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...

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.

• Get help from Sofeast to comply with EU sustainability regulations: EU Ecodesign Regulation Risk Assessment & Preparation

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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.

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.

• We can help you do reliability engineering and testing for your product in our testing lab in China.

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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!

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.

• IEC 62430:2019 for 'Environmentally conscious design'

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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...

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.

• How to estimate unit cost [Video]

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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.

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.

• Sourcing & Manufacturing In China For E-Commerce Sellers [Interview By Proboxx]

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Sofeast's CEO Renaud is joined by Adrian from the team and they're going to go through 9 of the key questions businesses who're developing new products commonly need answers to. 

Here's part 1 of this podcast covering questions 1-4...

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

01:22 - 1. What is the target market for the product?

07:51 - How to do market research.

13:26 - 2. What problem does the product solve for the customer?

23:03 - 3. What is the unique selling proposition of the product?

26:57 - 4. What features and functionalities should the product have?

42:44 - Wrapping up.

• The NPI Process: Trouble Awaits If You Skip Its Steps! [Podcast]

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Sofeast's reliability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, talks us through why pilot runs are so important, the best practices and benefits, and how to plan for yours in order for it to be a success. If you're mass-producing your products you're not going to want to miss this episode!

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

01:10 - What is a pilot run?

02:46 - Important ways to get the best out of pilot runs.

10:12 - Common problems that the pilot run will uncover that you will want to avoid.

13:17 - How it helps to control processes.

17:50 - 5 steps to plan for before you start your pilot run.

1. Consider the scope of the pilot run. 

25:50 - How does the cost of doing pilot runs compare with not doing them?

27:48 - Do Asian manufacturers have the habit of doing pilot runs?

29:16 - In conclusion.

• What is a pilot run?

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Renaud and Adrian outline 10 common mistakes that new buyers make when buying from Asian manufacturers, especially in China. Avoid these pitfalls and you'll be far more likely to develop good relationships and get your products on time, on budget, and at the expected quality standard!

00:00 - Greetings and talking about the Hong Kong electronics fair in April 2023.

04:53 - Exploring the top mistakes that new buyers make when buying from China and other Asian countries.

Renaud wrote this list of mistakes in 2011, but it's still relevant today!

05:55 - 1. Always pursuing the lowest price.

12:37 - 2. Agreeing on crazy payment terms with a supplier.

16:16 - 3. You fail to inspect product quality before shipment. 

19:07 - 4. Failing to realize that pre-production samples are selling tools.

21:40 - 5. Not trusting the supplier at all and being obvious about it.

24:47 - 6. Not keeping 2-3 weeks of padding in the shipment schedule.

27:44 - 7. Having no visibility over your supply chain.

29:27 - 8. You forget to describe and document an important product feature or your packaging requirements.

32:47 - 9. Hoping that an unsatisfactory manufacturer will improve over time.

37:45 - 10. Not registering your trademark in China when buying from China.

40:43 - Wrapping up.

• DIY Sourcing From China Part 2: Negotiations, Terms, Leverage, & Quality Standards [Podcast]

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Renaud and Andrew talk about how to develop hardware products specifically for software companies used to using an agile design approach (often SCRUM) for software products that now need to create a new hardware product to support their business (such as a device that runs on the software).

They share their thoughts on the book 'SCRUM for hardware design' by Prof. David G. Ullman, warnings about the limitations of the agile design approach where hardware is concerned that you'll need to be aware of and plan for, and 8 tips for software companies who're in this position to help you understand where other software companies often go wrong.

00:00 - Greetings & today's topic.

01:56 - What's the difference between traditional project management and the agile approach?

08:18 - Why is the agile design approach so popular with software companies?

11:07 - 13 points about hardware design is different from software design from the book 'SCRUM for hardware design' by Prof. David G. Ullman.

1. Less evident modularity

23:20 - 8 points that companies that are used to running agile design for software development tend to overlook when developing new hardware products.

23:39 - 1. Agile is good, but planning and documentation can't be skipped.

31:35 - 2. You need to freeze the product design (including freezing the firmware) at one point.

33:48 - 3. An engineering change management process must be taken seriously from a certain point.

35:46 - 4. You need supply chain visibility and to manage it yourself.

39:15 - 5. You will need a quality function.

42:21 - 6. BOM, drawings, schematics, etc. are all as important as software code.

47:55 - 7. Product reliability is important, especially if they have a "product as a service" business model.

52:46 - 8. Product compliance is an entire topic to take seriously.

54:37 - Summary and wrapping up.

• The New Product Introduction Process Guide

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