Do you know how much your purchasing department is spending on their China supply chain? Do you consider yourself a Purchasing Manager who’s “reactive” or “proactive”? The reactive approach tends to manage based on complaints. No complaints means purchasing is doing a pretty good job. The pro-active approach instead, negotiates...
CPG is most commonly known as an acronym for Consumer Packaged Goods. And when you think of CPG, as an importer, things like apparel and footwear come to mind – things that get used up and have to be replaced frequently. So naturally, if you already know you have to...
As a China supply chain management company, we get asked about efficiency issues all the time. There are vital steps in the China supply chain management process. For instance, there is a wide range of quality control issues from quality inspections to ensuring that, from sampling to shipment, your product...
We hear it all the time from importers sourcing from China, “I can’t find a factory to manufacture my products!” This is especially so when the product you are seeking to source is unusual: you will not have any difficulty finding factories for white T-shirts or running shoes, this only...
Let’s look at the whole picture: How much does China sourcing support really cost you? Looks like this series has created quite a stir. I appreciate the feedback, especially from the last blog. Since this is the last of the series, lets do a quick re-cap. The series addressed the...
OK, so we covered Trading Companies and China sourcing Agents in previous blogs, but why hire outsiders? Why not manage the China sourcing process with your own employees, your own team? In this blog, I am shifting my focus on the Pros and Cons of having your own China Sourcing...
What are China sourcing Agents? In the last blog we talked about Communications and Trading Companies, lets focus this time on China sourcing Agents. A China sourcing agent is a freelancer, like an employee, and, like an employee; If he or she is good, then the agent is a valuable...
Before we get started: Good communications During my last blog I got some valuable feedback on the importance of communications when sourcing from China. That was such a good point. We have some clients on the East coast who complain about how difficult it is to communicate with their West coast...