Sofeast's CEO Renaud Anjoran and senior compliance officer and friend of the show Clive Greenwood are back together and talking about the challenges of quality management in China. You'll learn about communication, supply chain transparency, cultural factors that affect quality, what an effective quality management system needs to include, and a lot more in this bumper episode!

00:00 - Greetings and introduction to our guest, Clive and this episode's topic: Challenges of Quality Management in China.

02:52 - Why do importers face challenges when trying to ensure consistent quality, reliability, compliance, etc, from Chinese suppliers?

03:20 - 1. Poor communication.

08:15 - 2. Working with the wrong kind of supplier that you cannot really trust.

13:26 - SMEs have 2 common due diligence & quality approaches when working with Chinese suppliers depending on the type of product development required.

16:45 - 3. A supplier who doesn't provide supply chain transparency negatively impacts quality.

20:48 - 4. Expecting the supplier to inform you about quality issues independently without you doing your own due diligence is a mistake.

23:19 - 5. There is no concept of separation of powers at many Chinese suppliers: "If the boss says it, do it."

28:36 - The role of factory audits.

32:29 - 6. A lack of supply chain transparency, traceability, and compliance.

37:37 - 7. Cheap and/or fast will usually come with a reduction of quality in the minds of Chinese suppliers.

42:59 - 8. Inspecting quality too late and not enforcing your quality standard.

44:37 - 9. A lack of risk thinking and acting on problems when they occur.

52:07 - If production is not ok, that failure is probably on you the buyer.

53: 58 - Summary: How to successfully manage quality in China?

54:35 - Wrapping up.

• How To Get Transparency And Control Over Your Supply Chain?

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Sofeast's reliability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, joins Adrian to explore the topic of Design for Reliability (DfR) in detail. He explains the process you need to go through to avoid unreliable products, some warnings about what an unreliable product may end up looking or behaving like, and how the DfR process should be implemented and some commonly overlooked secrets so you know how to implement it yourself.

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic of DfR.

01:08 - What is DfR and its objectives?

04:29 - What makes an unreliable product?

20:26 - What are some of the secrets to applying DfR that people need to know about?

23:08 - Recap: The best engineering practices for reliability.

24:32 - The process we follow to reduce our clients' reliability risks.

28:37 - Wrapping up.

• The Design for X Approach: 12 Common Examples

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Renaud and Adrian from Sofeast share the positive news that China is reopening its borders to all travellers today, March 15th 2023, including issuing tourist visas now. After 3 long years, we look at changes that might affect business travellers who are eager to visit suppliers in particular.

00:00 - Greetings - What is the news? (China issuing all types of visas as of March 15 '23)

03:19 - Chinese business visas, and changes to applying for them.

08:30 - The points system used for work visas.

09:52 - Tourist visas are now available!

11:48 - Why the end of Covid has caused the loosening of entry restrictions now.

13:18 - Why PCR tests probably won't be required from travellers moving forward in most cases.

15:54 - Wrapping up.

• China is fully reopening to tourists after three years of border restrictions (CNN)

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Renaud welcomes Clive Greenwood and Sean Li of the BSI onto the podcast. They talk about the ISO 3730 standard for compliance management, how to implement it, how it is being adopted in China and how this affects you if you work with Chinese suppliers, and more.

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic and guests.

03:21 - What is the ISO 37301 standard about?

06:25 - What is a compliance management system and how does it fit in with other common standards such as ISO 9001, 14001, etc?

12:29 - What does a compliance management system in China look like, and is the government taking it seriously?

17:24 - How about traceability, when supply chains in China have been historically opaque? Will businesses struggle to comply?

25:11 - How best to implement ISO 37301 along with other specific standards?

30:16 - Looking at a company’s organization, its checks & balances, its values, etc. 

36:00 - Summary: The importance of an independent auditor to supervise the compliance management system.

37:25 - Wrapping up.

• Removing Probability Analysis from Risk Management?

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Renaud, Paul, and Adrian are talking about assembly and checking fixtures. You'll learn what they are, how they work, and when to work on designing them.

If improving the speed, consistency, and quality of your products during mass production is important to you, as well as reducing costs, then you need to consider implementing fixtures in production to spur these improvements.

The same can be said for checking quality, too, as you'll see how in-line checking fixtures help you to avoid problems during production that can result in defective products creeping through.

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic: What happens if you have repeated quality issues from your manufacturing supplier?

01:17 - What are assembly fixtures? (+ examples).

11:00 - Benefits of assembly fixtures.

11:37 - Fixtures' role in mistake-proofing.

16:04 - Why good product design must include manufacturing process design.

20:24 - The timeline of when to work on process engineering and fixtures.

22:50 - Are fixtures hard to build and what materials can be used?

23:37 - Who pays for and owns the fixtures?

26:50 - What are checking fixtures (used for QC)?

27:59 - Examples of checking fixtures.

30:52 - How to decide where and how you need to be checking quality during production.

36:20 - The ROI of using fixtures.

38:15 - Why pilot runs are helpful for identifying where fixtures are needed.

39:24 - Wrapping up.

• Exploring The Key New Product Development Deliverables [Podcast]

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Renaud and Adrian discuss the unwelcome scenario of recurring quality problems from your outsourced supplier who's handling your manufacturing in China. They cover your quality standard, 6 tips on how to handle common recurring quality problems, and several reasons WHY these issues might be happening in the first place.

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic: What happens if you have repeated quality issues from your manufacturing supplier?

01:57 - YOU need to make sure that the supplier understands your quality standard first.

03:46 - Tip 1. Always inform the supplier clearly how and why they went wrong.

08:18 - Tip 2. Give feedback on issues as early as possible during production.

10:44 - Tip 3. NEVER accept quality lower than your standard, including making an exception.

14:00 - Tip 4. Clearly define your quality standard including critical, major, minor, and non-defects.

22:01 - Tip 5. Set AQL limits (i.e. tolerances for defects) that correspond to your quality standard.

26:09 - Tip 6. Switch to a newer better supplier.

31:46 - Why product design issues could actually be the cause of your troubles.

33:43 - Why poor manufacturing might be the cause.

37:08 - Why your supplier's suppliers might be the cause.

41:27 - Wrapping up.

• 4 quality standard levels [Podcast]

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Adrian from the team and Sofeast's reliability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, talk about ISTA package testing. Importers should consider doing this testing to gain peace of mind that the shipping cartons they select will get their products to their destination safely. You'll learn what the tests include, how much they cost, when to do them, and much more.

00:00 - Greetings and introducing the topic of ISTA package testing.

03:02 - Who is ISTA and what testing standards do they offer?

09:28 - ISTA-1a.

10:34 - ISTA-2a.

15:46 - ISTA-3a.

18:49 - Is ISTA testing mandatory?

19:47 - What does it cost?

22:26 - What does an ISTA test pass actually mean?

24:28 - What if your package fails the test?

26:01 - When should importers start thinking about packaging options?

29:33 - Do the tests require real product samples to be used?

31:19 - Wrapping up.

• 9 Types of Packaging (Benefits, Costs, Sustainability, and more) - Guide for Importers

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Sofeast's head of Supply Chain Management, Kate, joins Adrian in this short bonus podcast with a logistics focus to explain what HS and HTS codes are, and why they're so important for importers who are shipping their products from where they're manufactured to where they're going to be sold.

These codes are added to your customs declaration and classify what your product is. Different product codes will attract different levels of import duties, taxes, and tariffs, so selecting the right code is critical (and more than one might be appropriate for your product)! Your product classification may also influence the materials, components, and packaging you use, so that's also something to be aware of.

00:00 - Greetings.

01:11 - What are HS and HTS codes?

02:53 - How to select appropriate codes for your product/s?

03:33 - How the US/China trade war has affected costs for importers from China and why being aware of potential duties for your product is necessary before you ship.

06:319 - An example of where researching a better HTS code saved an American importer a lot of money.

08:59 - Kate's advice on getting the best code for your needs.

• HS vs HTS Codes: How to Find the Right Code for your Product? (incl. Links to Official Sources)

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Inventors with a new product concept are rightly concerned with IP protection. They sometimes ask if they should invest in a patent for their new idea ASAP. Renaud and Andrew join Adrian to cover this topic here.

You'll learn about types of patents, their cost, when a product is most likely to benefit from being patented, best practices for protecting your IP that you can follow before you file a patent, and plenty of examples of real businesses that had legal issues related to patents or who got to market successfully by being smart and careful about IP.

00:00 - Greetings & today's topic: Patents for new hardware products.

03:33 - IP protection Basics 1: Always sign an NDA when disclosing the product concept to people in the industry.

04:58 - IP protection Basics 2: These actions will get your product idea copied early.

07:14 - The different types of patents.

10:39 - Approximate costs for patent applications and PPA timeline.

17:24 - If patents are too expensive, what alternatives are there for protecting IP?

22:04 - The 2 main fears of people launching a new product.

33:32 - The dangers of going to investors and pitching your new product idea.

36:37 - What to do if you have a 'home run?'

39:17 - What if your product is not a home run?

41:14 - Which version of the new product really needs a patent?

46:20 - The dilemmas you face: To patent, or not to patent, and when?

50:39 - Summary and wrapping up.

• Read a whole selection of our content about Product IP Risks & Protection When Manufacturing [Resources]

Get help from Sofeast to check that potential manufacturers are trustworthy: Combined Supplier Due Diligence Checks (Best Results & Value)

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Renaud and Adrian talk about the 11 points buyers need to cover when sourcing a contract manufacturer in China for electronic products (although much of this advice is relevant to many hard goods in general and suppliers in other Asian countries, too) so you can find a partner you can rely on.

00:00 - Greetings & today's topic: Sourcing a CM in China for manufacturing electronic products.

02:10 - What is a contract manufacturer in comparison to other supplier types?

06:55 - 1. What will your order quantity be? (This influences the type of CM that is suitable)

09:43 - 2. Will you order a high-volume, low product mix setup, or the opposite?

12:24 - 3. Do you have visibility and transparency over the supply chain?

19:14 - 4. Will your Intellectual Property be protected, and how?

20:48 - 5. Will they be helping to develop your product and make it compliant?

23:51 - 6. What manufacturing processes does the CM have in-house?

27:45 - 7. What is the CM's QC capability?

28:35 - 8. What kinds of tooling, fixtures, and jigs does the CM have for in-line testing?

29:37 - 9. Who has liability for safety and compliance issues?

31:00 - 10. What payment terms can they accept?

32:01 - 11. What delivery terms do they provide (incoterms)?

34:56 - Summary and wrapping up.

• OEM, ODM, Contract Manufacturers: Which Chinese Supplier To Choose?

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