Many buyers struggle to visit suppliers or their own factories in China or South East Asia often enough to keep a close eye on the action. This can cause a lot of problems, as the inability to monitor production first-hand can lead to cost overruns, delays, and quality issues, not to mention a lack of compliance and improvement.
Here are a number of negative consequences that a lack of production follow-up can cause buyers:
- You have no idea about the level of compliance with established procedures
- No understanding of the current risk level (quality, delays, cost, …)
- Local staff has little pressure to drive improvements
- The know-how is not documented and is lost when a key resource leaves
- There is no systematic approach to focus on the most important problems and prevent recurrence
To put this into perspective, here’s a common scenario demonstrating the above that we regularly see in factories here in China and can help solve:
Image Source: Stop Fighting Fires, in HBR
So, if you can’t visit a supplier in, say, China, how to avoid these negatives? The Sofeast team steps in to handle your development and production follow-up on your behalf.
Sofeast’s team works as your proxy on the ground at your supplier’s factory (or your own) to follow up on different areas of production specific to your needs. For example, if you need us to keep the pressure on factory management in order to control quality and spur improvement, we can prioritize this.
Our team is composed of different profiles that, together, help fulfill your needs in these areas:
- Quality systems (health check, implementation, auditing)
- Manufacturing processes (risk analysis, efficiency analysis, assistance in new process setup, the suggestion of better process controls, documentation in a control plan)
- Improvement follow up based on to-do lists and regular meetings
Our team has expertise in the following areas and can follow up on them for you to suit your project and requirements. This will be agreed at the start of your project with us and can be adjusted as and when needed.
We don’t just passively report facts to you, either. Our team also includes experienced engineers, project managers, and inspectors who suggest positive changes to your supplier or factory in order to get them back on track where needed.
# New product developments
- Follow up on tool making, trials, and signoff of first samples
- Support from our office-based mechanical and electronic engineers
- Plan of new manufacturing layout & processes
- Process flow chart, operator work instructions
# Reducing risks in your manufacturing process
- Risk analysis (process FMEA) and suggestions for improvements
- Evaluation of current process controls and suggestions
- Equipment maintenance: moving toward a preventive plan
- Quality inspections (IPQ, FAI, IPQC, OQC) reviews & improvement
# Upgrading of the current team’s skills
- Setup of new systems & processes with them
- On-the-job training & coaching on important concepts (e.g. line balancing)
- Explanation & illustrations of the customers’ standards
- Documentation of the improvements, so people don’t forget
# Keeping pressure on factory management
- Keeping pressure through regular auditing (quality, 5S, maintenance…)
- Maintenance of to-do lists with regular accountability meetings
- Reporting on progress in English so that you know the situation
- Regular and surprise product quality inspections
Any buyer who wants to keep control of their overseas production in China and SE Asia and who is having trouble monitoring results and driving meaningful change.
We will develop a program that addresses your needs and then typically send 1 or 2 people on-site on fixed days each week. The initial period might be more time-intensive.
We usually conduct such programs in South China (usually in the Shenzhen/Dongguan area), but flexibility on location is possible depending on the project or your requirements.
Your English-speaking project manager sends you emails about progress and difficulties (if any) on a regular basis. They are also available by phone when needed.
We’re able to go into your supplier’s factory and follow up on whatever areas of development and production you need in a range of countries. China, of course, is a key location, however, we also provide this for customers in Vietnam, India, and also certain South-East Asian countries like Thailand, Cambodia, and more.
If you’re unsure if we have staff in your required location, please request the consultation and discuss it with us!
Typically, at each stage of development and production, what services are involved?
| End of product development | Process setup, tooling fabrication (DVT) | First pre-production pilot run (PVT1) | Getting the processes right before ramp up | Start of mass production (MP1, MP2) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Process focused | DFM review, pFMEA, | Control plan, tooling validation check | Production readiness review | Intensive remediation, 8D exercises | Intensive remediation, 8D exercises |
| Product focused | Quality & reliability checklists, reliability tests to failure | Reliability test validation | First article inspection | First article inspection | Quality inspections, ongoing reliability tests |
- A DFM review allows you to get feedback from our experienced manufacturing engineers on your design files, to ensure the materials & processes do not create any unnecessary difficulties & extra costs in production.
- We can go onsite to the factory to deliver On-Site Process FMEA + Process Control Plan Workshops to support you in implementing key process improvement tools by sending our engineers to the factory to run workshops with their staff who are involved with engineering, production, and quality, and get them up to speed.
- In Product QC Checklist Creation you make your requirements crystal clear by working with us to create a comprehensive product QC checklist.
- We provide Reliability Engineering & Testing in our testing lab, with a particular focus on electronic & mechanical products.
- Mold Capability Validation Supervision (in China) confirms that the molds you’re making here reach your standard. (Typically used for expensive plastic injection molds that will be shipped to another production facility.)
- A production readiness review will deploy our engineer to your supplier’s factory to oversee the preparations as well as a pilot run of a new production.
- Running a First Article Inspection (FAI) is perfect for thoroughly inspecting the first pieces off the production line (or out of tooling) against your requirements. The goal is to catch issues as early as possible.
- Sofeast offers a full range of product quality inspections throughout the production process on-site at your supplier’s facility in China, India, or Vietnam. Each inspection is tailored to your product and requirements and comes with a set cost.
How much does development and production follow up cost?
This is usually a program that takes place over several months. We will make an offer depending on your exact needs. Price from 300 USD a day.
