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.