Three ways to ruin your relationship with your China CM.
It’s common to hear horror stories about working with factories in China. Story-lines include themes like “our product took too long to get made”, “our factory sent us defective product,” or “our price increased after we started the project.”
In reality, there are a lot of specific circumstances around every problematic project. Indeed many times the CM is entirely at fault.
However, here are three ways that you can ensure you end up with a poor relationship with your China CM:
#1) Pushing your CM to meet aggressive timelines that require them to short-cut new product introduction processes
If your CM usually insists on a pilot test phase that takes one month to execute, it is to give you a chance to inspect the product under production manufacturing conditions, while enabling unspoken product requirements to be identified. It can ruin the relationship if you push the timeline and then try to fault your CM for not meeting unspoken product requirements.
#2) Relying on design phase 2D drawings and CAD files to set self-evident (implicit) product requirements
It’s generally required to give your CM detailed engineering 2D drawings with tolerances. Yet, those engineering documents are not a self-evident list of product requirements. Avoid ruining the relationship with your CM by ensuring you provide a separate document that is a detailed list of higher level product requirements. Review this list with your CM before production. The result is your CM can often give you immediate feedback on previously unspoken product requirements that were not self-evident.
#3) Sending PO’s to your CM that you can’t afford to pay on time
As CEO of BOM Quote MFG, I’ve dealt with customers that have a general method of operation which includes sending PO’s that they ultimately can’t pay on time. Further, usually, these types of people view this debt as a bargaining chip and use it as leverage to negotiate with their China CM. Don’t do this. While it may produce a short-term win, it is a sure way to damage your relationship with your China CM.
If you avoid these three things, then it is certain you will be on the fast track to a better relationship with your China CM.
