I can definitely back up Keg King on the "you have to have your own staff on the ground" statement. Over the years I've worked on projects where the manufacturing and assembly has been done in Asian countries. It's not good enough to trust the manufacturers. It's not even good enough to send someone over to supervise the production runs. All sorts of dodgy stuff goes on. If you are not directly in control of the QA process with your own trusted staff, you are going to run into trouble. Ideally you want to check pretty much every item that goes through and preferably at multiple points in the production line to ensure that there are no hidden surprises. For large volumes you want a statistically significant sample population.
As an example, about a decade ago we had a person go to China to supervise the production run of some electronic devices. Initially the pilot run produced product that was a bit on the rough side. We worked with the manufacturer to fix up the issues and ended up with samples that were supposed to be fixed up and representative of mass production. Once the production run started, our "delegate" on the ground was walked through the factory, shown everything working and inspected and OK'ed a few products coming off the production line. Then they were taken out to lunch. When they wanted to go back to the factory after lunch, they were told that the manufacturer has arranged a special entertainment / tour, whatever (corporate jolly) for them and that they can go back to the factory the next day. The next day, when they returned to the factory, they were told that the factory was working all night and the run was completed ahead of schedule. They brought out a few boxes for our rep. to inspect and it all looked fine. We had a few dozen boxes flown in for pre-release testing and the rest was loaded onto a ship. Fast forward a couple of months. The main shipment has been all paid for, delivered, cleared through customs and warehoused. Grabbed a few boxes from the warehouse and inspected them. Fark! The manufacturing was sloppy. Sharp edges on the enclosures, stripped screws, finger prints and smudges on front panel displays. On the inside, we found that the manufacturer did a dodgy and replaced proper twisted pair, shielded cables for front panel high-speed USB ports with a bit of cheap and nasty cable and did not correctly ground the connector. There were many other issues as well. We were screwed. The manufacturer was paid and did not want to help in any way. The cost of making right on each unit, including labour was about 30% of the original manufacturing cost and about 10% of the product was a total write off where it was only good enough for spare parts.
This was not the first or last time I've seen issues with Asian manufacturers. It's happened many times in China, Korea and other Asian countries.
So yeah, having stuff made in places like China or Korea might be cheap, but it's a lottery with very bad odds. You can improve those odds by having local presence and only sourcing components. Have total control over the final product wherever possible.
As an example, about a decade ago we had a person go to China to supervise the production run of some electronic devices. Initially the pilot run produced product that was a bit on the rough side. We worked with the manufacturer to fix up the issues and ended up with samples that were supposed to be fixed up and representative of mass production. Once the production run started, our "delegate" on the ground was walked through the factory, shown everything working and inspected and OK'ed a few products coming off the production line. Then they were taken out to lunch. When they wanted to go back to the factory after lunch, they were told that the manufacturer has arranged a special entertainment / tour, whatever (corporate jolly) for them and that they can go back to the factory the next day. The next day, when they returned to the factory, they were told that the factory was working all night and the run was completed ahead of schedule. They brought out a few boxes for our rep. to inspect and it all looked fine. We had a few dozen boxes flown in for pre-release testing and the rest was loaded onto a ship. Fast forward a couple of months. The main shipment has been all paid for, delivered, cleared through customs and warehoused. Grabbed a few boxes from the warehouse and inspected them. Fark! The manufacturing was sloppy. Sharp edges on the enclosures, stripped screws, finger prints and smudges on front panel displays. On the inside, we found that the manufacturer did a dodgy and replaced proper twisted pair, shielded cables for front panel high-speed USB ports with a bit of cheap and nasty cable and did not correctly ground the connector. There were many other issues as well. We were screwed. The manufacturer was paid and did not want to help in any way. The cost of making right on each unit, including labour was about 30% of the original manufacturing cost and about 10% of the product was a total write off where it was only good enough for spare parts.
This was not the first or last time I've seen issues with Asian manufacturers. It's happened many times in China, Korea and other Asian countries.
So yeah, having stuff made in places like China or Korea might be cheap, but it's a lottery with very bad odds. You can improve those odds by having local presence and only sourcing components. Have total control over the final product wherever possible.
h34r: )
