v2.4
Offshore Manufacturing in China
Shenzhen, China has become the manufacturing capital of the world. If you walked through the Huaqiangbei market with $50 you could get a stencil, USB Fan and Light, a memory card and smart watch. All these, with enough for shipping. This is powered by the sheer manufacturing ability that characterizes China and makes it a destination for anyone building hardware.
What can we learn from such an ecosystem and how can makers and hardware entrepreneurs get engaged with offshore partners? This was the central theme of our seventh event. While we engaged David Li of the Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab, we also got to discuss the experiences of Tunde Onilu of SOLO Phone and Ifedayo Oladapo of Grit Systems.
David took his time to explain the open and collaborative nature of the Shenzhen ecosystem, citing this as the key reason why hardware has really taken root in the here. As well as the manufacturing knowledge, the ecosystem is also rich in supply chain competence which helps the manufacturers and partners deal with all kinds of requests from all over the world.
After a video introduction, David fielded questions from the audience with the interaction captured below.
After this, Hamza Fetuga moderated a chat between Tunde and Ifedayo about their experiences dealing with offshore manufacturers. Drawing on the variety of the products offered by their companies, it was good to compare notes and best practices.
In his current role as Product Portfolio and Enterprise Manager at SOLO Phone, Tunde shared his perspective on white-labeling and the opportunities that exist there for Nigerian entrepreneurs. Accordingly, Ifedayo discussed Intellectual Property concerns for electronic designers.
v2.4: Navigating China wrapped up our events for 2017, and we hope you enjoyed being a part of our events. See you next year!
Special thanks to CapitalSquare, our event hosts.
