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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 Feb 26, 2021
How We Set Up A New Factory In China (from idea to operation)
Friday Feb 26, 2021
Friday Feb 26, 2021
In This Episode...
Interested in setting up a factory of your own in China (or perhaps other countries in Asia, too)?
Renaud and his business partner Fabien have been there and done it, so let's explore how they set up our Chinese contract manufacturing subsidiary, Agilian Technology, and how they've tried to implement best practices learned over decades in China to offer something better than other Chinese factories.
Show Notes
00:00 - Introducing the episode
02:10 - What's the story behind Sofeast opening 'Agilian Technology' our contract manufacturing subsidiary (factory) in China? - Grounded in setting up a good, transparent supply chain in order to have better control - so opening our own factory for assembly, etc to close the loop for clients was a natural progression for the company.
07:32 - How going through this process was an education - being an actual Chinese manufacturer provided us with a lot of new opportunities, such as being able to agree on preferential credit terms with local Chinese component/material suppliers who would usually demand payment upfront from foreign customers.
The 6 phases we went through to open our factory
09:04 - Phase 1: Choosing the right site - how to find sites that fit our needs, dealing with estate agents, etc.
16:14 - Phase 2: Adhering to local regulations - includes fire regulations, battery storage, recruiting and training staff, preparing the production transfer from the old location, insurance, and more.
21:14 - Phase 3: Decorating the factory - planning the areas and decorating happens before the transfer. This includes deciding on decoration, floor style, toilets, ventilation, lighting, and much more. Following up on the contractor is crucial as it usually a one-off job so they may not be someone you have a long-standing relationship with.
26:05 - Phase 4: Setting up the office - important points are different areas, lighting, wifi internet access, plugs and sockets, flooring, etc.
27:11 - Phase 5: Setting up the workshop - plan for the layout and material flow to avoid internal logistics inefficiency, line layout to be optimal (we use compact U-shaped cells and also longer lines for higher volumes), power usage, lighting and ventilation, security, and more.
32:14 - Phase 6: Setting up the warehouse - warehouse layout with a focus on material flow, also installing racking, forklifts, setting up doors, fans, and lights. A word on preventing theft and its impact on production and business.
34:53 - Take best practices and implement them - observe the factories you like and implement their good ideas! An example of this was keeping our office-based staff who are involved with production near to the workshop with a glass wall so they have visibility of production. In many Chinese factories staff like production managers and quality managers often have separate offices and avoid going onto the factory floor, but this reduces the value they can add. Continuous improvement and problem-solving are built into how we structured our factory, but this is opposite to many other local competitors.
39:47 - Wrapping up
Related content...
- Take a look at Agilian's mass production in China page which includes a really helpful video from Renaud where he answers key questions customers have about Agilian before working with us on a manufacturing project.
- Visualize the different areas of the factory by watching them in operation on Agilian's YouTube channel.
- Renaud listed the phases followed to set up Agilian in this blog post.
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 Feb 19, 2021
A New 'Cold War' Between The USA & China's Effect On Manufacturing
Friday Feb 19, 2021
Friday Feb 19, 2021
In This Episode...
Adrian and our CEO, Renaud, discuss how the current political tensions between the USA and other Western nations and China are affecting manufacturing and provide some more general observations on the 'Cold War' trends of containment and decoupling that seem to be gathering strength.
This topic stemmed from this recent Forbes article which suggested that Americans polled would be prepared to pay 20% more for goods manufactured in democracies...No prizes for guessing which country it casts doubts over.
So, how serious is this 'Cold War' that's developing, what are we seeing on the ground in China, what could be overstated by the media, and is it really causing a lot of upheaval in manufacturing and an exodus from China of Western brands?
Show Notes
00:00 - Introducing the episode
01:13 - Discussing the recent Forbes article titled: Americans Fine With Paying More If Trading With Democracies, Not China - how realistic is this and has the poll been couched in an inflammatory language to elicit a negative response?
06:09 - Militant consumerism - Some aspirational brands, such as Apple and Nike, have lost customers due to high-profile corporate social responsibility issues, so they make efforts to control supply chains strictly. But 'China' seems to be more worrying for governments than consumers, and Chinese made goods are almost always generally accepted to be trustworthy and good enough quality these days by consumers and political factors, such as China's governance, doesn't really affect buying decisions by consumers much yet.
08:43 - Could this type of news constitute a threat to 'Made-in-China' products by stirring up anti-China sentiment among militant consumers? - militant consumers have already started to push back against brands with an environmental impact such as apparel, cosmetics, cleaning products, etc. Could China be put in their sights if they're continually exposed to news articles like this?
10:06 - The 'real effect' militant consumers are having on apparel - brands are paying more attention to environmental impact due to the concerns of militant consumers, but many fast-fashion brands are just 'greenwashing' their brands for marketing purposes rather than making meaningful changes.
15:59 - The sentiment towards China - this has been on a downward trend since before the Trump administration and, enhanced by him, the prevailing attitude towards China in the USA is now negative. Australia, Europe, and the UK have also taken a stand against China in different ways recently and the results haven't always been positive for them. China's global PR isn't always the best and the leadership tend to be more focused on what Chinese people think of them than outside countries which doesn't help change attitudes quickly.
21:04 - Why a 'Western' viewpoint tends to cast China in a poor light - this coupled with politicians and the media means that sentiment towards China may not improve for some years to come.
23:55 - The growing 'Cold War' trend between the USA & China - what does this mean? Containment and decoupling activities are becoming more prominent. Is the media being used to contain China right now (including articles like that mentioned earlier)? Also, are we seeing real-world Cold-war scenarios where current tensions in the South China Sea, India, and also Myanmar (where the US-friendly government has been toppled by the military who are friendly to China), for example, mirror the days of the Cold War between the USA and the USSR where there were side conflicts rather than a war between the 2 superpowers?
28:25 - Is it 'wrong' that China is building up global power and influence, especially in Asia? - the Western media often paints this as a worrying or negative thing, but if we look at this situation from outside of the Western viewpoint, this is nothing that hasn't been done before by Western superpowers. What would Western countries do if they were surrounded by an opposing military power in the same way that China is? Renaud also makes some interesting points about China's government - they're making great efforts to build an extremely professional and modern government. The problem is, it seems difficult to imagine a time when China and the West will understand and agree with each other (this is manifested in the recent mistrust on both sides surrounding the WHO investigation in China regarding the origin of the coronavirus).
33:18 - Decoupling. Is this something that's having a strong effect on manufacturing in China yet? - in electronics, there has been almost no decoupling (this is echoed by Richard Barnett in this interview). At most, there has been some movement of final assembly to places like Vietnam and in some cases, some new products have been developed in Taiwan rather than China. The apparel industry has already decoupled from China to a large extent, but this was happening long before today's tensions.
Even where supply chains have been relocated, the final assembly is a relatively low value-add and components are usually still made in China.
38:51 - Finding countries that can provide a complete supply chain for most products outside of apparel is unlikely...yet. Vietnam is mooted as a modern success story and a potential alternative to China, but it's still a tiny resource in comparison to its large neighbor.
39:57 - Wrapping up
Related content...
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 Feb 12, 2021
Friday Feb 12, 2021
In This Episode...
Adrian and Renaud, Sofeast's CEO, return in this special Chinese New Year 2021 edition of the podcast! 🧧🧨🐂
During the CNY period manufacturing in China (and other parts of East Asia) is effectively on hold for several weeks, so during this time importers have a chance to 'Spring Clean' their supply chain, finding and eliminating risks and also looking for untapped opportunities to make improvements, costs savings, and more.
So, based on his decades of experience in dealing with Asian suppliers, here's an interesting checklist from Renaud for you to work through over these few weeks.
Show Notes
00:00 - Introducing the episode - why now is a good time to 'spring clean' your supply chain
02:52 - Risks associated with your current supplier base - too concentrated in 1 country, no backup suppliers for key components/products, near-shoring an option? etc...
08:01 - Is assembly closer to home using Chinese components a workaround for importers who want to move some of their supply chains out of China? If substantial transformation takes place you can say products are 'made in' another country other than China which could be beneficial, but a very long and complex supply chain also has its own issues as we discuss...
11:37 - Consolidate and strengthen relationships with key suppliers - few key suppliers rather than many, and managing them differently - more hands-on management, helping improve operations, etc. Giving talented suppliers (new or current) with R&D capabilities more business and co-developing new products with them helps you to gain closer relationships and can help form exclusive relationships with great suppliers. IKEA, for example, also sends in engineers to help their key suppliers 'level up' and improve quality etc, so this is another way to strengthen relationships.
16:40 - Rank & yank: what about replacing the lowest-performing factory every year? - grade suppliers based on their results and capabilities and encourage some turnover amongst the poorest performers. Why you need to take a zero-tolerance approach to a supplier with a history of poor performance.
20:34 - Why are many importers are reluctant to get rid of poor suppliers? - discussing why importers often fear the upheaval of switching to new suppliers.
22:58 - Do you have legal agreements in place with suppliers? - if a legal and enforceable manufacturing agreement/contract is in place importers shouldn't need to fear switching suppliers as much. If you didn't put such an agreement in place it's not always too late, Renaud gives some tips on how to reason with your supplier and persuade them to sign one.
25:44 - Does your onboarding process for new suppliers need to be tweaked to encourage the signing of manufacturing agreements? - based on past experiences with manufacturing agreements (or lack of) you can plan how to make new suppliers sign one as a standard process in future. This can also work with current suppliers, where they can be persuaded to sign one with the promise of new orders if they do so. It's imperative that the contract is enforceable in your supplier's country.
29:15 - Transparency into the supply chain? - do you buy from companies who do only final assembly, not creating much real value, but you stick with them because they have the contacts of the key component suppliers? This is a lack of transparency in your supply chain. There are ways to work on getting those key suppliers' contacts from these suppliers and then set up a parallel supply chain that you control, as well as finally cutting away the deadwood as we discuss here.
32:45 - Redesign of key products for better durability & reliability - taking information from users of the products in the field about failures and using it to redesign the production process, change a secondary material, or something actually fairly simple in order to produce a far better product. Doing this is often left on the 'back-burner' until a V2.0 or V3.0 of the product.
35:07 - Do you collect and use data about quality issues, returns, complaints, etc? - setting up a database and analyzing the trends and key issues is a good idea. Performing failure analysis on these will help you improve. This is a commonly missed opportunity for many importers.
36:53 - Do you have a structured NPI process in place if you're developing new products in order to reduce risks without adding much time & cost? - letting a factory rush to production, as Chinese suppliers often like to do, increases your risks, especially for new and complex products. Implementing a structured process will reduce the chances of nasty surprises during production.
39:08 - Local teams for sourcing: are they working hard enough to find new sources? - can they be incentivised somehow to become hungrier to find better new suppliers?
39:40 - Local teams for QC: are they competitive with external QC agencies? Do they work smarter over the years? - it may be that the cost of outsourcing QC to an external inspection provider compares favorably with that of your internal team and leads to less stress. Using an app to reduce paperwork and improve productivity could be something to consider for your inspection team, too.
41:02 - Inventory management - is it time to make better decisions based on risks of disruption based on the risk each individual supplier creates? This can be assessed using data to help you make decisions on how much inventory you truly need.
41:42 - Using an ERP or other IT systems to improve how you manage your business? - maybe it's time to explore what other companies use to manage their key numbers and people.
42:15 - Wrapping up
Related content...
- Rank & Yank - 7 Reasons To Switch To A New Chinese Manufacturer
- Enforceable Chinese manufacturing contracts - How To Create A Valid Manufacturing Contract In China To Protect Your IP
- Sofeast can help you to create an enforceable manufacturing agreement
- Data collection about returns etc - Investigating the Causes of Product Failure and Improving Design
- Improving your NPI process - New Product Introduction Process Guide For Hardware Startups
- External product inspections
- Quality inspection app to improve inspector performance - we use our app: SynControl
- Inventory management - How Much Inventory Do You Need?
- We've generally discussed risk reduction in the supply chain, so you will also like this series of blog posts on supply chain risks management that Renaud wrote, which includes topics like what black swan events like the pandemic could be described as being, business continuity planning, the benefits of supply chain scorecards, and more.
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 Feb 05, 2021
Richard Barnett | Electronics Supply Chain Risk Management in 2021
Friday Feb 05, 2021
Friday Feb 05, 2021
In This Episode...
Adrian interviews Richard Barnett, CMO of SupplyFrame, an AI-based SaaS solution which enables sourcing insights and decision support that improves the performance and resilience of electronics supply chains.
US-native Richard has decades of experience in the electronics field and has clocked many years in Asia, so he was an ideal person to discuss supply chain risks faced by today's importers of Asian electronic products and components in 2021 and risk-management techniques and advice that can help you become less affected by risks, such as the coronavirus pandemic we have been facing, political issues, and more.
One particularly interesting topic that he raised is how design & procurement influence the risk profile of the resulting productions.
Show Notes
00:00 - Introducing the episode - topics around how to manage innovation, what do we expect post-covid across the global electronics value chain, and more
01:57 - Brief introduction of Richard and Supplyframe.com
04:50 - How does Richard's experience at Supplyframe fit in with an importer of electronics who is developing a new product? For a high-tech startup, for example, their solution would help provide new forms of intelligence to accelerate product design, identify and reduce risks of key component selections in the design phase, and think about how to align to ramp to volume considering key risks in the electronics supply value chain.
07:13 - Why risk reduction is more important than ever today and how the trend is becoming more widespread. The pandemic and the associated manufacturing shutdown in China in early 2020 forced many importers to react and work on making their supply chains more resilient, especially those in an industry where demand dropped off or ramped up quickly. Many importers have now been assessing how to improve supply chain resilience based on what they've learned and experienced which previously they perhaps didn't - this is 'the next normal.'
10:27 - A list of some of the risks which have exhibited themselves recently that importers should try to avoid. The pandemic spurred a number of risks recently that were unforeseen, but before the pandemic even occurred, there were key risks in the high-tech and electronic value supply chains such as US/China trade war tariffs, Korea and Japan trade tensions, FAB production capacity, memory production capacity, and more.
13:08 - If you've been hit by the risks described, what's the way out of this for importers? Optimizing your supply chain with flexibility, thinking through where opportunities for risk-sharing with a key manufacturer in terms of inventory or lead time, for example. Examining the multi-tier supply chain to find and eliminate bottlenecks and risks and understand where you can drive the greatest long-term impact, which is at the point of design. For example, de-risking the BOM by qualifying backup component suppliers so it's possible to pivot to procuring from them instead quickly if a problem occurs with a primary supplier is an important way to reduce risks.
17:43 - Is the 'US/China trade war' an ongoing risk that electronics importers should be wary of? The total impact of the transition out of China in the last few years has been less than 10% on aggregate, so the idea that decoupling from China will happen rapidly is unrealistic. Rather than uproot from China, Richard has seen additional costs absorbed by manufacturers or passed on to customers and he predicts seeing more of the same.
22:52 - Some interesting dynamics that are not impacted directly by trade-policy. 2021 is a turbulent year: we're reducing COVID restrictions, working from home, especially skilled digital work, has exploded, autos are now starting to pick up, hospitality, too, will be, so there's a V-shaped recovery. He sees a shift in key component and commodity categories being reallocated into other more reliable and profitable industries, such as from consumer electronics to autos or medical technology. There is a resetting of what is 'just-in-case' VS 'just-in-time?' 'What is the appropriate inventory buffer we need?' 'How do I negotiate my agreements to balance risk-sharing rather than just chasing the lowest cost?' Etc.
26:25 - Why some companies simply weren't prepared for the pandemic. Even the largest companies often hadn't done business continuity planning around pandemic response, so smaller tech startups have certainly faced substantial risks. Therefore aligning and synchronising recovery with what's driving demand, and focussing on reducing lead time, bottlenecks and other risks, as well as reviewing design in order to build risk-reduction into the design itself are the key takeaways here.
28:10 - What is 'Design To Source Intelligence?' Explaining the new form of intelligence that is about finding new insights to influence decisions and be more effective in the global electronics value chain based on a distillation of information from big data including market demand, costs, and much, much more that perhaps wasn't available to most importers until recently.
30:45 - Wrapping up
Related content...
You will also like this series of blog posts on supply chain risks management that Renaud wrote, which includes topics like what black swan events like the pandemic could be described as being, business continuity planning, the benefits of supply chain scorecards, and more.
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: