Whenever I give a speech or write an article or post about what it takes to succeed in international outsourced manufacturing , I invariably list “a good partner” as item one. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am always getting asked how to find the “good partner”. My initial response is usually to say “with great care.”
A number of our clients manufacture products that sell for relatively high prices due in large part to distinguishing characteristics of our client’s company or product. In other words, the exact kind of product counterfeiters love to copy. Not sure why, but we have been spending more time lately in helping our clients prevent counterfeiting
Renaud Anjoran over at the Quality Inspection Tips blog recently wrote on How your Chinese suppliers might become your competitors. Renaud provides excellent suggestions for preventing your foreign product supplier from competing with you, based on his notes from a talk by Paul Melkebeke, Samsonite’s Vice President for Asia. Melkebeke talked of how Samsonite protects
Ever since the New York Times did an article, Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia, on companies leaving China for Cambodia, there has been media and play and real life discussions on how “everyone” is leaving China for places like Cambodia or Thailand or Vietnam or Mexico or Indonesia or Taiwan. First, let’s look
Product manufacturing in China’s coastal regions has become increasingly challenging for manufacturers and buyers alike. Wages and rent have risen dramatically over the past five years while at the same time the economies of major buyers have suffered severe setbacks. This has put tremendous pressure on the small and medium businesses that make up the
Many Chinse manufacturers have developed a standard form of payment, often termed 30/70 TT. This means: 30 percent down payment on placement of the order, with the remaining 70% due on shipment. This means 30% of the price is paid before the product is manufactured and 100% of the price is paid before the product
China automakers Chery and Great Wall were recently forced to recall 23,000 autos exported to Australia due to components that contained asbestos. Asbestos is banned in Australia and 55 other countries and the hazardous nature of the product mandated the cars be recalled back to China since remediation in Australia was not possible. I assume
Virtually every Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) our China lawyers see is defective. One of the things that most frequently makes them defective is that they call for disputes to be resolved in a U.S. court. The problem is that Chinese courts do not enforce US court judgments and so even if the American company prevails
Got an email from a client with a link to a list of Chinese manufacturers to avoid. The list is described as an extensive list of companies that scam their customers or mishandle their orders, built up over the last few years. The client wanted to know what I thought of this list. I told
Got an email from an attorney/client/friend yesterday with a link to an IndustryWeek Article (Why Is China Cheaper?) and a note saying that I needed to give this “CLB’s dumbest article of the month award.” We do not actually have such an award (should we?) so for that reason alone, it is not in contention.
