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

Friday Dec 16, 2022

Protecting IP and your Business when Manufacturing in China, Vietnam, India, etc.

Friday Dec 16, 2022

In this episode...

Renaud and Adrian revisit the topic of protecting product IP and your business interests when doing your product development and manufacturing in Asian countries. Renaud shares 5 key pieces of advice for anyone who is concerned about this topic, such as which agreements to use and why, not getting bogged down with patents, what to share online about your new product idea and when, and much more!

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings

00:24 - Today's topic: Protecting IP and yourself when manufacturing in Asia.

03:26 - 1. Don't let worries about being copied consume you and put you off from manufacturing in China.

10:59 - 2. Don't immediately take what IP and patent lawyers say at face value.

11:55 - Doing market research and raising funds the smart/safe way.

21:18 - 3. Don't get bogged down with questions about IP rights from investors.

23:46 - When to register trademarks?

24:29 - 4. DON'T add a category to your product name.

27:11 - 5. Use the right agreements.

34:03 - How agreements can help with supply chain transparency and protecting your business.

39:59 - Wrapping up.

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Tuesday Dec 13, 2022

BONUS: China Opening Up after Covid Zero, What Is Going To Happen? (Feat. Clive Greenwood & Ben King)

Tuesday Dec 13, 2022

In this episode...

Sofeast's CEO Renaud hosts a roundtable discussion about what is going to happen in China now that the Zero Covid policy has been abandoned with China-based experts Clive Greenwood of SMC GLOBAL Manufacturing Consultants and Ben King of Kinyu SCM (a support platform for businesses with a Chinese supply chain).

As you may know, the Chinese policy has shifted significantly in the past week or so at the time of publishing (Dec 13th 2022), so what does this mean for YOUR business? Let's find out...

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings & Introductions.

02:02 - The national strategy is pivoting away from Zero Covid, but locally what has changed within China?

07:43 - How do the local governments announce and implement the changes?

14:16 - How will the local authorities react to the easing of restrictions?

21:31 - How quickly will the Chinese border reopen?

25:53 - Will people even want to come back to China if/when it reopens?

31:08 - Zero Covid and China's approach have been accelerating decoupling.

35:43 - What might happen next in China, then?

40:56 - If you are manufacturing in China and exporting to Europe or the USA, what will happen next year (2023) and how can you plan for it?

50:16 - Is the population ready for the end of Zero Covid? Will the government control the process?

55:47 - Conclusion.

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Friday Dec 09, 2022

Tips for Reducing QC Inspection Costs

Friday Dec 09, 2022

In this episode...

Renaud lifts the lid on the factors that can drive up product inspection costs. We all know that we need to inspect product quality, but if inspections aren't optimized you could end up spending too much on them. On the other hand, there are ways to improve production processes to reduce the need for as many inspections. Listen in for these and more tips on lowering inspection costs while getting the result you need.

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings

01:19 - Today's topic: QC inspections and how to reduce their cost.

02:46 - Elements from your (the buyer's) side that drive inspection costs - 1. the product type.

06:33 - Inspecting a bicycle (example).

07:59 - Elements from your (the buyer's) side that drive inspection costs - 2. ordering patterns.

09:52 - Elements from your (the buyer's) side that drive inspection costs - 3. the choice of manufacturing facilities and how 'good' they are.

10:42 - Inspection processes that drive costs - 1. 100% or random sampling inspection?

12:14 - Inspection processes that drive costs - 2. Should you check every batch or use skip lot inspections?

13:08 - Inspection processes that drive costs - 3. Should you inspect close to the source or when you receive products as an incoming inspection?

15:31 - Approaches you can take to reduce the cost of random sampling inspections.

19:17 - Process engineering for the inspection process can make it more efficient.

24:20 - Quality: Pay me now or pay me later.

26:30 - Wrapping up.

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Friday Dec 02, 2022

”Enterprise China” book - China’s Strategy for Economic Success | Interview with authors Dr. Allen J. Morrison & Dr. J. Stewart Black

Friday Dec 02, 2022

In this episode...

Sofeast's CEO Renaud welcomes two guests, Dr. Allen J. Morrison & Dr. J. Stewart Black, to the podcast. These American leadership, strategy, business and manufacturing experts have recently written a new book "Enterprise China: Adopting a Competitive Strategy for Business Success" which was released on December 1st 2022.

Renaud read an advance copy of the book before this interview and discusses China's strategies for economic success and also asks some questions about risk analysis and risk mitigation for companies buying products from China.

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings & introduction of today's guests.

02:02 - What is 'Enterprise China' about?

03:27 - China's 3-pillar strategy to succeed economically.

There are 3 strategic pillars to China's strategy for success.

Reducing (or eliminating) their external dependency on importing key technology (03:39)
Dominate domestically (06:00)
Winning globally (17:23)

20:55 - Why Western companies seeking growth by looking to the emerging markets may be too late in some cases.

23:44 - How should companies who buy from China do their risk analysis when considering diversifying supply chains to include other sources other than just China?

31:21 - How about a Zero-China strategy?

34:53 - Talking about the book 'Enterprise China,' when it's on sale, and where it can be purchased from.

36:00 - Wrapping up.

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Friday Nov 25, 2022

Cost Of Poor Quality and Reliability: “Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later.” (Feat. Andrew Amirnovin)

Friday Nov 25, 2022

In this episode...

Adrian and Sofeast's reliability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, delve into the topic of the cost of poor quality and reliability and why the phrase “Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later" is so appropriate for when engineers talk about it.

You'll learn what makes up the cost of GOOD quality and reliability and why this amount is actually dwarfed by the cost of POOR quality and reliability. So if manufacturers don't pay now before production to solve and avoid issues, they're certainly going to pay a lot more later to put them right (if you even can by then)!

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic.

01:34 - What does “Pay Me Now, or Pay Me Later" mean?

03:34 - Why is the cost of poor quality so important?

05:34 - What is the difference between the cost of GOOD and POOR quality & reliability?

07:18 - What drives up prevention costs?

09:31 - What drives up appraisal costs?

18:40 - What drives the cost of internal failures?

22:56 - What drives the cost of external failures?

26:55 - Our recommendation: Pay now!

30:27 - Key takeaways from this episode.

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There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please:

Friday Nov 18, 2022

CNY 2023 is coming! Let’s get ready!

Friday Nov 18, 2022

In this episode...

Renaud and Adrian from the team are looking ahead to Chinese New Year 2023 which is early next year on January 22nd. Take this as your annual reminder about why the holiday period can disrupt your supply and what you need to do to prepare for it, because in all likelihood your suppliers will be off for a good couple of weeks or so and the time periods surrounding the holiday also throw up challenges, too, which we'll get into...

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings

00:30 - When is Chinese New Year?

02:27 - Be aware if your suppliers are likely to be busy around this time.

05:37 - Why the risk of naughty factory owners taking your money and running is higher just before CNY.

08:54 - Do you have enough inventory to carry you through the holiday?

11:28 - There is a lot of uncertainty in China in the manufacturing industry.

19:13 - Why NOT to have all your eggs in the China basket...

24:12 - Would it be realistic to schedule orders to be produced by suppliers outside of China in and around the CNY period as a way to reduce the risks of disruption of supply?

26:13 - Why the time period before and after CNY is also a 'red zone.'

32:49 - When is it safe to start ordering as normal?

59:03 - Wrapping up.

Get in touch with us

Subscribe to the podcast

There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please:

Friday Nov 11, 2022

Factory Audits = Better Suppliers = Better Quality Products. Real Data Analysis! (Feat. Prof. Neale O’Connor FCPA)

Friday Nov 11, 2022

In this episode...

Sofeast's CEO Renaud has an interesting guest on this episode: Prof. Neale O’Connor who is a China business and accounting expert and international keynote speaker!

Neale examined lots of Sofeast factory audit, product inspection, and manufacturing project data to determine the relationship between factory audits and good-quality products. He also checked thousands of complaints about Asia-wide suppliers from Global Sources data to work out if there were actions that importers could take to mitigate the chances of being scammed.

In this episode, you'll hear some very insightful results from his research that can help you source and work with better suppliers, reduce your risks, and avoid scammers!

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings, introducing the topic, and our guest, Neale.

02:10 - Why Neale examined hundreds of our factory audits performed pre-covid to find the main patterns.

06:05 -Why product inspections/audits are different?

08:47 - What is the data saying about the incidents of pass/fail/hold aspects in product inspections?

14:11 - What did the data tell us about factory audits?

19:21 - How to reduce the number of factory audits you need to do if you only plan to work with one supplier?

21:23 - What does the data tell us about complex products?

23:47 - The takeaway from the Sofeast data analysis.

24:48 - Four key ways to avoid being scammed by Asian suppliers.

35:14 - Summary and wrapping up.

Get in touch with us

Subscribe to the podcast

There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please:

Friday Nov 04, 2022

Why YOU need to assess the Environmental Impact of Made-in-China Productions NOW

Friday Nov 04, 2022

In this episode...

Renaud and friend of the show, compliance expert Clive Greenwood, are talking about why today's manufacturers should assess the environmental impact of their productions in China, because of the impending EU Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) that will demand that products become more sustainable and that you open up your supply chains for scrutiny. They also talk about what Chinese manufacturers think about this and provide some advice on how to get started on becoming compliant.

If you sell into the EU now, don't skip this! And if you sell into other developed markets, such as Canada, the USA, the UK, etc, it still applies to you as similar legislation is coming.

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic and our guest, Clive.

03:20 - The sustainability trend is embodied by the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation for putting products on the EU market. What is it?

07:37 - Does product design for sustainability play a role?

09:00 - Are any product categories in the crosshairs of the EU first?

18:00 - What are Chinese manufacturers doing about this sustainability requirement? Do they even know or care about it?

19:35 - Lithium-ion batteries: A growing environmental issue.

28:02 - Are other governments taking notice of this?

30:19 - How do companies usually assess the environmental impact of their products, including extraction and manufacturing?

33:12 - What a mobile phone lifecycle may include, and how ecodesign might affect how it's designed and developed.

39:45 - How will 'Fast Fashion' be affected?

42:30 - What can businesses do to become compliant?

50:51 - Your new commercial decision will not only be about a supplier's costs but also if they're able to assist you to comply with the new Ecodesign regulation.

53:04 - What the product passport includes.

55:18 - Advice for you if you're selling into the EU now.

59:03 - Wrapping up.

Get in touch with us

Subscribe to the podcast

There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please:

Wednesday Nov 02, 2022

BONUS: Should we do PCB or enclosure design first? (Feat. Andrew Amirnovin)

Wednesday Nov 02, 2022

In this episode...

When designing a new electronic product do you start with the PCB or enclosure? For example, some industrial designers might tell you to start with the enclosure, but this may not be suitable for every project.

So to get to the bottom of this, Adrian caught up with our reliability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, to get his opinion on which comes first and a list of steps you can follow to help make the decision for your product.

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic

01:53 - Enclosure or PCB design first?

There is no steadfast rule and it really depends on the product, the important point is to work out which direction YOU need to go in.

04:52 - 5 elements that will help you evaluate which you should design first.

Making sure that you have the following 5 elements will help you make the right decision about whether to design the PCB or enclosure first:

05:37 - 1. Create a Product Requirements Document (PRD).

06:41 - 2. Industrial Design.

08:32 - 3. Product Functionality.

10:05 - 4. Bill of Materials.

10:42 - 5. Competitor analysis and customer feedback.

12:08 - Department heads meet and discuss all of the above in order to make the best decision for their project.

15:50 - Wrapping up.

Get in touch with us

Subscribe to the podcast

There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please:

Friday Oct 28, 2022

Pursuing A ’Zero China’ Supply Chain.

Friday Oct 28, 2022

In this episode...

Renaud and Adrian investigate what China's current politics might mean for manufacturers with a supply chain there and if 'Zero China' is realistic or even possible. They also talk about minimizing supply chain disruption by following a China +1/many strategy, how to approach doing this, and suitable countries to look at. Finally, they gaze into the crystal ball and make some predictions about how worried importers with Chinese suppliers should be right now given everything that is going on in the world and China politically.

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic: Zero China.

01:52 - What is Zero China?

03:14 - Looking back in history at the origins of the 'China + 1' approach.

04:57 - Garment companies: early adopters of a diversified supply chain.

07:34 - After 2015 politics started changing in China...spurring businesses to adopt China+1/many policies.

18:29 - Looking at Apple as an example.

27:46 - How about SMEs with manufacturing in China? What options do they have now?

35:32 - How about pursuing Zero-China?

43:51 - Should Western companies with Chinese supply chains right now be panicking?

48:02 - Wrapping up.

Get in touch with us

Subscribe to the podcast

There are more episodes to come, so remember to subscribe! You can do so in your favorite podcast apps here and don't forget to give us a 5-star rating, please:

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