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You probably have been designing a brand new product and you intend to have it manufactured in China or one other Asian nation, when and the way do you have to contact a producer, and what do you have to do first?
- In the event you contact them too early, the scope of labor all the way in which to manufacturing is sort of fuzzy, and there’s a excessive probability they offer up on the challenge when a number of obstacles seem.
- Nonetheless, in the event you take note of the realities of producing too late, you might need to take a number of very painful steps again, making product design modifications, whenever you thought you have been so near manufacturing.
First, ensure that your product design is mature sufficient
A producer’s enterprise mannequin is to… manufacture. The dominant mannequin is to make batches of what’s referred to as “mass manufacturing”. Product design shouldn’t be their most important focus and normally isn’t what they’re greatest at.
That’s why I counsel you attempt to make some progress first with out involving a producer:
- Get in contact with an industrial designer
- Rent an engineer if wanted, or work with an engineering agency
- As you make some progress and also you begin to put prototypes collectively, attempt to get a “Design for China Manufacturing” overview carried out by an organization that’s conversant in manufacturing processes.
I wrote extra about this in Don’t Ship Immature Product Designs To A Chinese language Producer:
The essential data any producer will want [for an electronic product] is:
- An in depth description of options
- Checklist of parts, with specs
- Product structure (how parts are linked collectively)
- PCB schematic
- A glance-alike and work-alike prototype
- Testing stations
- A timeline and quantity projections
Some corporations suppose by way of expertise readiness ranges. Earlier than TRL 7, it’s in all probability too early to contain a producer.
Be sure to have a plan for the required steps all the way in which to mass manufacturing
Do you intend to “simply get a prototype, after which go into manufacturing”?
That could be superb if the product is similar to what that manufacturing facility is already making. You need a new shade of blue, they make a prototype in the best coloration, you approve it, they usually can preserve utilizing their standard method.
If the product you might be creating is new, although, it’s very doubtless that the manufacturing and testing processes should be adjusted and validated earlier than you authorize the manufacturing facility to enter manufacturing.
For electro-mechanical items usually, here’s what the 6 phases (which we name specs, feasibility research, prototyping/EVT, tooling/DVT, pre-production/PVT, and mass manufacturing) sometimes embody.
I wrote about this in these articles:
Do not give all of your design information away and not using a few precautions
When the time comes, put together a product design package deal that features the data the producer might want to know.
Nonetheless, you shouldn’t ship that package deal to 10 or 20 suppliers that you simply discovered on Alibaba.
- First, display screen them. Get right down to 1 or 2 suppliers that you’re comfy with.
- Second, get them to signal an NNN settlement that’s enforceable of their nation. That’s a fundamental precaution, don’t skip it.
(I’d add that, in the event you contact Chinese language producers, most of them, sadly, don’t care concerning the NNN agreements they’ve signed, and there are every kind of leakages of data. Therefore the necessity to qualify them fastidiously first, earlier than sharing design information.) - Third, don’t get too fixated on the RFQ and the value — a nasty producer that has a worth 10% decrease may cost you 3 instances extra, all issues thought of…
To summarize
Beginning to interact a producer in a rustic like China, India, or Vietnam, earlier than your product design is firmed up, is harmful. Good producers is not going to have an interest, since they know the scope shouldn’t be clear and it’ll take a number of administration time. Dangerous producers may try to steal your design work and make your product with out participating you…bear in mind these two factors earlier than you contact them.
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