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

Question time! New Product Development, Purchasing Electronics, Supplier Bankruptcy, and Reliability & Quality Tips.

Friday Jul 07, 2023

Friday Jul 07, 2023

Renaud answers four exciting questions from our listeners in this episode. We cover new product development, if and how to start purchasing and importing electronics, supplier bankruptcy, and tips for controlling product quality and reliability. 

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Introduction.

01:22 - 1. New product development for a product with a GSM module. How to integrate the module (if at all)?

11:34 - 2. How to buy and sell electronics like laptops, smartphones, and their accessories on a budget?

20:11 - 3. How to know if my manufacturer is going to go bankrupt soon?

31:16 - 4. The products I receive keep breaking, how to control quality?

38:23 - P.S. If you are visiting China, activate digital wallets!

42:22 - Wrapping up.

 

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10 Key Factors Impacting Cost Of Electronic Product Design

Friday Jun 30, 2023

Friday Jun 30, 2023

In this episode...

Sofeast's Andrew Amirnovin, reliability expert and head of New Product Development, joins Adrian from the team as they discuss which factors impact electronic product design costs and why. This will be a helpful reminder for any business designing a new product that wants to keep a control over costs.

 

Show Sections

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

01:14 - Why controlling product cost is more important these days?

03:26 - 1. Component Selection

05:35 - 2. Manufacturing processes.

08:01 - 3. Material Selection.

09:58 - 4. Assembly and Labor Costs.

14:14 - 5. Product size and Weight.

17:31 - 6. Energy Efficiency.

21:03 - 7. DFM (Design for Manufacturability).

24:14 - 8. Testing and Quality Assurance.

28:18 - 9. Regulatory Compliance.

33:24 - 10. Product Lifecycle Costs.

37:29 - How we handle the above factors when working with customers.

43:02 - Wrapping up.

 

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Responsible & Sustainable Purchasing Practices

Friday Jun 23, 2023

Friday Jun 23, 2023

Renaud and Adrian discuss responsible and sustainable purchasing, the latter taking things even further than the former, and why buyers play an important role in their suppliers' ESG performance. This episode will give you food for thought on how your actions affect the supply chain.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Introduction.

02:44 - What is responsible purchasing? (+ 3 examples)

14:34 - Responsible product design practices is a linked topic.

16:29 - What is sustainable purchasing?

18:55 - How sustainable procurement affects the supply chain.

25:50 - 'Big buyers' are in a position to make positive changes. Small buyers, less so, but you still have options.

30:30 - Forthcoming EU regulations will demand buyers to purchase more responsibly and sustainably.

35:06 - The good news: You will save money!

36:51 - Wrapping up.

 

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Observations about ’Post-Covid’ China for Visitors (June ’23)

Friday Jun 16, 2023

Friday Jun 16, 2023

Renaud and Adrian are both coming live from China for the first time on the podcast. Now they've both been able to visit following covid, what has most obviously changed? What tips do they have for business visitors? How's the economic landscape? Here are their observations, focusing on Guangdong, as that's where Sofeast is based.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Introduction: China's sluggish recovery from Covid.

03:55 - Are Covid restrictions still around?

05:26 - Fewer foreigners in China now.

09:33 - Chinese EVs rule the road.

15:05 - E-bikes are now permitted in the city center.

19:24 - The transport system across the 'Greater Bay Area' is expanding faster than anyone can imagine.

25:26 - High-speed rail is easier for foreigners to use, just beware of new crowd control measures.

27:25 - Facial recognition technology is in use in a lot of places, especially to pay for goods and enter buildings.

29:08 - Restaurants in Shenzhen are pricier and ordering may be harder for foreigners now.

32:43 - LinkedIn is now blocked in China. 

36:13 - Paying by cash and even card is more difficult. You need to go digital.

39:52 - Online deliveries have exploded.

46:00 - People seem to socialize a bit differently, congregating in malls.

47:32 - Is China as hostile to foreign business as the media suggests?

51:27 - Wrapping up.

 

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Building A Product While Keeping The Whole Customer Journey In Mind

Friday Jun 09, 2023

Friday Jun 09, 2023

In this episode...

Sofeast's CEO Renaud and head of New Product Development, Andrew discuss how to build a product while keeping the whole customer journey in mind. There is more to launching a product than just making a good product, strange as it may sound at first, and you'll see that manufacturers need to consider the whole customer journey when designing and developing their products. The customer journey can be split into 8 steps, and we go through them here...

 

Show Sections

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

04:49 - 1. Awareness.

13:06 - 2. Education

17:51 - 3. Acquisition.

24:31 - 4. Product.

27:39 - 5. Onboarding.

32:15 - 6. Usage.

38:08 - 7. Support.

41:51 - 8. Loyalty.

48:22 - In conclusion.

 

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Why Sustainability Requirements Will Force Companies To Get Visibility Into Their Supply Chains

Friday Jun 02, 2023

Friday Jun 02, 2023

Renaud and Adrian from Sofeast are talking about forthcoming sustainability requirements which are going to require importers to have a LOT more visibility over their supply chains, especially those who sell in the EU. They dig into how this will affect you in this episode...

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introduction.

01:40 - The EU 'Green Deal's' new sustainability requirements and what they mean.

07:35 - What sustainability information must be collected?

17:12 - How easy will it be to get visibility into your supply chain?

29:18 - Approaches used to oversee supply chains.

43:46 - Why the old business model of buying off-the-shelf products from an ODM will probably need to change?

46:14 - Conclusion: What you can do to prepare and how this will affect many areas in future.

 

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Product Returns? Here’s How Reliability Engineers Find And Fix The Issues.

Friday May 26, 2023

Friday May 26, 2023

In this episode...

Sofeast's resident reliability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, joins Adrian from the team to show you the 5-step process of how to fix problem products that are being returned by customers. Everyone hopes they won't be affected by product reliability issues resulting in returns, but if it does happen this information will help you deal with the problem effectively.

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introducing today's topic about how to find and fix the issues causing your product to be returned by customers.

01:46 - 1. Identify the field issues.

10:17 - Are problems exhibited by returned products that have been in the field usually reliability-related?

15:59 - 2. Determine their root cause/s.

19:46 - 3. Develop a solution/s.

22:02 - 4. Implement the solution/s.

29:35 - 5. Monitor the results.

34:21 - Why this process is important and more cost-effective than doing nothing.

40:17 - Wrapping up.

 

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How to Design Products with a Lower Environmental Impact

Friday May 19, 2023

Friday May 19, 2023

Renaud, assisted by Adrian from the team, provides a number of environmental improvement strategies based on the IEC 62430 standard for environmentally conscious design that you can follow when designing your new product.

Improving sustainability is becoming more important for businesses, especially with new legislation like the EU's ecodesign for sustainable products regulation, coming in. You don't need to implement all of these tips, but embracing even a few could reduce your environmental footprint by quite a good amount!

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introduction: why are we talking about products' environmental footprints and sustainability?

09:54 - Good product design practices for bringing to market products with a lower environmental impact from IEC 62430:2019.

14:09 - 1. Design for material sourcing

24:44 - 2. Design for manufacture

30:45 - 3. Design for transport and distribution

36:58 - 4. Design for use (including installation and maintenance)

51:23 - 5. Design for end of life

55:11 - Why importers need to start thinking about and planning for more sustainable products

60:20 - Wrapping up.

 

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9 Key Questions When Developing A New Product (Part 2)

Friday May 12, 2023

Friday May 12, 2023

Adrian and Renaud return to continue the journey through 9 of the key questions businesses that're developing new products commonly need answers to. 

Here's part 2 of this podcast covering questions 5-9...

 

Show Sections

00:00 - Greetings and introduction.

01:07 - 5. What is the product's production cost?

19:24 - 6. What's the pricing strategy for the product?

28:59 - 7. What is the distribution strategy?

37:52 - 8. What will the timeline for developing and launching the product be?

48:46 - 9. What are the risks of launching this product?

51:35 - Wrapping up.

 

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5 Ways To Turn A ”Cheap” Product Into A High Profit One

Friday May 05, 2023

Friday May 05, 2023

In this episode...

Sofeast's head of New Product Development, Andrew Amirnovin, is back with Adrian from the team. They're talking about manufacturing alchemy: taking a cheap product and converting it into a high-profit one! How can importers do this? Andrew shares 5 ways to boost your profits here.

 

Show Sections

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

03:06 - Sell expensive or low-cost products?

08:11 - 1. Add value to the product.

16:23 - 2. Target a Niche Market.

19:50 - 3. Improve the packaging.

25:10 - 4. Upsell and Cross-sell.

30:03 - 5. Invest in marketing.

33:53 - Wrap-up.

 

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