how cool to read one side of the story and draw conclusions based on that. Maybe they just get what they are paying for?
Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
41–50 of 60 posts
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
A copy to make it easier to read: Project Update #27: The Storm For backers only, Posted by cw&t Hi backers! First, for those of you still waiting for your pen(s), we're still on schedule. The schedule was posted a few updates ago (update #22). The 3 remaining batches are shipped from our manufacturer in China on July 7th (480 pens) July 23rd (480) August 7th (494) In the last couple months, we fought hard to speed u…
How's this for broken english: due diligence. Now you can take your naive, tarbrush, self-adoring brand of racism, sandblast it, polish it and and stick it up your ass. (Thanks for reposting, ars!)
Exactly. Every Apple, Samsung and HTC product is produced in China. It's not hard to get things done right there, as long as you cover your bases.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
Not in Firefox.
There's a plug-in that does word wrap. It's something called "Word Wrap within ."
Why should I have to mess with something like that? This is an authoring issue, not a reading one.
Like someone else said, a company's attention to detail shows up pretty much everywhere.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
A copy to make it easier to read: Project Update #27: The Storm For backers only, Posted by cw&t Hi backers! First, for those of you still waiting for your pen(s), we're still on schedule. The schedule was posted a few updates ago (update #22). The 3 remaining batches are shipped from our manufacturer in China on July 7th (480 pens) July 23rd (480) August 7th (494) In the last couple months, we fought hard to speed u…
How's this for broken english: due diligence. Now you can take your naive, tarbrush, self-adoring brand of racism, sandblast it, polish it and and stick it up your ass. (Thanks for reposting, ars!)
I suspect you haven't heard the earlier installments of this story in which they were absolutely lied to about physical and volume capabilities. They found someone in china they could trust who led them to this manufacturer who appears capable of doing the job, but uninterested in matching their high quality requirements which they were quite aware of up front.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#45I guess some people here live in github but I really don't recommend it for publishing text documents this way. Sure I can read it by scrolling back and forth or downloading it and opening it in something that will format it nicely and perhaps I missed the "make readable" button. But serious it is 2012, there are dozens of ways to publish things on the web that format them automatically for the browser to people can…
Same here. I don't mean to be snarky, but if this guy can't even post readable text on a website, it makes me question how valuable his advice can be.
he's reposting an e-mail he got. It's not his advice.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#46Earlier quoted context omitted.
How's this for broken english: due diligence. Now you can take your naive, tarbrush, self-adoring brand of racism, sandblast it, polish it and and stick it up your ass. (Thanks for reposting, ars!)
Exactly. Every Apple, Samsung and HTC product is produced in China. It's not hard to get things done right there, as long as you cover your bases.
Does the fact that large companies successfully manufacture in China by investing literally billions of dollars and no doubt having many full-time staff to smooth the process really show that "it's not hard"?
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#47I guess some people here live in github but I really don't recommend it for publishing text documents this way. Sure I can read it by scrolling back and forth or downloading it and opening it in something that will format it nicely and perhaps I missed the "make readable" button. But serious it is 2012, there are dozens of ways to publish things on the web that format them automatically for the browser to people can…
A copy to make it easier to read: Project Update #27: The Storm For backers only, Posted by cw&t Hi backers! First, for those of you still waiting for your pen(s), we're still on schedule. The schedule was posted a few updates ago (update #22). The 3 remaining batches are shipped from our manufacturer in China on July 7th (480 pens) July 23rd (480) August 7th (494) In the last couple months, we fought hard to speed u…
The problems might have been due to your (mis)communication with your Chinese partner, I wouldn't rush into accusing the entire Chinese manufacturing sector for your problems. In fact, an accusation like this proves you have problems of perception and prejudice on your side which might have contributed to it.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#48No. No. No.
Pen Type-A is a cautionary tale of overestimating your abilities, and of why Kickstarter is unlikely to have any sort of transformative impact.
Having read through the "updates" section of their Kickstarter page, it is clear to me that nobody on the team knows anything about manufacturing, least of all Chinese manufacturing. I am completely unsurprised by the fact that two amateurs end up making lots of amateurish mistakes.
This situation is no different from what happens when a non-technical manager tries to outsource a software development project. He doesn't know enough to spot good working practices or recognise when he's being fobbed off. He doesn't understand the myriad technical issues that could completely derail a project. He's a child in the big bad world, unaware of how little he knows, or how costly his naivety could be.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#49What you describe is a quite normal business relationship with a Chinese company.
There is always the "unreasonable counter offer" once they know there is almost no way back for you. There is always yelling (but not insulting!), that's a normal part of the negotiation process.
It sounds to me like your "manufacturer" is already the distrubutor of whatever-pen-you-invented in Asia. Its not uncommon that they produce for their client and then produce another batch for themselves and sell it in China. Kinda like Zuckerberg did when he made Facebook while "working for" some other dudes. Standard practise in China.
Anyway, producing something inovative in China usually means having somebody there to check up in person and each step of the way. And spell out the contract very precisely down to the last screw. Never expect "reasonableness", it is always seen as an opportunity to make a few extra bucks. And a mainland Chinese company boss will discuss for a whole day to gain 10 Kuai extra.
Ymmv, that's only my personal experience after some years in China.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#50No. No. No. Pen Type-A is a cautionary tale of overestimating your abilities, and of why Kickstarter is unlikely to have any sort of transformative impact. Having read through the "updates" section of their Kickstarter page, it is clear to me that nobody on the team knows anything about manufacturing, least of all Chinese manufacturing. I am completely unsurprised by the fact that two amateurs end up making lots of a…
So what? They are starting and learning. Let them. Good thing, they actually seem to learn from mistakes, that's good.