Offshore manufacturing is a cost-effective way to produce high-quality goods, but to ensure success, it’s important to start with the right approach. In this blog post, we'll walk you through some steps you can follow to ensure your first offshore manufacturing experience is smooth and successful.
When most managers think about offshore manufacturing, the first benefit that comes to mind is cost savings – it has been proven to save businesses money on labor and training, raw materials, and logistics. It’s not difficult to see why. Offshore manufacturing lets you outsource the day-to-day management of operational details and headaches to an experienced team, making the process more efficient and cost-effective, and freeing you to focus on product design, engineering, or other strategic priorities.
In addition, countries like China offer access to specialized manufacturing facilities and capabilities, which can be invaluable when working on a limited production run. Using contract manufacturers in these cases usually makes more sense than developing an in-house production facility, team, and process, which are costly and can take quite a bit of time to establish.
Of course, to benefit from these advantages, you have to first define your product needs. What specific manufacturing processes will your product require? Will the process entail creating plastic, metal, or rubber components? What types of assembly processes are involved? What molding techniques does it call for? Does your product use microchips or other electronic components? What industry or regulatory standards does it have to meet? Will your product offering require any secondary finishing, such as unique textures and color finishes?
You’ll also need to assess your production volumes. How much demand is there for the product? What turnaround time do you require, and what production cycle will you need to maintain inventory levels?
Having answered these questions, you’re equipped to screen potential suppliers and come up with a short list. A detailed needs assessment is the best guide to selecting the right partner to bring your product concept to life.
Ideally, your product design already takes the manufacturing process into account. If you haven’t taken this into consideration, Kingstec’s North American engineering team can help your company clarify how design options affect production processes as needed, acting as an extension of your engineering and logistics departments. With our Design For Manufacturing (DFM) process, we can help ensure your product is made with industry best practices.
In addition to being able to support the required manufacturing processes, there are four other areas you should look out for when trying to match your product needs with potential suppliers. These are:
Working with Kingstec, you'd be tapping into 40 years of manufacturing experience, knowledge, and market contacts, ensuring you bring a well-designed, high-quality product to market, in the shortest amount of time and in the most cost-effective manner possible.
Having chosen a partner, it’s vital that you clearly define your project’s scope of work from the outset, including delivery schedules and payment terms. Once these items have been defined, it’s important that your company and your new manufacturing partner clearly understand all terms and conditions before signing a contract.
At Kingstec, we speak the language and we don’t just mean Mandarin or Cantonese. We understand the nuances of business dialogue throughout the world’s workshop. Based on our experience, we can help your company spot potential risks and pitfalls and address them before they impede your product’s success.
Being an ocean away from your production facility changes management dynamics – you won’t be able to rely on “management by walking around” as your quality assurance strategy, and there’s always a risk your company falls victim to the “out of sight, out of mind” trap.
Working successfully with an offshore manufacturing partner requires a more systematic approach.
To start, your company will need detailed specifications clarifying your product needs in terms of quality and compliance. These specifications will form the foundation of your quality assurance program, allowing you to develop a system for monitoring and inspecting the quality of the products your supplier delivers.
Clearly documenting expectations from the start, however, puts your company in a firm position to address any defects your team identifies down the road. As a North American company, Kingstec is local, which means we inherently understand the challenges involved with manufacturing products for this market. We also have the experience needed to jump in with our clients and partners to resolve issues that may occasionally arise during the manufacturing process.
In our experience, the vast majority of unforeseen issues, delays, and challenges in offshore manufacturing arise from miscommunication. Once again, the distance between you and your manufacturing partner calls for a more formal approach. Regular, virtual check-in meetings and written production progress reports are two channels our clients leverage to keep the partnership on track.
One of the biggest challenges involves managing manufacturing defects. Dealing directly with offshore manufacturers, especially when there is a language barrier, can often lead nowhere, adding confusion, frustration, and delays. Kingstec’s experienced team can help you implement the right communication channels for your needs and overcome any potential language issues – we will be there, every step of the way, and our focus and priority will be ensuring the process is smooth and that any problems that arise are resolved quickly and professionally.
In just about any business relationship, the parties involved benefit from a regular review of the partnership. These reviews provide the opportunity to discuss production scheduling, delivery timelines and delays, levels of satisfaction, and any issues that may have arisen in the past.
Similarly, your contract manufacturer may be able to suggest more sophisticated technology, opportunities for improvement, or better ways of working. Kingstec has worked with China’s leading facilities for over 40 years, and can help your company structure and conduct these reviews to optimize your manufacturing processes and ensure it is always improving with time.
Call us today to learn how your business can partner with China’s cost-efficient, highly adaptable contract manufacturers.
