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Introducing Industrial Sourcing in China

What are the challenges of sourcing in China?

Can you get quality products

Where are the real opportunities ?

procurAsia can help you

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What are the challenges of sourcing in China ?
 

IDENTIFY SUPPLIERS

QUALIFY SUPPLIERS

New suppliers appear every day. Only 10 to 20% of them are good enough to be considered.
No "Golden Page".  Online directories useful but not sufficient.
Typical problem: several trips to China - nothing concrete to show.
ISO standards are no guarantee to have a good factory by Western standards.
Data are unreliable or inexistent.
Dunn & Bradstreet covers few very suppliers in China.
Client references often dubious

MANAGE SUPPLIERS

CULTURAL ISSUES

Very few speak English. Sometimes, only the GM assistant does.
Do they really receive and understand your requests ?
Each time you have a quality problem, you need to fly to your supplier’s factory to get it fixed.
“You get what you inspect, not what you expect”
People’s, city and company names are hard to remember
Almost impossible to work with a Chinese team remotely
Important information is exchanged in face-to-face meetings and in Chinese. Regular contacts are fundamental to understand the real situation

Other related stories
Don't select suppliers on a brochure or website
We visited recently a battery factory in Guangdong: Its nice factory pictures in its brochure proved to be far from reality!
Packing Department: Our Special Award
Conveyors & control systems manufacturer in Shanghai. Poor workshop producing poor quality products. Packing will probably not withstand overseas shipment
Where is my product manufactured ?
Why a 5S compliant PBA assembly manufacturer with well managed SMT assembly lines & RoHS compliant lines in China makes sometimes substandard deliveries
From Farmer to Industrialist
Many industrial companies in China have good hardware, very capable employees & workers, but are managed by new entrepreneurs without operational vision.
Factory Maintenance: Our Special Award
How to save money by not maintaining anything !
Companies pretending they have Quality certificates…
China sourcing trends: A quality certificate give potential buyers the impression of dealing with a well managed Chinese company. A blog story
Work environment: Lack of space in the workshop
A picture of a poorly managed Control cabinet manufacturer workshop in China: in the industrial controls & electrical enclosure ip nema cabinet industry.
Racking factory in Tianjin: one of the worst factory we visited
Safety, work environment and warehousing: 3 pictures illustrating what type of worst practices a pre-qualification visit wil systematically reject!
What you get is NOT what you see: Pictures on Chinese supplier's catalogs!
Identification of supplier in China: An professional looking catalogue or brochure is not the guaranty of a good supplier. A case of pictures from competitors
How some suppliers boost their client references!
Tips for buyers sourcing from Chinese suppliers: references claimed by the suppliers must be double checked
Is this the same factory I visited two months ago ?
Sometimes, several visits to a supplier are needed to evaluate the full scope of their capabilities, or lack thereoff.
Evaluate the quality of your supplier's management
Evaluating your supplier's management is very important. A real example illustrating how the competence & attitude of the management team is critical to the long term viability of a company
Are these figures for real ?
Tips for buyers sourcing from Chinese suppliers: Company numbers such as turn-over, headcount, production locations or last year production volume must be double checked!
Is my Chinese supplier really ISO certified ?
Why an ISO certificate does not mean quality audits are not needed
State Owned Enterprises in China
A reminder of why you normally wouldn't do business with a Chinese State Owned Enterprise (SOE): Their management is incompatible with Western requirements!
Chinese Companies Exhibiting in Europe
I attended an exhibition in Europe and I took the opportunity to pay a visit to the booth of each Chinese supplier present. A very interesting experience, indeed.