder) and an inquisitive spirit that is willing to try new things and solve problems.
17:38 - How communication and building relationships have been affected by the challenges of the pandemic. In-person contact is the best way to work with your Chinese suppliers, but in lieu of that, video conferencing is a key tool.
19:47 - The culture of saying 'yes' to everything you request in China and how to combat it with notes and a system to check that suppliers are on target. Importers need to be careful of this, as yes doesn't always mean yes. Therefore any meetings should be followed up with written notes that can double-confirm a supplier's intent and ability. Google suite of products doesn't work in China, but you can create a system to track and manage development issues. Microsoft's software is usually adequate for this. Emails aren't as they're quite ignorable. Build the culture of 'track & trace' and always come back to suppliers to check that they are resolving your question and if it's truly a 'yes,' or in fact a 'no.'
24:44 - How best to manage CAD data and not lose the integrity of the modelling. A flexible pause and review approach to 3D data is a good use of time as this will be worked on until late in the development process.
27:09 - How about IP protection? It's context-driven. If you're in a long-term stable relationship with a supplier you should already have the trust that they use IP responsibly. With a new supplier, do they take steps to protect their other clients' confidentiality seriously if you're visiting their factory to tour it? If so, that's a good sign. If a trusted supplier recommends another supplier this may be a good sign. You should take steps to control CAD data by using software to minimize the amount of data the new supplier can see at an early stage.
30:57 - Why keeping your cool, even when things go wrong, is really important. Maintaining calm and respectfulness is a very valuable skill when dealing with Chinese suppliers, this includes sending a heated email. Consider the context of not being able to visit the supplier and see how busy they are etc, it may be easy to get the wrong idea about what is happening so keeping cool is important. 99% of the time, your supplier is doing the best they can. If your goal is to get the best possible product developed, confrontation with your partners in China may be counterintuitive.
36:06 - The first order with a factory is hard as that's where all the work goes and the most stress occurs, but hang in there! Followup orders probably require 10% of the effort and become easier, perhaps with just small tweaks to the product. So if things are tough initially, it will get easier in future.
38:01 - Wrapping up and Andy's key takeaway for designers of new products. Passionate designers need to remember that it's 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, so remember to be calm and disciplined.
Related content to read next...
- Andy has written a number of blog posts for Sofeast, particularly about product design topics.
- Sourcing from China 101, Part 8: Project Management of Your Orders
- Project management for importers
Get in touch with us
- Connect with us on LinkedIn
- Send us a tweet @sofeast
- Prefer Facebook? Check us out on FB
- Contact us via Sofeast's contact page
Get even more great content or assistance with your own project
- Visit our website at Sofeast.com
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Subscribe to the podcast
There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here:
Friday Jan 15, 2021
Why Do Importers Need Product Reliability Testing?
Friday Jan 15, 2021
Friday Jan 15, 2021
In This Episode...
Adrian and Renaud discuss the topic of product reliability testing. What is this type of testing, when do we carry it out, what are the risks of not doing the testing, and what does it cost? These questions and many more are answered, because today, more than ever, it's so important for importers to protect themselves against expensive recalls and lawsuits which may occur if your products don't reach expected reliability, quality, and, as a knock-on effect in many cases, safety standards.
Ultimately, you'll discover why, for most products, skipping reliability testing during the NPI process is simply not worth it!
Show Notes
00:00 - Introduction
02:37 - A summary of WHAT product reliability is. Some examples are given, in particular, that of a women's razor that must be able to withstand the bathroom and shower environment and also a smartphone which needs to withstand daily use.
05:19 - If a product is NOT reliable, how could this affect the importer? You will face returns, bad reviews, and in the case of failures that lead to safety issues, you may have to recall a batch, be prosecuted in court, pay heavy damages, etc.
06:36 - What typically causes reliability issues in a new product? The causes of reliability issues can be broken down into categories:
- Design: Poor design is usually the top cause of reliability problems later on. The infamous case of the unsafe Samsung Galaxy Note 7 was down to a poor design that allowed the batteries to catch fire in certain circumstances.
- Manufacturing: Component manufacturers or manufacturing at the main assembly site can also cause reliability issues. An example is given of specifying the wrong kind of glue that later causes product failure (specifying the wrong materials or components is a type of design failure, too).
13:00 - Why product reliability is ever more important in these days of the internet when disgruntled users will soon write bad reviews. There is no one product category where users wouldn't complain about an unreliable product. Products for children would be an obvious target where brands can't afford to upset consumers, but on the other hand, something as simple as a takeaway coffee cup could also injure and upset consumers, too.
14:31 - The importance of understanding safety standards when developing a new product and planning ahead for any and all possible failures that could affect consumers.
15:41 - Will hardware startups, who may be new to reliability testing, get any support to define and plan for potential product failures from 3rd party companies (like Sofeast) who conduct the testing for them? Yes, although the developer really needs to understand their own users and how they may misuse the product better than anyone else. We will usually discuss the relevant regulations and potential risks with a customer who is developing a new product where needed, challenge their design and prototypes to assure that they're going in the right direction for their goals for the product, and we also often perform risk analysis and a design FMEA, too.
17:56 - How to confirm the performance of the product during development.
18:52 - How to push the limits of the product to work towards reliability during development. Some ideas of what to test to simulate the extremes that the product can be pushed to in order to see what fails first. This often uncovers the main weaknesses of a product's design.
20:56 - Reliability and compliance testing during mass production. Samples from the pilot run can be used to confirm that everything is OK with the product design, but also, importantly, the manufacturing process by subjecting them to typical usage over, say, 2 years. Compliance testing should also be done on these early pre-production pilot run samples, too.
24:19 - Why some companies still take the risk of not performing reliability testing. Those with less experience tend to place a lot of trust in their manufacturer, assuming that they will not provide products which later turn out to have reliability issues.
25:43 - The types of reliability testing that may be used. These vary per the product type, but here are some options:
- Cycling the product from low to high temperature, humidity testing, salt spray testing on exposed metals, mechanical tests like drop and vibration tests, flexing cables, lifecycle testing (HALT), and more.
- Packaging reliability testing is also a consideration, as it is often a part of the product offering these days and will need to reliably protect your product and its retail packaging during transit and storage. So for this, there will be drop tests, vibration tests, atmospheric testing, and compression testing, and more.
- Batteries, in particular, will have many types of tests, such as charge/discharge cycling, drop tests, thermal tests, and more.
31:33 - Some real examples Renaud has seen of product disasters that reliability testing uncovered. Products that catch fire (!) are a constant threat and something seen a number of times, but also products which instantly break, scratch or corrode immediately, and more! 🙈
33:52 - Why the worst safety issues often stem from reliability problems. We discuss the link between reliability, quality, and safety, and how they overlap. How reliability is usually focused on during product development and how quality is focused on during manufacturing. If both are handled well, there should be no safety issues.
37:18 - How much does reliability testing actually cost? Most consumer products that are not made in vast quantities the product reliability testing can range between $300-3,000. When companies understand the risks that are avoided by the testing they usually see it as a worthwhile investment.
39:15 - Reiterating why reliability testing is not to be skipped for most products.
41:40 - Wrapping up.
Related content to read next...
Here are a few blog posts about reliability testing that Renaud wrote earlier:
- Product Reliability Testing | 7 FAQs - this is a further introduction to the topic.
- Reliability Testing Plan For A Home Appliance (an Electronic Hairbrush) in China [Example] - this shows you a real example of a testing plan for a pretty common electronic product.
- Why NOT to skip reliability testing on electronic products from China - a cautionary post showing what can go wrong and how to avoid issues.
- We discussed product packaging, so learn more about common packaging types and features in this guide.
- Our guide on battery choice for importers of electronics also covers battery testing in some detail, and you can read that here.
- Watch our playlist of videos on battery testing and quality here.
- Also, at Sofeast, we provide product reliability testing (and packaging testing) for our customers, too, so take a look and get a quotation for your project. 👍
Get in touch with us
- Connect with us on LinkedIn
- Send us a tweet @sofeast
- Prefer Facebook? Check us out on FB
- Contact us via Sofeast's contact page
Get even more great content or assistance with your own project
- Visit our website at Sofeast.com
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Subscribe to the podcast
There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here:
Friday Jan 08, 2021
How To Validate Your Supplier's Factory's Production Capacity (From Abroad)?
Friday Jan 08, 2021
Friday Jan 08, 2021
In This Episode...
Adrian and Renaud kick-off 2021 with Renaud's thoughts on how the coronavirus pandemic will continue to affect manufacturing this year and how things might change once vaccine use becomes more widespread, and then get into the main topic: How to validate a supplier's production capacity, especially if you're a buyer abroad who isn't able to travel to China (or elsewhere in Asia) to do this on-site yourself.
Given that a supplier over-promising on their capacity could land you in hot water when it comes to delivery delays, quality problems, and increased costs, understanding if they truly do have the capacity to handle your order quantities before placing orders is a must, and since there are still tight restrictions for travelling to different Asian countries, not least China, being able to do so from abroad is very relevant for many buyers right now.
Show Notes
00:00 - Introduction
01:44 - Renaud talks about how the coronavirus pandemic may continue to affect buyers from China/Asia in 2021. How the vaccine rollout could improve things, certainly by 2022, and how in China the manufacturing industry continues to operate strongly for most verticals. Will the West start to perform better by Q2 of 2021?
07:54 - Why do we need to be able to validate a supplier's factory's production capacity before we start placing orders? When buying from a supplier you will fit into one of these 3 categories regarding your order quantity and their capacity:
- Your order quantity is in the supplier's sweet spot - there shouldn't be an issue with them making this without hitch and being attentive to your needs. This is where everyone wants to be.
- Your order quantity is very low and the supplier is quite large - they're unlikely to be flexible, offer special terms, and pay attention to your needs as much as you may like.
- Your order quantity is too large for the supplier - this is the danger zone. Some suppliers may accept an order even if they know they don't have the capacity, and this could lead to dangers such as unauthorised subcontracting, rushing to implement new machinery and onboard new staff, and other issues that can lead to delays and quality problems for you.
14:24 - Why in East-Asian cultures, 'yes' doesn't always mean 'yes.' Suppliers agreeing to orders they know they can't handle easily has a cultural factor. Yes, may not mean yes directly, rather it may mean, "I hear you and I'm thinking about it." Also, Chinese salespeople, for example, don't want to disappoint foreign customers so are likely to overpromise rather than say no in some cases.
16:22 - If buyers are unable to visit Asian suppliers right now, how can we assess them from afar? Renaud shares a number of tips, such as using factory auditors, and about how to question them and the kinds of questions to ask (if possible over the phone and with someone at a managerial level), including:
- Getting an understanding of the supplier's number of employees.
- Questions about what they buy from outside, such as components and if these are custom-made (more supply chain risk) or not, capacity per day, % of good pieces, etc.
- Questions about what they actually do in their facility, such as their processes, daily capacity per process, defect rate, etc.
- What their peak and slow seasons are - for instance, around CNY is a risky time to place orders.
24:35 - If it's possible to get truthful answers to the above questions that is good, but will many buyers get a better result by working with companies who are already on the ground in Asia and can perform due diligence and audits for them? Yes. If your main contact has no idea and their colleagues don't help answer them you may not have success with speaking on the phone, but it's easy to find companies like Sofeast who can go on-site perform due diligence on potential suppliers and validate a supplier's capacity.
26:14 - What actually impacts a supplier's capacity? It is a lot more than just the number of employees and machines that they have. Renaud suggests the following things have an effect on overall production capacity:
- Staff numbers alone don't mean a lot with the exception of garment factories.
- The equipment can lead to a lot of output if it's fast and well-maintained, but if there are bottlenecks around it then the output will be slowed down a lot, and the same can be said for equipment downtime.
- The supply chain will affect capacity - so how efficient are sub-suppliers in the production and delivery of materials/components?
- Quality has a large impact on capacity because reworking bad batches, for example, takes time away from making the product, thereby reducing capacity.
- Material and production planning - if things are well-planned to make the operation flexible and optimised with little idle time, capacity also will be optimised. Many suppliers in China won't be this well-organised.
- Staff training also has an impact, as mistakes lead to rework and operators will work faster, too.
- Good process engineering makes everything run faster and improves quality.
- Small tooling and fixtures and automation which is well-integrated can also help speed things up a lot.
- The warehouse even has an effect, as if operators are waiting for deliveries of new materials/components to be delivered to the assembly line, for instance, this leads to idle time.
- Engineering change notifications can have an impact, as can making prototypes and samples using the tooling which takes capacity away from production.
- The mix of products being made at any one time, especially if it's high mix low volume.
35:13 - Is the best way to get a handle on all of this conducting factory audits? A technical process audit is ideal in this situation, as it will look into the real processes being used on-site and the auditor, who is accustomed to the processes being used and familiar with the product type, will be able to assess the supplier's capacity, key risks, ability to reach your quality standard, and much, much more.
36:27 - Wrapping up. Tell us how you've coped with assessing suppliers' capacities from abroad throughout the pandemic.
Related content to read next...
- How to validate a factory's production capacity WITHOUT going on-site?
- Learn more about Sofeast's numerous factory audits which help you get a high level of visibility about your supplier (in China, Vietnam, India, and across Asia) from your own country.
- If dealing with a new supplier, our new factory identification solution assesses their capacity amongst other things you need to know before you start working with them.
Get in touch with us
- Connect with us on LinkedIn
- Send us a tweet @sofeast
- Prefer Facebook? Check us out on FB
- Contact us via Sofeast's contact page
Get even more great content or assistance with your own project
- Visit our website at Sofeast.com
- Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Subscribe to the podcast
There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here: