Behind The Imports

When developing relationships with manufacturing facilities in China, you want to ensure you are dealing with manufacturing facilities who are, who they say they are.

One of the best ways to weed out the bad suppliers is through Auditing. We talk about some of the initial questions that auditing asks and why we ask the questions. 

This is the first episode in our supplier auditing piece. Follow along for daily updates and join us on our YouTube Channel where we go through the accompanying document. 

merchsprout.com

What is quality?

Really, how can you define quality? We sure know when something is of poor quality: It’s loose, doesn’t operate in the way that it should, or occasionally it doesn’t operate at all. Possibly it fails prematurely or does not operate to our expectations- we class it as of poor quality.

Yes, and no.

How can you characterise an issue?

Think about it: what is an issue? An issue to you may not necessarily be an issue to your peer, your loved one or your boss?

So how can we reduce something so subjective to circumstance?

That’s what we will be discussing today, how we first characterise issues, highlight them as a problem and finally cut them to boost productivity.

The Ultimate Time-Saving Hack When Starting Work With Suppliers

 I am the first to admit that this is not the most entertaining of subjects to sit through. But bear with me as this small hack will teach you what and RFQ is, how it can help you Source the items that you need from anywhere in the world. 

If you are a hardware startup looking to get off the ground, then these are the topics that you need to know.  What Is An RFQ? An RFQ stands for request for quotation, (I apologise if I am teaching you to suck eggs here), trust me it gets a bit more informative than this…  

Now, a request for quotation is the most overlooked piece of documentation in purchasing interactions. Simply, it’s the instructions to a vendor (supplier) to supply you with a price of something that you need, that they have, or, the ability to produce. You are providing an opportunity for a group, to swap money for goods or services.  

Merchsprout.com

There is no one single secret to successfully launching a powerful product. But with a considerable amount of thought, process and planning; it’s 100% achievable. 

In this article, we will discuss some of the key lessons on how you can plan a successful product launch by developing your initial design ideas.  The key to a successful launch of any product is grasping the concept of control, learning to be on top of everything, and when. 

Well, before you are thinking about product construction and the nuances of its function, you need to register if your product is actually viable.  The viability of anything is the key to success. It will drive your idea through to fruition; it will push you through the hard days when everything appears stacked against you (and trust me when launching anything, there will be many of these), and give you the inner determination to strive towards the light at the end of the tunnel.  

Just knowing that there is a market for your commodity can pull you through the minefield of product launch.  So… How can you ensure your product journey starts from concrete foundations?  

Behind the Imports is a podcast by www.merchsprout.com  

Advising importers on all aspects of manufacturing home and abroad.

Discusing the top 3 common mistakes we see importers make. We will discuss what they are and the solutions you can employ, ensuring you don’t fall into the trap of Chinese and Asian supply chains.

Realistically manufacturing in China is tough, it’s tough because it can seem very alien; a million miles away from what you are used to and a million miles away from your ‘home’ office.

There are indeed several traps that you as an importer of product need to be aware of, that’s what we will be discussing today.

Author, continuous improvement expert, and LinkedIn meme superstar; Jake Harrell joins us on this week's episode of Behind The Imports. Jake talks with George about his new book 'Chasing Excellence'.

Chasing Excellence is a book that discusses continuous improvement and explains how the everyday layman can frame their problems in a way whereby you can jump immediately into solving them. 

If you have issues that are dragging you down Jake discusses in Chasing Excellence how to implement systems to help you out, even when you know nothing about the situation at hand. 

Success is not hard to achieve if you understand what success is, and more importantly, how to measure it: How Quality Engineering Can Impact All Aspects Of Life?

From getting up in the morning till sleep at night, we all strive for success. For some, it’s a successful day being able to wake up, for others, it’s keeping warm, not going hungry, or having enough money in the bank to live their perceived successful life.