Sofeast Case Studies

Read about some past Sofeast projects below and gain an insight into how we work with our customers.
We’ve divided the case studies into 3 of our main solutions categories. Keep reading to see them all, or hit the links to skip to the specific section that’s most relevant to you:

Supply chain management

Product engineering & development

Quality assurance

Supply Chain Management Case Studies

Men’s lifestyle brand looking for high quality gold plated jewels suppliers in China to sustain growth.

“Looking for the best plating jewels that exist to sell my clients products with lifetime-guarantees against fade, breaks & tarnishing.”

Client since sept 2016
Location: USA
Product category: Jewelry
Main issues: No access to manufacturers as working with a trading company, lack of tangible quality standards, no visibility on costs.
How Sofeast helped: We identified 10 factories, visited them, and assessed their capabilities to deliver the quantity and quality required. While in parallel, we worked on setting up standards for plating and defined a plan for testing products for each order batch ; all to make sure that quality expectations set can be met. After transferring 60% of their orders to new manufacturers, we are now managing all their orders from 1000 different SKUs. We also set up a tight process for quick turnaround sampling time to meet customer needs.

Amazon seller looking to streamline order process & control product quality better with their suppliers.

“We are looking to streamline the process of communicating with suppliers and improve the quality of the products by giving the suppliers measurable specifications upfront and holding them accountable through production process.”

Client since may 2017
Location: USA
Product category: Home textile & decoration
Main issues: Product color discrepancy on re-orders, argued quality issues, delays, language barrier with a few suppliers, etc.
How Sofeast helped: We created product checklists for each product family, reviewed samples in our offices to validate soft touch & color consistency, quality inspections for all orders. We also dedicated one project manager who took-over 100% of communication with few suppliers with poor english, followed-up orders and coordinated inspections with our QA team. In the background, we worked together with the client to setup a tight order process including FBA labeling, packing and shipping marks requirements. We are today managing 100% of the projects from orders to shipment coordination, so our client can focus on growing sales.

Brand owner looking for help to develop and manufacture a collection of premium quality clothes

“We are working on finalizing branding and styles. In the past, we tried working with factories directly but we are considering having a company like yours to help us”

Client since Feb 2018
Location: USA
Product category: Garments
Main issues: Not familiar with the garment manufacturing process (tech pack & sampling process), fabric & accessories sourcing, quality inspection checkpoints.
How Sofeast helped: Defined with the client the most suitable development approach, identified and qualified suppliers, sourced fabrics & accessories, received & checked samples to confirm soft touch and color consistency, developed labels and packaging.
Result gained: Extra time for the client to focus on marketing and sales.

E-commerce owner looking for help to vet a supplier

“Before investing money into a production of mold for a new product, I’d like to check if the company is legitimate”

Client: 2016
Location: USA
Product category: Glassware
Main issues: No visibility and lack of control of supply chain.
How Sofeast helped: First, we verified that the supplier was officially registered. The registration check confirmed the supplier was involved in manufacturing and was not just a trading company. After that, we audited the factory to evaluate capabilities and associated risks to do business with them. It turned out that the supplier didn’t have the equipment and capabilities to manufacture in-house our client’s product and was planning to subcontract this project to third parties. The auditor also found serious lapses in the manufacturer’s quality system, which means (among others) the wrong components might have been ordered.
How Sofeast helped: We helped the client to identify another supplier and set up a tooling agreement for IP protection before launching the tooling.
Result gained: Client now has full control over their supply chain and is working with the right fit partner.

High tech brand owner desperately looking to deliver his product to the 10,000 first backers after a successful crowdfunding campaign.

“Since the first small batch shipped out, we are struggling hard to manufacture the product. Our contract manufacturer seems to need never ending mold adjustments (for 7 months) without clear explanation and we are lacking visibility on schedule.”

Client: 2017
Location: Germany
Product category: Electronic device
Main issues: Poor communication, no visibility, lack of control
How Sofeast helped: After visiting the factory to understand the situation, we defined a plan of actions and coordinate them with very close follow-up through emails, chats, and visits as needed to put constant pressure on the supplier. We escalate any arising issue to the client in order to solve them in a timely fashion.
Result gained: After fixing the mold issue involving design changes, mold fine-tuning and assembly process modification, we helped the client to deliver his second batch and launched the last batch to deliver to all backers.

Take a look at our supply chain management solutions

Our project managers perform supplier identification & screening jobs, and coordinate suppliers and developments on the ground in order to assure good results for you.

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Product Engineering & Development Case Studies

Brand owner looking for help to set-up their supply chain to manufacture an electric skateboard in China

Client: 2016-2017
Location: Australia
Product category: Outdoor Sports equipment
How Sofeast helped: DFM, identification & qualification of suppliers, managed more than 50 parts from prototyping to mass production, prepare working instructions for assembly, compliance and reliability testing, managed pilot run in our assembly center, managed mass production orders with scaling quantities, production improvement & quality inspections.

IoT fitness band startup gets support to develop product concept and get ready for mass production

Client since: 2019
Location: Hong Kong/UK
Product category: IoT Fitness tracking band
How Sofeast helped: Product development, DFM, prototyping, firmware development, identification & qualification of suppliers and components.

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Fast growing company manufacturing a custom product in China

“seeking better visibility and control of their supply chain to scale-up business with forecasted quantity orders ramping-up from 1000 pcs to 10,000 pcs”

Client since dec 2017
Location: Australia
Product category: Sleep aid device
Multiple issues: Working with an ODM manufacturer owning molds & electronics, no visibility on cost breakdown, numerous technical quality issues without rooting out the causes, etc.
How Sofeast helped:
- Short term: We audited the current manufacturer to evaluate potential actions, assisted the client on site in the factory to communicate actions with the supplier. Simultaneously, our engineering team investigated technical issues using an 8D problem solving process and our SCM team broke the list of components down to check market prices. This resulted in solving the mentioned issues and lowering costs with the taking over of procurement for packaging.
- Long term: As it’s difficult to transfer the production without losing months of sales, we helped define the best approach with our client and are currently developing a newer version of the product from the ground up.
- Today: Coordinating all actions on the ground in China with order management & quality inspections.

Take a look at our product engineering solutions

Our experienced engineers offer inventors, hardware startups, and SMEs often-needed guidance with new product introduction (NPI), prototype development, and in-factory help to troubleshoot production issues and get your products to market fast.

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Quality Assurance Case Studies

US-based bags importer’s QC operations are unstructured

Location: Buying office (including prototyping, design, QC…) in Shenzhen
Number of inspectors in China: 23
Main issues: No documented procedures, checklists missing key points, no rotation of inspectors, quality manager busy “fire fighting” all the time.
How Sofeast helped: We worked with their quality manager on some core procedures & WIs, we re-defined the inspection forms to include a more comprehensive checklist, we set up a training & coaching program, and in a second stage we trained them in a problem resolution process that made sense in their situation.

Inspection team of a UK-based importer of electrical home appliances was not catching issues

Location: Buying office (including quality management) in Ningbo
Number of inspectors in China: 8
Main issues: Repeated issues not caught by manufacturer (2 key suppliers); lack of testing fixtures (requiring much manual work); cumbersome reporting requirements that consume hours of inspectors’ work each day.
How Sofeast helped: We trained 2 internal QC inspectors at each of the key suppliers and equipped them with a simple and bilingual reporting form, we suggested making a few testing fixtures for the most time-consuming tests and provided technical guidance; we simplified the reporting of the importer’s inspectors.

US-based importer of outdoor equipment needs 2 key suppliers to improve their quality

Location: Buying office (including QA dept.) in Shanghai
Number of inspectors in China: 15
Main issues: Many different types of products but only one generic checklist was used; repeated cases of serious quality issues that had not been detected; very poor management of the QC team for the past 3-5 years.
How Sofeast helped: We developed checklists for all their product categories, including the testing equipment needed; one of our project managers and one of our senior inspectors did an interim mission to replace the quality manager during a transition period; we evaluated every inspector and suggest which ones to change; we set up and conducted a retraining program and an auditing program.

Take a look at our quality assurance solutions

We offer you a full spectrum of quality assurance solutions required to maintain the product quality that your customers demand throughout every stage of production.

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