Guide: How To Work With
A China Manufacturer

• Working With Chinese Manufacturing Companies To Develop Prototypes
• Why Choose A China Manufacturer For Electronic Products
• Problems With Manufacturing Electronics In China
• The Easy Way To Work With An Electronics Manufacturer In China
• Complete Project Management and Consulting Services

Working with a China manufacturer for electronics manufacturing can save you a LOT of time, money, and headaches… if you do a little bit of planning.

Of course, the first step is to figure out what you want to produce for your market.

Once you know what you want to produce, it would be a mistake to just go to a China manufacturer for electronics to make the product, then quickly launch it to your market.

It would be wise to first make a prototype, test it with real clients and see how they respond.

Are they willing to buy it?  Do they understand the true value of what you have provided for them?  Is it competitive with other offerings?  Does it really satisfy their needs?  How well does it satisfy their wants?

These are all questions you will be able to answer by doing some initial marketing and testing.

If you are like most inventors, real feedback from the market will give you a lot of good ideas for improvements.

This is a good start, but it doesn’t end there. You are still not ready to go to a manufacturer and roll out your product.

Working With Chinese Manufacturing Companies To Develop Prototypes

The first key to success is to find the “right” manufacturing “partner”.

The reality is that no matter how smart you are, there are always finer details and logistics involved in manufacturing any product.

By working with the “right” China manufacturer for electronics as early as possible in the design phase for electronic devices, toys, games, parts, and components of larger machinery, etc. you will get the benefit of their experience with similar companies.

There are many things only the manufacturer has to deal with in the production process that you can never know since you are not involved in that part of the business.  The manufacturer’s perspective and information they have gained over the years can be a tremendous benefit in your product development process.

An experienced manufacturing company in China that has worked with your type of product will be able to give you options for components and materials to produce a better quality product or to save money by adapting pre-made components.

In fact, the right Chinese manufacturing “creative partner” will help you design a better idea, based on the problems and successes they have seen with similar clients.

Let them know what your goals are, or what your clients are looking for, and in many cases, the engineers and product developers provided by the manufacturer will come up with ways to achieve a better result than you could have produced on your own.

Working with professional electronics manufacturers in China can give you a real competitive edge in your market.

So don’t spend months and months to get your firmware just right.  To get your cost to an acceptable level you likely will have to switch to another design or a different processor which needs to be programmed in a different language.

Why Choose A China Manufacturer For Electronic Products

China is the best place to manufacture electronic products.  If nothing else, China has the most complete supply chain in the world.

Being the largest manufacturing country in the world, China has thousands of factories making any kind of parts you can imagine.  This is especially true if you want something custom-made like housings, batteries, PCBs, motors, LCDs, cables….

One of the keys to reducing cost, time, and risk in product development is to use existing parts as much as possible.  Your “partner” in prototype development will find existing sources of parts, usually within arm’s reach to reduce the complexity of the job.

60% of the unit cost of a product is decided in the architecture stage, and 20% during the design. As they say at Toyota: ‘‘Skillful improvements at the planning and design stage are ten times more effective than at the manufacturing stage.’’

Problems With Manufacturing Electronics In China

How do you manage your business in the US or elsewhere but still be actively involved in the design process in China?

Trying to design your product without close interaction with the China manufacturers means you’re missing a lot of information.  This leads to sub-optimal design decisions.

The further you advance in the design process before engaging with the manufacturer, the more expensive it gets to change anything.

So if 98% of a product’s design is already done and validated in testing, you can hire a really smart China manufacturing consultant, but there is only so much they can do because most aspects are frozen already.

How do you find the right combination of factories in China that can work with each other in making custom components for your product?

Finding one factory that is able to produce a custom product for your needs is hard enough, but if you have several custom components or even if you are adapting existing components from other factories, do you have the knowledge, connections, and time to manage the details of these transactions?

The Easy Way To Work With An Electronics Manufacturer In China

The right China manufacturer for electronics – toys, games, or devices – can be a tremendous asset to your company.

But it’s not easy to find the right company and even more difficult to get good results if you are not located in China.

We know, in order to get the best results from a manufacturer in China, you should get the factory involved in the process as early as possible.   As you are developing the concept, drawing ideas from your target audience, and developing a design for the prototype, the manufacturer can give you valuable insights.

Since not everyone can allocate the personnel, time, and budget to work closely with a manufacturer in China, what’s the solution?

Believe it or not, the solution to this problem is easy, well established, tried, and tested for over three decades.

Hire the right China sourcing agent.

Like anything, there are many kinds of sourcing agents who offer a variety of services.

If you are developing a custom product from scratch or even if you intend on using pre-made components for your product, Arcadia Sourcing can help.

Complete Project Management and Consulting Services

Arcadia China Sourcing Agent Services Include Full OEM/ODM Support

Whether you need CAD Drawings, 3D Modeling, or product engineering recommendations, our China sourcing services can help you with anything, including OEM and ODM.

We’ll work with you and the factory for product sampling, prototyping, molding, and tooling.

As your market and product continue to evolve, our creative team will work with you to brainstorm 2nd, 3rd, 4th generations for your product and/or launches to create a brand. We will facilitate Research and Development with your product in mind.

Protect Your Intellectual Property

We know the ins and outs of protecting intellectual property and we can connect you with the right people to create the NDA and other documents.

Arcadia Sourcing doesn’t have in-house lawyers, but we know some good ones that know what they are doing.

Easily Communicate Your Product Specifications And Vision To The Factory

For most companies, it is impossible to dedicate a team to work closely with the design and manufacturing team in China.  That’s what we do for you.

Arcadia Sourcing has qualified people that can understand what you are trying to achieve and we will represent your interest with the manufacturer.

Reliable Supervision Process So The Manufacturer Gets It Right

Questions come up in the manufacturing process and misunderstandings can easily happen if you are not close at hand and are not able to physically go to the factory.  Our team will do that on your behalf.

Arcadia China Sourcing Agents Are Experts In Negotiating

First, we will help you negotiate a fair price for what you want.  If you grind and grind the manufacturer on the basis of price, they will just lower the quality without telling you, or they will treat your project as a low priority compared to more profitable projects.  So, a fair price for good quality is desirable.

But it doesn’t end there.

Typically, several factories and suppliers are involved in any project.  We will negotiate prices and coordinate purchases and deliveries of quality materials, components, and timelines on your behalf.

We know the right places to get parts and services and we know how to arrange transportation and delivery systems to make the whole project come together efficiently.

Our project management team also consolidates warehousing to pull together small shipments from a number of suppliers in the same geographical area and combine them into larger, more economical, shipping loads intended for the same area.  This saves you a lot of time and expense, but more importantly, it allows you to get the product manufactured on time.

Stringent Inspection And Quality Control During Manufacturing

We have stringent protocols and processes to ensure you have the best Quality Control.

We will provide testing during the initial China manufacturing process and on all subsequent runs to ensure consistent quality every time.

Since you are not there to physically inspect the finished product, we provide inspection and testing during packaging and consolidating.

No-Hassle Way To Coordinate And Negotiate Shipping

Arcadia Sourcing agents are experts on paperwork for logistics and managing the fine details involved in the shipping process.

China has a very sophisticated shipping system, both within the country and internationally.  We have a personal relationship with the right people so all the shipping logistics, paperwork, middle-men, and agents are managed efficiently.

Expert Advice On Crowd Funding

It is not unusual for a company to need additional funding for a project.  We have worked with hundreds of startups and companies so we have a unique perspective on funding projects.

If you are interested in working with us we will help you present your idea in the right way, to the right people.

Ethical Manufacturing You Can Be Proud Of

Arcadia Sourcing is committed to ethical manufacturing.  We will ensure you are supporting factories with ethical work practices, high-quality standards and can actually do what the China manufacturer is promising.