Top Ten Pitfalls to Avoid in Chinese Outsourcing - #4 Lack of Control

#4 Lack of Control

If you know that China is pretty much on the opposite side of the earth from the US, you can begin to understand that it's difficult to have control over what happens there. Add in the significant cultural, political and language differences and it's clear control is difficult to achieve.

The things you normally want to control - product quality, intellectual property, production time lines, cost changes, and maybe compliance with non-production policies (child labor, etc.) are still controllable with some help and a different outlook.

Here are my suggestions for gaining and maintaining control of your suppliers in China:

1. Have a champion in your organization responsible for your Chinese outsourcing efforts. We often see companies that treat their Asian suppliers the same way they treat US suppliers and it results in less than superior results. Put someone clearly in charge and make them responsible for making the project work. Then give them support to get educated and put in place the right processes and procedures.

2. Negotiate and agree on processes and procedures with your suppliers up front. You can't think of everything that may happen, but you can agree on quality criteria and other things up front. The more of this you do, the greater your chances of not having problems.

3. In order to do #2 well you need to build a relationship with the supplier. This necessitates either going to China to meet in person or having someone be your stand-in presences in China. In person audits are important.

4. Start small and gain experience. I've mentioned this one before.

5. Have contingency plans. If you have other options it won't seem like the sky is falling when things need to be brought back into control.

6. Communicate often and clearly. An obvious one, but one that still gets missed and is a main cause of misunderstandings.