China Manufacturing Decoded
 

China Manufacturing Decoded

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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

Should you be wary of the cheapest Chinese suppliers?

Friday Dec 01, 2023

Friday Dec 01, 2023

Adrian hosts and Renaud is onboard to offer some cautionary advice about working with 'the cheapest Chinese supplier' with a focus on relatively ordinary consumer and electronic products. What might sound like a good deal could actually land you in hot water. Here's why...

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introduction: Should we be wary of choosing the cheapest supplier?

05:35 - Warning signs from cheap suppliers.

09:54 - Do lowest prices = a stable relationship for the mid to long-term?

15:18 - Does a manufacturing contract protect you from the supplier making changes due to not being able to afford to honor low prices?

17:55 - What type of factory are you even dealing with?

24:36 - An example quote for very low-cost plastic injection mold tooling and the problems you might face in future if you accept.

27:23 - Avoiding the cheapest options and doing due diligence is a must for certain product types.

29:21 - What can go wrong when you work with a cheap/bad supplier?

33:47 - Is it really impossible to get a small factory to do a good job?

39:18 - Wrapping up.

 

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Getting Ahead Of The Upcoming EU Product Liability Directive (Feat. Clive Greenwood & Prof. Simon Choi)

Friday Nov 24, 2023

Friday Nov 24, 2023

In this episode...

Renaud hosts this episode on the EU's forthcoming directive on product liability which should get you nervous if you sell into Europe. Clive Greenwood and Prof. Simon Choi are two highly experienced compliance experts and Professor Choi brings a fresh outlook on how this affects manufacturers in China and EU importers in legal terms.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing today's topic.

04:23 - What is the intent of the directive?

06:53 - What does this directive change for economic operators on the distribution and retail side of things?

12:47 - Transparency in the supply chain.

16:56 - Even if a factory in, say, China can now be held liable for product problems as a supply chain actor under this new legislation, realistically, can an importer obtain compensation from them?

24:47 - How the burden of proof for manufacturers is changing.

28:45 - Product labelling must make it easier for any parties, especially consumers, to bring a case against a product's seller.

32:50 - Foreign manufacturers are going to be under a lot of pressure to change the way they do things.

34:02 - Why the product safety's burden of proof is on the party who brings the product into the EU.

37:17 - Will this directive even be possible to enforce in manufacturing in China?

39:38 - Wrapping up.

 

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How A Supplier’s Quality Can Be Evaluated & Validated

Friday Nov 17, 2023

Friday Nov 17, 2023

In this episode...

Renaud and Andrew, Sofeast's head of New Product Development, are in the booth discussing how a supplier's quality can be evaluated and validated. In order to avoid purchasing parts or materials that will let you down, you need to be able to assess if a supplier is capable of reaching your requirements, and they're going to tell you how!

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing today's topic.

01:31 - Why is supplier quality important?

05:56 - When should you start being concerned with supplier's quality and what should you do to mitigate risks of poor quality?

15:33 - Why the quality team must help to include your quality standards in the PRD (product requirement document).

22:05 - Why small businesses may benefit from working with a supplier who has in-house engineering resources.

23:32 - Doing due diligence to qualify that a supplier's quality is good.

33:16 - Checking the supplier's QMS.

35:07 - Regular audits can also uncover helpful information about suppliers.

37:35 - Formalize approved suppliers.

41:43 - Wrapping up.

 

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Sourcing Chinese Suppliers? 7 expert tips to get you better results!

Friday Nov 10, 2023

Friday Nov 10, 2023

In this episode...

Adrian hosts and welcomes Kate Oliynykova, Sofeast's head of supply chain management, onto the podcast once again. This time she sheds light on how we do supplier identification for customers, sharing 7 tips for key areas to focus on and lots of advice that can help you get better results when you're sourcing from China (or other countries in Asia, too, actually).

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing today's topic.

04:12 - 1) How to find a good supplier in China: Platforms to use

10:02 - 2) Key points to pay attention to when selecting a supplier

12:39 - 3) Checking certifications

17:44 - 4) Collect supplier contact info. and cross-check

21:47 - 5) Getting better quotations.

27:59 - 6) Selecting the right incoterms.

32:45 - 7) Source yourself or use a third party?

35:41 - An example of what can go wrong if you've sourced suppliers yourself.

41:36 - Sofeast's tried-and-tested sourcing approach.

44:27 - Wrapping up.

 

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China’s REAL business environment for foreign investors today + How to set up a manufacturing company there

Friday Nov 03, 2023

Friday Nov 03, 2023

Sofeast's CEO Renaud welcomes China business expert Angel Ho, CEO of Hongda Business Services in Shenzhen, onto the show to talk about what the business environment for foreigners seeking to do business there today is really like, and about the process of setting up a manufacturing facility in China for foreigners and all of the legal and administrative points you'll need to take care of. They also both share some of the key mistakes that foreign businesses make when setting up their factory.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings.

01:06 - Angel and Hongda introduction.

02:21 - What's the general business environment in China after 'Zero-Covid' really like for foreign businesses?

07:40 - The Chinese economy is less vibrant than before now. What is the government doing to encourage foreign investment?

11:55 - How easy is it to hire foreigners in China today?

16:41 - If a Western company wants to start their own manufacturing company in China, what's the process?

21:30 - Selecting the right area and government support for manufacturers.

25:55 - 7 Common mistakes foreign businesses make when setting up a manufacturing facility in China.

35:39 - Wrapping up.

 

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18 steps for selecting electronic components the right way

Friday Oct 27, 2023

Friday Oct 27, 2023

In this episode...

Adrian and Andrew Amirnovin, Sofeast's reliability expert and our head of New Product Development, return and explore component selection (especially for electronics). This is just one piece of the manufacturing puzzle, but if you get it wrong it will come back to bite you! Luckily, Andrew is here to walk you through 18 steps that will help you choose components that fit the bill.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing today's topic.

01:17 - What is the component selection process and where does it occur during New Product Introduction?

04:20 - The component selection steps:

1. Define your Requirements

2. Select the Key Components

06:02 - 3. Analyze the Operating Environment/s

06:34 - 4. Identify Critical Parameters per component

10:04 - 5. Source the Components

15:26 - 6. Consider the Supply Chain

16:53 - 7. Check for Obsolescence

17:34 - 8. Analyze costs

21:01 - 9. Selecting Components of the right Reliability and Quality

24:53 - 10. Purchase Second-Source Components

26:28 - 11. Component Database

29:08 - 12. Design for Excellence, especially DFM

30:54 - 13. Compliance and Standards

33:49 - 14. Simulating and Prototyping the Product

35:14 - 15. Documentation and Record-Keeping

38:12 - 16. Design Reviews

41:13 - 17. Lock the Bill of Materials (BOM)

44:45 - 18. Pilot Run

45:59 - Wrapping up.

 

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Technology Readiness Levels: How can they help today’s manufacturers?

Friday Oct 20, 2023

Friday Oct 20, 2023

In this episode...

Renaud hosts and is joined by Sofeast's senior engineer Paul Adams to go through Technology Readiness Levels which is a product development framework that is often used to gauge the progress of a new product launch project, especially during prototyping. But is it useful for today's manufacturers who are mass producing, say, consumer electronics? Find out here...

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing today's topic.

01:08 - Where did the TRL originate?

04:37 - The 9 Technology Readiness Levels.

20:02 - Can we use this framework for products that will be mass-produced?

26:09 - What is missing from the TRL in order to manufacture products in large quantities?

37:38 - Wrapping up.

 

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DFM lessons we can learn from Elon Musk

Friday Oct 13, 2023

Friday Oct 13, 2023

Sofeast's CEO Renaud flies solo in this episode and discusses what he thought of the recent Elon Musk biography by Walter Isaacson. What can we, the manufacturing community, learn from this enigmatic character? As you'll hear, one of his specialities is making positive DFM (Design for Manufacturing) changes, so there will be plenty of focus on those, but also on his 5-point algorithm for success, triumphs and failures in manufacturing, and more.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introduction.

06:25 - Elon Musk: A great contributor to humanity?

09:21 - Automation then de-automation

11:26 - Making product design engineers responsible for the manufacturing process.

13:24 - Musk's 5-point algorithm for success.

23:44 - The 'Idiot Index'.

25:44 - Material science: The unexpected choice to replace carbon fiber with stainless steel in some SpaceX parts.

27:31 - Using a revolutionary stainless-steel body for the cyber truck.

30:30 - Changing how die-casting is used in the automotive trade.

32:23 - Wrapping up.

 

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Testing To Failure For Your Product - Why?

Friday Oct 06, 2023

Friday Oct 06, 2023

In this episode...

Adrian and Andrew Amirnovin, Sofeast's reliability expert and our head of New Product Development, are back on the pod and taking you on a journey into what testing to failure is, its benefits, and why you will find it a useful tool in your product reliability testing arsenal.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing today's topic.

01:28 - What is test to failure?

05:33 - Why does testing to failure matter to companies who are bringing a new product to market (5 reasons)?

14:30 - Some examples where weaknesses were found in products which allowed them to be fixed.

19:56 - What kinds of methodologies can we follow when doing test to failure?

32:31 - Products and industries where this is a very useful kind of testing to do.

37:20 - Is test to failure wasteful?

41:10 - Wrapping up.

 

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7 Key Learnings From Manufacturing Organizational Charts

Friday Sep 29, 2023

Friday Sep 29, 2023

Sofeast's CEO Renaud explains what a manufacturing organizational chart is and, critically, 7 key things that we can learn about our suppliers from theirs. During your sourcing journey, Renaud's advice will help you spot potential issues with some red flags to be aware of. (Adrian from the team hosts).

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introduction.

02:03 - What is an organizational chart?

06:39 - 1. No Quality Dept.

10:26 - 2. Placing the quality department under the production manager.

14:44 - 3. Putting the production manager in charge of the planning department.

16:20 - 4. No planning system at all!

20:35 - 5. No team of manufacturing engineers.

24:16 - 6. No dedicated HR department or the HR staff are at a junior level.

27:08 - 7. Job titles are unclear on the org chart and sometimes inappropriate for the person.

30:44 - Summary and wrapping up.

 

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