The Point of Product Development -Selection of mass production manufacturers
I will introduce the selection criteria for mass production manufacturers.
1. Is it possible to manufacture it anywhere if you have the same processing machine?
The selection of a mass production manufacturer must certainly be a manufacturer equipped with processing machines. You would naturally check whether they have the processing equipment you need. But if you find more than one manufacturer with the same processing equipment, what criteria would you use to choose among those manufacturers?
Compatibility with the company president? The estimated cost?
Of course, those are also important factors. However, the most important point is whether the characteristics of the manufacturer match the characteristics of your product.
For example, if you want to manufacture plastic parts, any manufacturer with a plastic processing machine can do it. But if you want to manufacture transparent plastic products, the story changes. Even with the same plastic processing machine, the manufacturer will not be suitable for manufacturing transparent products if it always manufactures black buckets.
As for the quality of transparent products, we especially dislike the “defects of foreign substances” such as dust that get mixed in with plastic products. Manufacturers who manufacture black buckets are at a particularly high risk of black dust floating, which is a disadvantage. It is necessary to select a plastic manufacturer that specializes in manufacturing transparent parts.
In this way, it is important to first recognize your product characteristics before selecting the manufacturer. Even if you have requested for mass production, we would like to avoid the tragedy of worrying with the manufacturer in front of a huge pile of defective products.
2. Location is important.
“Location” is another important factor when choosing a manufacturer.
There is no need to choose if there is only one manufacturer available according to your processing requirements, but basically it is important to choose a reasonable location.
One reason is, of course, transportation cost. If the manufacturer is far from the final delivery destination of the product, or the designated warehouse where the product will be stocked, the delivery cost will be high. We would prefer a manufacturer that is as close as possible. The same can be said for the distance between the assembly location and the component processing location.
Another reason is quality. Basically, transportation distance and quality risk are proportional. The further you carry the item, the more likely it will break. You cannot grasp the storage environment of the shipping company. You also will not know how vibration and shock during transit will affect your product. These are all quality risks. By the way, at the mass production design stage or final packaging verification stage, the work of examining this transportation risk is called “transportation consideration,” “packaging design,” and “transportation state test verification,” and it may also be considered as one step.
In any case, “location” is important when selecting a manufacturer.
