|
That’s NOT what I ordered!!! (Part 1 – Sample, What Sample?)
You’re excited. The first shipment of product has arrived and you can’t wait for that container or package to be opened to show everyone the results of your long hours and diligent follow-up with the factory. It seems like it has taken forever to get to this day. The master cartons look formidable. The actual product packaging inside looks great (after all, you designed that in the States and just sent the details to China). Now it’s time to pop open the box and show the world what you’ve created. You remove the product from the packaging and the first thing that comes to your mind is “(possibly insert an expletive here) That’s not what I ordered!” quickly followed by “And now I have thousands of them”. While there are different ways to deal with this less-than-desirable situation, let’s talk about how it could have been prevented.
Sample, WHAT Sample??!!
If you have ever been involved in an importing operation, then you know the importance of having samples for reference throughout the process. If you’re new to this, then trust us when we say that samples are really needed all along the way. Here are a few tidbits about samples that you cannot afford to miss.
I think I can, I think I can…
You are in the process of building a ground-up item that the factory or factories that you are dealing with have never made before and you’re really excited about all the possibilities. You have given or sent drawings and specifications and bills of material (BOM) and all sorts of other documentation to the factory so that they know EXACTLY what it is that you want to have made. Every “i” has been dotted and every “t” crossed. Obviously, there is not a sample available at the factory that they can just pull and give to you for review and tweaking because it is a ground-up project. Finally, the factory is ready to review the sample with you and the anticipation is building. But they show up with only one piece. There are several ways to interpret this, among them:
1. We (the factory) really don’t care or believe in the product enough to spend the time and money on this project, so we are just going through the motions of presenting one sample to you to gauge your interest level (a.k.a. “fishing”). You should be polite and ask the appropriate questions to see what their interest level really is. Maybe one of the following points apply. But if not, then generally speaking it’s time for you to “cut bait” if this is their attitude and find someone who really cares. Consider yourself lucky that you learned this now rather than later.
2. We (the factory) got all of the wonderful data and reams of materials that you sent us, thank you. But we really didn’t understand it all that well, and were too embarrassed to ask a lot of questions. So we are only making one sample because we don’t really know if this is what you want, and one-each samples are expensive to make; we’re certain you will understand. OK – so you’ve got a factory that’s interested, but they need some help. If you didn’t provide the right information in the right format, this is the type of factory response that you should expect. Even if you thought you provided the right information in the right format, depending upon the experience level of the factory, this may still be the result. Normally you can work through these types of situations.
3. We (the factory) really are interested, but we only wanted to make one sample since it is a ground-up product build so we can see if you like it and then we will make more. This is usually a very slippery path to follow. Why? There is a saying about Chinese factories that goes something like; “If you don’t make it, just fake it” (also see our blog article entitled, “I can just source it over the Internet”). If the factory is only showing you one sample, there is a much better than even chance that they did not make the sample themselves. They likely had it made at a model shop somewhere by someone not intimately involved with their own capabilities and cost structures. While the sample may look very good, there are a few important questions you need to be asking yourself in this situation, like:
a. If they didn’t make the sample, can they make the real product (a.k.a. known as “I think, I can, I think I can” syndrome).
b. Have they done their due diligence to really know what is going to be involved in the production process? Do they know how much time it is going to take and if they even have the capability to produce the item with their current staff and machinery?
c. Did they properly cost the product out? This is a question that you REALLY need to ask. Once you move further down this road, it becomes more and more difficult and costly to change suppliers or start over again. If they didn’t make the original sample, how can they really know what the actual production costs of the product are going to be? Sure, there are some top-notch model shops out there that turn out samples that would make George Lucas proud, but if you don’t actually make something yourself, you really don’t know everything that is involved in the process, including materials, manpower and machinery.
In essence, what we are saying here is, do they really “get it”? If they didn’t make the sample, how can they really know the product? If they did make the sample, and only made one, see the question above. If they made multiple samples and only one was good enough to show you, see the above question again.
To be continued…
|
