You’re not getting what you asked for? Really?
We’ve had requests for assistance work from 3 different companies in the last two weeks. All three have projects that were started independently and have since been canceled, rejected, or are held up for various reasons. All three are at least 6 months late and at least ten thousand dollars over budget.
So let me reiterate a couple of rules that should be engraved on the forehead of every international purchase manager. These are not jokes, although you may laugh if you’ve seen this before (or you may cry if you’re stuck in the middle of it now). And my experience is that if these rules are not followed the results are anything but funny. These rules could just as easily be applied to manufacturing that you’re doing anywhere, not just China. But since China is what we’re talking about, China is the example here (so save your “stop picking on China” feedback).
1. If you’re not here, you’re not getting what you ordered.
1a. The corollary to this is: “Any money saved from not coming to China (multiple times) will be lost in missed delivery dates and/or labor paid to repair product.”
2. If you don’t speak Chinese you’re not getting what you asked for.
3. If you don’t personally and physically confirm that samples match production you’re not getting what you asked for.
4. In the midst of problems, if you get angry and try to threaten the factory using your final payment as leverage, you’re not getting what you asked for.
5. If you don’t pull production samples yourself and have them tested by an independent third party you’re not getting what you asked for.
6. If you’re sending IP to various factories to get bids and/or samples and you’ve requested that, after a difficult and unfruitful sample process and no orders, the factory give back all the IP and never look at it again (especially if there is tooling involved) you’re not getting what you asked for.
7. If you don’t have perfect samples of every single part and a perfectly completed pre-production sample neither does your factory (i.e. you won’t be getting what you asked for).
8. Beware of the request for cooperation. “Cooperation” in Chinese means that you happily pay more for lower quality product delivered later than what you’ve contracted for—obviously, you’re not getting what you asked for.
9. If the answer to any question other than “Can I have a Coke instead of tea?” is “No, Problem. Of course we can do that.” you are not going to get what you ask for.
9a. The corollary to this is: “Any factory that, when offered money/orders, tells you “No, we can’t do that.” is a good factory and you should keep them on file for future projects.”
10. Nobody cares about your product as much as you do, but if your supplier sees you regularly, knows how much you care and also cares about you/likes you, you just might get what you are asking for.
11. There will be problems. Plan for them in your delivery schedules and budgets.
Of the few enterprises I am acquainted with, all are partially owned, or have a partnership with the Chinese government. (usually 5% range) Can this little fact be used as leverage if needed, and would it be effective leverage for better resolution of problems?
If so..whom should I contact? If not, well sunnuvagun!
I always think that it’s a great idea to involve decisions makers into the negotiation (and subsequent problem solving) discussions and to do it as early on as possible. Having said that it probably wouldn’t make sense to involve government officials unless they were directly involved in the introduction to the factory of management of the factory or are involved in the marketing of your product/partnership somehow. A minor ownership stake probably means some, um, how to say this, help with difficult legal issues more than it means that the govt. is directly involved in the manufacture of goods.
謝謝您!
David!
I guess the only thing I can compare it to over here in the west would be “grease” or “protection” most often acquired by campaign contributions. A kind of “most favored corporation” status.
I was hoping that the government, with their partial interest, might be more receptive because of potential image roblems, already suffering.
You’re right, I think on two accounts. First, the investment into company often does imply a vested interest in seeing that they have an easier time becoming successful. Often that is more to the advantage of the stakeholders than anyone else.
And second, the level of attention being paid to image right now in China is very acute. But unless you are talking about millions of dollars worth of product it probably won’t affect your production directly.
Where it’s hitting everyone right now is in shipping. The thumbscrews are really being tightened and every single rule is being followed right now–not a bad thing at all, but certainly not the same as in the past. I mentioned to a friend the other day that the combination of toy problems last year and the 0lympics this year are really making exporting more accountable/honest/true-to-the-law. Can’t complain about that.
What kind of impact do you see this true-to-the-law enforcement having? DO you think this is simply a quick solution to clean up a little before the olymipcs or do you see China making a concerted effort to step up enforcement of regulations?
As wishy-washy as it sounds, I think that it’s both.
There certainly is some real effort and honest intent to make things physically better with the clean up after the toy-paint problems last year. You can see this by how many factories were closed and how many standards are being enforced.
There is just as much intent to cover up any problems and any stories that would tarnish any of the 0lympic luster (if there is any left). This is the worrisome part–how much of the enforcement is real and how much is politically motivated? Who knows.
The question really isn’t the intent, though. The question should be how long it will last. It will certainly last through the end of this year. And hopefully it will last longer too. But, according to the govt. sponsored excuses, (China is very big, China is still a developing country, etc.) there is certainly potential for things to get worse/go back to previous conditions.
I would love there to be standards that are, well, standardized–meaning the same for all, all the time, no matter what. I think that there is real intent to maintain this, but I doubt that will happen long term. Further, If the Chinese economy has any bumps or hiccups in the next couple of years you’ll see a loosing of controls, for sure.
[...] In fact, there is funny little post over on the Silk Road International Blog entitled “You’re not getting what you asked for? Really? which really sums up what the experience entails. Very quickly it became obvious to me [...]
Great way of clearly stating what you need to do in order to ‘maybe get what you asked for’. Being in China yourself is the best start I guess, because from that, you can show up anytime and check production and samples.
[...] that you run into. A great article from David Dayton over at Silk Road International titled, You’re not getting what you asked for? Really? . It is from last year, but I think it is a great [...]