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Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

simonberens.com

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Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#231

Post by thenthenthen »

ggm wrote: post #132

This is the second article about hardware supply from China I've read and it reads very much the same, albiet in a different niche (the other one was about SBC construction) -Anything you don't specify will be done least cost, and there is no amount of "least" which cannot be chased in manufacture. The other one noted if you don't specify the density of plastic for bags, or paper for bags and packing, you get clingfi…

There is an amazing book called Poorly Made in China, by Paul Midler. The title doesn’t do the book justice imho, but it offers some insights into what can go wrong and why. It was a very recognisable and enjoyable read.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#232

Post by jd3 »

ApolloFortyNine wrote: post #218

How did you find factories, and trustworthy ones at that, at all? I know you mentioned just being happy that the factory existed at all, but I'm doubting you just found someones email and then wired them cash? Previous experience? Or you know someone? To me that always seems like 90% of the battle with manufacturing.

I stopped reading when I realized it wasn't a deep dive into the most interesting question I had, which is the technical hardware design process and finding a factory to actually take your design and manufacture it.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#234

Post by tokyobreakfast »

For all the complaining about tariffs and all the woes of manufacturing in China, much of this could have been avoided by manufacturing in the US. Or even Canada or Mexico. There is literally nothing here that requires Chinese supply chain magic, it's just penny shaving. This isn't Apple where you need 80 million bespoke screws manufactured for your device overnight, which can only be done by slave labor supply chain in any reasonable time and quantity. This is really basic mechanical and electrical engineering and could be built anywhere.

Cost is not an issue because anyone willing to pay $1200 for a god damn floor lamp would surely pay $1500 (and have the satisfaction of keeping your fellow neighbors employed).

Anyone that has ever manufactured anything in China—or India for that matter—knows unless you spec every little detail and dimension and tolerance it WILL be ignored and violated.

Whereas in the US & Canada there is a different level of workmanship and culture where you might get a phone call instead of a box of weldments bent 30° in the wrong direction because the drawing didn't say it couldn't. And you probably could have visited the factories a half dozen times before starting production (did you really not plan on building prototypes?)

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#235

Post by mrheosuper »

tokyobreakfast wrote: post #234

For all the complaining about tariffs and all the woes of manufacturing in China, much of this could have been avoided by manufacturing in the US. Or even Canada or Mexico. There is literally nothing here that requires Chinese supply chain magic, it's just penny shaving. This isn't Apple where you need 80 million bespoke screws manufactured for your device overnight, which can only be done by slave labor supply chain…

>anyone willing to pay $1200 for a god damn floor lamp would surely pay $1500

Not 100% true. With $1200 it has wider market reach than $1500. There are still people spend $1500 for a floor lamp, but 100% it will be fewer if it was priced at $1200.

Also pricing it too high means higher chance a clone will exist, because they can copy literally 1:1 and price it a little lower.

Another thing in China is they move fast. As long as you have enough money, the time to market is insanely short.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#236

Post by t0mas88 »

Maxion wrote: post #227
myst wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Googled that ‘yes’ thing. Not different from my experience in other parts of the world. ‘Yes’ means ‘yes, sir’ only in the army. What is your environment?

As someone living in the Nordics my experience already with central Europeans and especially so Americans is that these cultures are already much more high context than the Nordics. I guess up here we're all borderline autistic?

I've done business the other way around, Western Europe with Finland. I think it's just different context? There are unwritten customs and meanings in Finland as well, just different ones.

Even UK vs Netherlands is a significant difference in how things work in business deals and that's just a 45 min flight. Unspoken expectations are different on how the other side is supposed to behave.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#237

Post by tokyobreakfast »

mrheosuper wrote: post #235
tokyobreakfast wrote: post #234

For all the complaining about tariffs and all the woes of manufacturing in China, much of this could have been avoided by manufacturing in the US. Or even Canada or Mexico. There is literally nothing here that requires Chinese supply chain magic, it's just penny shaving. This isn't Apple where you need 80 million bespoke screws manufactured for your device overnight, which can only be done by slave labor supply chain…

>anyone willing to pay $1200 for a god damn floor lamp would surely pay $1500 Not 100% true. With $1200 it has wider market reach than $1500. There are still people spend $1500 for a floor lamp, but 100% it will be fewer if it was priced at $1200. Also pricing it too high means higher chance a clone will exist, because they can copy literally 1:1 and price it a little lower. Another thing in China is they move fast.…

Maybe the sarcasm was lost in translation but a $1200 lamp is out of reach (or out of the question) for most people. A Juicero of lamps. I feel sorry for the guy because in a way you're right, clones of this will be going for $60 on AliExpress, probably built in the same factory with the same tooling.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#239

Post by mrheosuper »

aabajian wrote: post #209

I don't know enough about lighting, but if I bought five of these, would I reach 50,000 lumens? Is it just additive? This would cost $250. https://www.harborfreight.com/10000-lumen-4-ft-linkable-diam... Also, if you've ever been in a Walmart or Forever 21 at night, you'll know that constant LED white light is probably not the best thing for your eyes.

Yes. But it would look ugly, and does not have "smart" features.

whether or not it's worth it depends on user.

Re: Lessons learned shipping 500 units of my first hardware product

#240

Post by DSMan195276 »

renewiltord wrote: post #65
cwal37 wrote: post #52

> As someone who generally stays out of politics, I didn’t know much about the incoming administration’s stance towards tariffs, though I don’t think anyone could have predicted such drastic hikes. I have an appreciation for very bright lamps, and the project is neat, but that stuck out to me. I'm always fascinated by people who both feel comfortable ignoring maybe the single most impactful society-determining appara…

Realistically, everyone always seems to think everything was predictable but I have maybe a handful of friends who sold the Russell 2000 futures short and then rebounded long who made millions off the various tariff trades. Ironically, Ukrainian and Russian. Ex-HFT but just doing very normal click trading. So I don't get it. Why isn't everyone who can predict the future so accurately a (deca-)millionaire?

Just because you believe X is going to happen doesn't mean you can make money in the market off of that information, that requires judging what _everyone else_ thinks will happen and thus how the market is priced. You could just as easily get stuck in the situation where the market as a whole was expecting it to be worse than it was and didn't move far enough for you to make your money back.
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