Adrian and Renaud get together to talk about 10 common problems that companies with Chinese manufacturing suppliers often face, AND how you can deal with them. Hopefully, you are not one of the unlucky ones, but being prepared with the knowledge to avoid issues is always helpful!   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings and introduction 03:22 - 1. If your supplier refuses to ship the goods you paid for. 09:40 - 2. Your manufacturer tries to force you to accept poor quality that you’re uncomfortable with. 16:00 - 3. If the supplier has failed to prepare export packaging of your products for your ..read more

Adrian and Renaud discuss Quality Fade. This bad practice from suppliers sees them put their profits before your product quality, but the big problem is that you may not even know it is happening as it's a gradual process where quality declines over time, bit by bit. Are you at risk, how do you identify it, and what can you do to combat it? We reveal all in this episode!   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings and introduction 02:27 - What is Quality Fade? 09:25 - Is it still happening today? 12:15 - Actions to help you avoid quality fade. 18:30 - If you are a victim of quality fade, how can yo ..read more

On this episode of the China Manufacturing Decoded Podcast, Adrian hosts and is joined by Andrew, our reliability and testing head who is going to explain why the PCBA in your electronic product is critical, and how to protect it both physically and through product design.   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings and introduction. 01:45 - What is the PCB and why is it so important? 03:04 - How and why do we protect the PCB? 04:40 - Conformal coating. 08:51 - Other PCB protection options. 14:14 - The process of protecting a product from the inside out. 18:42 - The costs of protecting PCBs. 23:44 ..read more

Adrian and Renaud are talking about traceability for manufacturers which provides a detailed record of how the products are manufactured and the supply chain, from raw materials to finished products. Having this mindset and system can help you to reduce risks and deal with problems quickly by pinpointing where they arise. It can also help you be a more compliant business. Plenty of benefits, but it takes a cultural shift to put in place, so Renaud will explain how.   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings and introduction 03:53 - Traceability takes a conscious effort to put in place. 06:07 ..read more

Air travel requires an extremely high level of safety, so it's very embarrassing for Boeing that they have been dogged by quality and reliability issues lately, resulting in a near-disaster on a brand new Alaska Airlines 737 Max. Renaud and Paul look at Boeing's recent troubles, based on information from news reports, that seem to have been caused by bad manufacturing habits such as accepting sub-standard parts from suppliers without pushing them to improve, not fixing issues in-process and 'leaving them for later,' an over-reliance on inspections and rework when planes were complete, and a bu ..read more

Renaud is joined by regular guest, Clive Greenwood, an international product compliance expert based in China. They talk about the growing risks of Li-ion batteries used in Chinese e-bikes and scooters amid many high-profile fires in China, deaths in the West, and grave warnings from the FDNY. Clive also makes suggestions about how legislation can change to improve safety moving forward. As these personal vehicles become more popular and importers around the world source them from China, it pays to understand the risks...spoiler alert, they're no joke!   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings an ..read more

In this bonus episode, our host and CEO Renaud is joined by our product reliability and durability expert, Andrew Amirnovin, to talk about the bad news for Apple that their much-hyped Vision Pro headset is cracking just weeks after being released to the public. They explore the durability problems rearing their heads only a month or so into the product's general release in early February 2024, based on information found in online news articles and videos.   Show Sections 00:00 - Introduction, what is the Vision Pro? Apple's Vision Pro headset is an incredibly well-received augmented reali ..read more

Adrian hosts and is joined by Sofeast Group senior engineer, Paul Adams, and they talk about the uses and limitations of the metal and plastic 'development prototypes,' that is to say, product prototypes made during the development process and before mass production. Remember, these are not production-standard prototypes, but that doesn't mean that they aren't important as you will find out...it's all about controlling expectations.   Show Sections 00:00 - Greetings and introduction 02:06 - Why are we producing prototypes to start with? 04:09 - Plastic prototyping processes. 07:02 - 3D-Pr ..read more

Renaud hosts today and welcomes guest speaker Amit Rosenthal, CEO of Proboxx, to the show and this episode's focus is on moving your products from Asia to where they need to be via freight forwarding. They discuss how the latest technological advancements in freight forwarding are streamlining operations, improving tracking and transparency, and offering more reliable and efficient services for Amazon sellers. Since many people manufacturing overseas end up selling on Amazon, at least as part of their mix, being up to speed on moving your products is useful, so hit that play button!   Sho ..read more

Adrian and Renaud go through what makes a good QA auditing and inspection program for innovative new electro-mechanical products that will reduce risks of poor quality, reliability, and compliance, and detect the issues in time for them to be worked on before anything is shipped. Unless you are producing simple products or working with a supplier who is very experienced in manufacturing the exact product type you're developing, you will very likely require some form of QA program like this. It's split into 5 points: 1-3 cover the preparation of the product and process design, then 4-5 are afte ..read more