How To Find The Manufacturer Of A Product

After months of brainstorming and ideating, you finally accept a production thought and a business plan to market place it. Outset, give yourself a pat on the dorsum — putting together a product idea is hard work!

Your side by side step is to plough this idea into reality.

Unfortunately, that is where virtually would-be entrepreneurs skid upward. They don't know how to get their products manufactured, or even where to start looking for a manufacturer.

This is why we put together this postal service to help yous find the right manufacturers and suppliers. One time yous've gone through this, yous'll know exactly where to search for manufacturers, and what questions to ask them.

What manufacturer should you choose — domestic or overseas?

One of the first large decisions you'll have to brand when looking for a manufacturer is choosing between a domestic or an overseas manufacturer. The definitions are unproblematic enough:

• Domestic: Any manufacturer who produces products within your country would autumn in this category.
• Overseas: Manufacturers making products outside the land would be classified as "overseas" manufacturer.

Until a few years ago, this was an like shooting fish in a barrel choice: nigh products were not even congenital locally. If you had to get something made, you had to go overseas, usually to China.

This has changed in the concluding few years. Local manufacturing activity has picked upward, peculiarly in the US. It is now possible to get some products made past domestic manufacturers at relatively affordable prices.

The choice is notwithstanding non lucent, all the same. Both domestic and overseas manufacturers have their own pros and cons, as we'll see below.

Domestic manufacturers

Pros

Depending on your land, picking a domestic manufacturer offers distinct advantages for some businesses:

• Faster and easier communication without cultural issues
• Locally made products might accept a higher perceived brand value. For instance, consumers are probable to pay more for "made in America" products
• Shipping is a faster and cheaper
• More payment choices
• No customs payments
• Lower chances of intellectual property theft
• Possible to verify the manufacturer and product quality in-person
• Easier to become legal recourse in example of conflicts.

Cons

It's not all sunshine and roses, still. At that place are some large disadvantages to choosing domestic manufacturers equally well:

• Manufacturing and labor costs are essentially higher.
• Very few production-types are actually fabricated locally. It is particularly difficult to find domestic manufacturers forlow-tech products.
• Might non be possible to reach calibration as many domestic manufacturers are not tooled for high volume — shouldn't be a problem for about entrepreneurs, yet.

Overseas manufacturers

Pros

When you think of "overseas" manufacturer, you likely retrieve of People's republic of china. The "factory of the globe" can make your production at extraordinarily low prices with relatively high quality. Some pros of going overseas are:

• Depression costs
• Possible to get high quality — provided y'all are willing to pay the toll.
• You can chooses from a big range of manufacturers of varying quality. Both iPhones and flimsy Dollar Shop knick-knacks are made in China.
• Easy to discover good manufacturers on established platforms such as Alibaba.

Cons

Despite the low costs, getting your product manufactured overseas comes with a laundry list of disadvantages. Some of these are:

• Customers might perceive product as lower quality; tin bear upon your brand value
• High run a risk of IP theft, especially for innovative products
• Communication problems in terms of language and culture (though the situation is gradually improving)
• Not easy to verify manufacturer or product quality
• Shipping times and costs are essentially college as compared to domestic manufacturers
• Yous'll have to deal with community (though most experienced manufacturers will be happy to guide you)
• Little to no legal recourse in case of fraud or theft.

Our Recommendation

Despite the risks, information technology is far more than cost-effective to become your product made overseas, especially when you lot're new to the market. Yous can explore other options (including moving to a improve, more expensive manufacturer overseas) once you have verifiable demand and cash flow.

That takes care of the domestic vs. overseas debate, merely how do you really discover manufacturers? The section below will assistance you out.

Read also: Should Y'all Make, Manufacture, Wholesale or Dropship Your Product?

Where to find manufacturers?

In that location are 2 ways to go about the manufacturer search: the old school way of meeting manufacturers in person or looking them upwardly online.

We'll look at both these approaches below.

In-person manufacturer search

This "boots on the ground" approach is not for everyone — yous will accept to devote both fourth dimension and cash to travel to a new state and cheque out dozens of prospective manufacturers. However, you volition get anupward-shut wait at their facilities and samples. This takes a huge amount of risk out of the manufacturing equation.

That y'all get to experience another country and civilisation is just added bonus.

If you're targeting China, hither's the recommended process for meeting local manufacturers:

• Find manufacturers: Using the sites listed below, make a list of manufacturers who bargain with your product-type.
• Create a shortlist: Follow the guidelines in the next section to ask manufacturers' questions and eliminate all just a handful of candidates.
• Set upwards meetings: Prepare appointments to meet these shortlisted manufacturers in-person.
• Get help: If the manufacturer does not speak English, hire a trustworthy local translator to guide yous through the meeting. Don't hesitate to pay extra for a recommended contact through LinkedIn.
• Meet, examine, close: Run across the manufacturers and examine their facilities. If yous're satisfied, inquire for a few samples before closing the bargain.

An alternative to this fourth dimension-consuming procedure is to visit trade shows. You can easily meet hundreds of manufacturers at these shows at the aforementioned time, saving you weeks of effort. It is also possible to notice some manufacturers at your local trade shows equally well.

• Local trade shows: A number of Chinese manufacturers showroom their products in local trade shows, especially in the United states of america. This saves y'all the trouble of traveling all the way to China. You can discover local merchandise shows at a site like TSNN.com
• People's republic of china trade shows: There are merchandise shows almost every day in Red china. ChinaExhbition.com keeps rail of the major shows and their target industry. The Canton Fair, China International Industry Off-white, China Electronics Fair, etc. are some of the top merchandise shows in the country with thousands of exhibitors.

Search online

If you can't brand information technology overseas, don't worry — in that location are even so plenty of ways to discover quality manufacturers online. Thank you to a thriving import scene, there is a huge ecosystem of online directories that will help yous search for a manufacturer.

Depending on your target location, here are some sites you lot tin can use to get started:

China

Alibaba.com

Alibaba is the world's largest directory of manufacturers and suppliers — a fact that has propelled the company to a $200Bn market place cap. In that location are thousands ofAlibaba-verified suppliers with stiff performance ratings. Y'all can too accept reward of Alibaba's trade balls to reduce risk. Recommended platform for almost every product category.

GlobalSources.com

Global Sources — or GS– is Alibaba's closest competitor. In that location is no trade assurance, but you become all-encompassing ratings and some assistance with your order. Recommended if you can't find anything on Alibaba (highly unlikely).

Fabricated-in-Mainland china.com

Made in China deals mostly with larger items and offers quality inspection and reporting facilities. Recommended mostly for industrial products and parts.

As well the higher up three sites, in that location are also a number of LinkedIn groups yous can plow to for finding a manufacturer in your industry. A couple y'all tin can outset with are People's republic of china Sourcing, and China Sourcing Forum.

Europe

The European manufacturing scene is picking upwardly, though it is a far cry from the scale at which China operates. If you're located in the continent and desire to manufacture locally, here's where you can find some help:

All.biz

One of the more pop platforms for connecting buyers and sellers. Available in over 24 languages and has a presence in nearly every European country.

EuroPages.com

AEurope-only B2B e-commerce platform for finding manufacturing partners. All-time used for finding manufacturers locally, then coming together them in-person.

U.s.a.

The United states actually remains the earth'due south second largest manufacturer with a 2010 industrial output of approximately $i,696.seven billion. If you want to produce in the state, here'south where you tin can find help:

MakersRow.com

MakersRow dubs itself "the dwelling house of American manufacturing". Information technology has a database of over 7,000 factories and neat search tools to discover finished products as well as parts.

ThomasNet.com

The online version of a physical publication (Thomas Register), ThomasNet lists over 700,000 suppliers in US and Canada. Besides a dandy place to find industrial designers and CAD modelers. Think of it as yellow pages, but for suppliers.

Others

Besides the above, there are a handful of other platforms you can use as well:

IndiaMart.com

Bharat's version of Alibaba. Best for sourcing apparels, chemicals and medical supplies — product categories Republic of india excels at.

TradeKey.com

A large B2B market place for connecting suppliers with buyers. Has a strong focus on Asian countries, especially Bharat, China, Pakistan, Taiwan, Malaysia and Bangladesh.

MFG.com

A large directory of manufacturers from over a dozen countries. Boasts strong search features, though there are no strong value-adds like Alibaba trade assurance.

How to select the right manufacturer?

By now, you should take a large list of prospective manufacturing partners. However, we yet haven't tackled the hardest office yet — selecting the right manufacturer from this list of candidates.

A lot of manufacturers will promise the globe but under deliver on the results. Information technology is crucial to weed out low-quality candidates and select a partner yous tin work with in thelong-run.

Here'due south astep-by-footstep guide to evaluating manufacturers.

Pace 1: Ask the correct questions

Get-go the evaluation procedure by asking the manufacturer these questions. Do this via email before you do any other due diligence:

• How many employees and machines do they accept? What is their annual production output? Any legit manufacturer would be more happy to provide you with this information.
• What is their manufacturing expertise in? It is all-time to work with manufacturers who have proven expertise in your product category.
• What is the profile of their typical customers? If they deal only with multi-million dollar businesses, they might not requite you enough attention.
• Have they ever fabricated whatever products similar to yours? This gives you lot an indication of whether they accept feel shipping your product-type.
• What is their internal quality process? How do they ensure that the products are manufactured to spec?

These are standard questions any quality manufacturer would have answers to. If they are hesitant or pass up to reply them, cross them off your list.

Step two: Inquire for samples

Your adjacent step should be to ask for samples, preferably of a similar product-type as yours. Again, virtually serious suppliers will be happy to ship y'all a handful of samples at no actress price. A manufacturer who is unwilling to send a few dollars-worth of product(s) won't make a practiced long-term partner.

When you inquire for samples, it is also a practiced idea to ask them the post-obit:

• Where is their manufacturing plant located? This will impact shipping times.
• What is their shipping process? Practice they have whatever partnerships with logistics companies?
• Tin they help with clearing community?

Once you go the samples, examine them for quality and consistency. If they don't meet your standards, cantankerous the manufacturer off your list. With the manufacturers that get through, proceed to the next step.

Stride three: Due diligence

Before you proceed to the negotiation stage, do your due diligence and find out as much as you lot can about the company.

Here are some ways you can do this:

References

Ask the manufacturer for at least v references. These should ideally exist current customers. If these are businesses of like size and/or category as yours, it's all the better.

Call these references and ask them what was proficient or bad about the manufacturer. If possible, try to buy their product to bank check their quality for yourself.

Ratings and certifications

Virtually manufacturers maintain a presence on major B2B platforms. Dig through their online profiles and bank check their ratings over time. Make note of any excessively negative feedback. Have note of other quality indicators such as years in business, full transactions, and certifications (if any).

Online search

Finally, search for the manufacturer by name online. If y'all see whatsoever reports on RipoffReport, any scam warnings or negative reviews, proceed with caution.

Step 4: Review and gild

After step #iii, you should have merely a handful of manufacturers to choose from. Information technology's now mostly a matter of picking someone who can do the job at the best price. Before starting the negotiation, y'all need to know the following:

• Documentation requirements: Almost every manufacturer will enquire for a detailed 2d drawing and a 3D CAD model. Ask if they tin can assistance yous with the design process (many manufacturers have teams ofin-house designers).
• Terms and requirements: Inquire almost their minimum order quantity (MOQ), turnaround time, and payment terms. This will have a big impact on your manufacturer choice. Typically, the lower theper-unit price, the higher the MOQ.

How to get a production manufactured?

At present that yous have selected the factories to work with, it's fourth dimension to first production and see who can make your production at a fair toll.

• Send a prototype. By this point, you should know what components you will need, what materials and methods, and market size/demand, every bit well as the price of the parts and the retail cost. Allow yourself half dozen to 12 months to get the epitome made overseas.
• Have the manufactory and/or your contact sign a nondisclosure agreement. An NDA is not a guarantee that your product will be completely protected from copycats, simply it'southward a level of legal protection that sets your level of expectation with the factories yous are considering using.
• Ask for a cost quote. Get separate quotes for volumes in backlog of and lower than your target volume. This will assist yous anticipate costs in case of spikes/slumps in sales. Once you have quotes, it'south fourth dimension to caput to the negotiation tabular array and hammer out a deal.
• Identify the order. You volition have to pay a portion of the balance due before the factory will brainstorm product. Depending on the turnaround fourth dimension, you might receive your finished production within weeks!

How to build a healthy relationship with your manufacturer

Getting a product made is where the partnership begins. Ideally, it should become a long, productive, and stable relationship. No matter how professional your manufacturers are, you should be able to manage them to meet the deadlines and get the desired product quality. Otherwise, you tin can find yourself looking for a manufacturer over and once again. Nosotros'll explain below how to forestall it.

Communicate regularly

Whether you choose an overseas manufacturer or a local one, the manufacturing plant volition beoff-site in both cases. That means your manufacturer won't be able to track sudden changes in your goals or everyday routine themselves. Be involved in the manufacturing to stay on the same page with your partner.

Listen the legal side

Even if you've been partners for years, you shouldn't rely on oral agreements. Keep the tape of every alter to your contract in the written form. If y'all want to discuss how to manufacture a new product with the same factory, think of getting a separate contract.

Be nice

When you become your idea manufactured, you act as a client while staying a business owner. Yous have the privileges, so it's easy to be bossy. Remember that your manufacturer has its own needs, problems, and goals, then find the arrangements, make payments in time and communicate politely.

Decision

Now you know how to get a product made. Learning how to find a manufacturer who tin deliver high-quality products on time is one of the toughest parts of running a business organization. It is also crucial for success. Invest lots of time in searching for the correct manufacturing partner and follow the guidelines above to make your search easier.

Fundamental takeaways:

• Best to manufacture product overseas initially, preferably in China.
• If yous can, travel to China and encounter manufacturers in-person.
• Utilise directories such every bit Alibaba to search for manufacturers online.
• Ask detailed business questions and practise due diligence before settling on a manufacturing partner.

Source: https://www.ecwid.com/blog/how-to-find-a-manufacturer-for-your-product-idea.html

Posted by: torrezandessaint.blogspot.com

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