Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
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Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
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Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#2Waiting for a bad experience with an American company so that they can swear off all United States based manufacturing and move everything to friendly Mexico.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#3This should be a cautionary tale about contracting out manufacturing (which in today's world, nearly means "trying to make anything physical"). Nothing is particular to China, although time differences and language barriers surely didn't help the matter. I say that having dealt with trying manufacturers myself.
When it comes to contracting out work, the first time is always going to suck. This whole industry has figured exactly who needs to provide what, and what every word they use means, and you'll always miss something. Ideally, you have somebody who's done it before coaching you through the process (well worth hiring a consultant do that and save you some stress).
Less ideally, ask the people you are interfacing with a lot of questions. Clarifications about what a word means. Or how they count days. Every step of the way, ask them "what do you need from me? how can I speed this up and make it easier for you? what's the next step and when does it happen? did we miss anything?" Ask if they can send you example of the documents that they need, so that you know the format and type of content they want.
Yes, it's a lot of leg work. It's worth it when the manufacturing goes right, though. And it gets easier every time.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#4Waiting for a bad experience with an American company so that they can swear off all United States based manufacturing and move everything to friendly Mexico.
In this case, it's reasonable. There are many reasons to avoid China, very few of which are intrinsic to China. Manufacturing in the US means your manufacturer is in the same time zone and speaks the same languages. You both have the same understanding of contract law and a court system that you are both familiar with. Traveling to the factory takes less time.
Honestly, I'm not sure why their made-in-china pens cost $50 each. It's a five cent block of aluminium that's been hit with a laser. That probably costs $1 to make in China and $20 in the US (worst case). Selling it for $50 still leaves plenty of money for the designers.
Anyway, their decision is reasonable. Hiring people in your own country is easier than hiring people half the world away. If two Chinese guys wanted to make a similar pen, I'm sure they'd be successful in China.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#5Waiting for a bad experience with an American company so that they can swear off all United States based manufacturing and move everything to friendly Mexico.
In this case, it's reasonable. There are many reasons to avoid China, very few of which are intrinsic to China. Manufacturing in the US means your manufacturer is in the same time zone and speaks the same languages. You both have the same understanding of contract law and a court system that you are both familiar with. Traveling to the factory takes less time. Honestly, I'm not sure why their made-in-china pens cost…
It's two blocks of steel, which have been milled, then turned, then one of them is laser-etched (and possibly painted), and they are finally both finished. Oh, and there's the screw-in part at the top. And it's being done in a relatively small run, which factories hate. The tooling cost is spread across 5.5K pens, not 5M or more. And Kickstarter takes 5%, Amazon something like that as well.
Then you have to ship to yourself. And then re-package and ship out to your customers. And be ready to deal with people complaining about them. And some will get lost in the mail (not your fault, but if you want to be awesome, you treat it as if it is). And you have to pay yourself. And the person un-boxing and re-boxing the pens. And you worked on it before there was a Kickstarter for it, so you should probably pay yourself for that time.
And maybe, maybe, you want some money left over so that you can afford to front the cash for your next run, instead of always counting on Kickstarter projects. It's not always easy.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#6I 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 "just read" them.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#7For those wondering what they're talking about, it's this:
And the Kickstarter is here:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cwandt/pen-type-a-a-mini...
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#8I had a (shockingly) similar experience with Chinese manufacturers five years ago. My experience cost me a company, my shirt, and a whole lot of lost sleep. Consequently, I too decided that I will never, ever do business with another factory in China. Not sure that is fair (as manufacturing problems happen everywhere), but it is what it is...
Frankly, my story is useless - it is one entrepreneur's story of woe in a sea full of them. However, when you take stories like mine, Pen Type-A's, and the legions of others that have had problems in China, something more macro starts to emerge.
I'm beginning to detect a strong country of origin bias against China - many people are refusing to contract work out to that country. If this trend strengthens, it will affect demand for Chinese manufacturing. As demand drops, the Chinese economy will be starved of the western currency that has fueled its unbelievable growth.
I'm not crying wolf, rather I'm just seeing some ugly clouds growing over the horizon...granted, getting screwed by a Chinese factory is nothing new, but....??
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#9I 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…
Click the "raw" link and it's a readable wrapping text-only mode.
Re: Pen Type-A: a cautionary tale of manufacturing in China
#10Waiting for a bad experience with an American company so that they can swear off all United States based manufacturing and move everything to friendly Mexico.
In this case, it's reasonable. There are many reasons to avoid China, very few of which are intrinsic to China. Manufacturing in the US means your manufacturer is in the same time zone and speaks the same languages. You both have the same understanding of contract law and a court system that you are both familiar with. Traveling to the factory takes less time. Honestly, I'm not sure why their made-in-china pens cost…
Back in the day, several of us wondered why they seemed so bound and determined to do it in China: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3037108