Is quality China manufacturing possible without being there?
Is quality China manufacturing possible without being there?


If you are buying an already manufactured product then you can obtain samples and set in place whatever form of contractual arrangement seems likely to you to ensure that you get consistency of product. If you can specify the characteristics of a sample that have to be met tightly enough then failure to meet the requirement can be quantified, and this may well be enough of a protection.

If a product is being partially or fully customised to your order then you may want to know things are as they should be long before the 1,000 items finally arrive. 

In my opinion, for a product that is being made specifically for you, if you want certainty over time then you or a person who is utterly 'your man*' has to be involved. 

I tell people that I have two rules re manufacturing in China


(1.)  ... My number 1 rule for manufacturing in China is    


"You have to be there"

(0.) My number 0 rule is -  


"Don't!"   



"0." is partially in jest  - but also partially not.

"You have to be there" means, if a product is being made for you to your specification then it is "very very very ... advisable" that a person who can competently assess the merits of what they see, and who you can trust to wholly represent only your interests, is present and has complete freedom of access at every major stage of manufacturing that is capable of "going wrong" OR  are able to freely inspect results as desired and have the power of veto if product does not meet specification. This could be done solely at final signoff provided that the product is able to be properly assessed at this point as having been manufactured "to specification" and provided that they are able to reject some or all of a batch at no cost to you if specification is not met and provided that this requirement is understood and agreed to by the manufacturer.

"Don't" really means that if you are not prepared to follow rule 1. do not start at all. Note that rule 1. does NOT mean that you have to be in China yourself or have someone who is a member of your company on site. 

My personal hard-won experience has been that in the large majority of cases, even when I felt I had a good relationship with people, was well understood and had clearly spelled out what was required, as soon as I left a mysterious change came about in the manner in which requirements were met. Attempts to remedy this from afar in a number of entirely different situations met with minimal success. I do have some contacts who I am confident will do as asked and whose judgement I can trust - but it is not the norm. Others may experience things differently, but enough will recount similar enough experiences to mine. 

I have heard various horror stories re inspection companies - including incompetence, high cost and colluding with manufacturers.  

I know of at least one inspection company from personal experience that I would happily recommend. A client had them recommended by a contractor who used them extensively and what I saw of their work for my client confirmed the recommendation.  [If anyone wants company name and contact details ask me offlist -  all care no responsibility (see my profile page for email address.)] [FWIW - the team are mainly Chinese nationals and the owner? / manager is Indonesian. ]

There are sure to be other good ones, but at least some of the horror stories are sure to be true. China is an immense country. Even if only a small % of people fall in a given category you can be sure that there are  still a vast number of small entrepreneurs, manufacturers, resellers, confidence men and outright thieves. Telling them apart can be hard. There are many more resellers of most products than there are manufacturers. However, it is common practice for resellers to represent themselves as manufacturers, and the reality behind photos of machine shops, large offices and impressive premise MAY be instead a small room on an upper floor of a Shenzhen outer suburbs high rise. 



Contracts:   

The following is "2nd hand" based on comments made to me my Chinese associates.
Contracts:  I have been told by a number of Chinese companies that a way of ensuring compliance with requirements is to have a "contract". This means more in the Chinese context than it may in western circles  -  a contract in the west may be a basis for subsequent successful litigation but in China it seems it may have special magic. In the past contracts were enforced by 'the party' but they have now become the preserve of the legal system.
I was advised by one manufacturer (one I'd trust without a contract :-) ) that contracts are considered by many to be outdated but he considered them to still have considerable value.
However, (see below) there is growing western opinion that the new legal system enforced contracts have considerable value.   

China law blog - 3 rules - worth a read

Canadian trade commission advice

Wikipedia - Contract law

Chinese contract laws

And again ...

And again ...