What is the general process of sourcing in China? Is it an easy job?

Sourcing from China is quite easy with us. To initiate the process, you send an inquiry and we will handle the rest.

The general process is:

If the quote is acceptable to you, we will proceed with building the tooling and moulds for your project. It is important to note that even at this stage we instill our own internal stringent quality control levels to keep process reliable and efficient. Initial samples will be completed and sent back to you in approximately 45 days. After your review of the sample, there may be some additional modifications. If you require modifications, we anticipate an another15-20 days to complete your changes. Once the sample meets your approval, we are ready for mass production.

Generally, it will take 30 – 45 days for the first production run. At this time, your products are ready to be shipped to your designated location.

How is your quality level and supply capability?

We have approximately one hundred manufacturing partners, in 12 areas of production: iron casting, steel casting, aluminum casting, zinc and copper casting, stamping, forging, gears and precise machining, machining jobs, powder metal, welding jobs and metal assembly, plastic injection.

90% of them are ISO9000 certified and some are TS16949, or QS9000 certified. The number of employees in each factory ranges between 100-800.

Through our years of study and research it was determined by our sourcing engineering team to only work with the best of the best manufacturing facilities in China. Each plant was carefully evaluated and then selected for its expertise in manufacturing capabilities, quality control systems, cost advantages, worker safety and retention programs and willingness to do export business. Our organization is aligned with some of finest manufacturing plants in their respective expertise of work.

Our customers receive an additional layer of quality inspection provided by CIS Trading which includes quality control engineers, process control and delivery management oversight. Your success is our goal!

I have heard a lot stories about failure in sourcing in China, what is the reason? Is it risky?

To ensure your sourcing jobs successful, you need a good partner and support system like us.

Without this system, randomly choosing manufacturing plants by searching the internet is generally risky, some failure story may have the following reasons:

What kinds of items are suitable for sourcing in China?

The most suitable components are:

Higher volume parts: developing a new product will have many variables in determining a per piece cost: building new tooling, quality control, new process control, customer feedback and confirmation ect. If the purchasing quantity is a large amount, it can have an economic advantage that will give the customer significant savings on the purchasing costs.

Labor intensive parts: when labor such as machining, welding and assembly are the major cost factors of a component: this would be an ideal component for sourcing in China. Due to the favorable labor costs in China, this will positively affect the per piece cost and will provide you with a competitive advantage to increase margins.

How to prepare a good inquiry for you? How long is your quotation time?

It is very helpful a for customer to send the inquiries with drawings, expected purchasing quantity, and samples. Samples are always very helpful for us to give a confirmed price and figure out correct manufacturing process. Generally, it will take 7-10 days for us to send out a quotation and feasibility study report.

How long can you make a sample for approval?

We can generally finish building the new mould and tooling and submit initial samples within around 45-60 days, with all the material certificates and size and tolerance checking reports.

What is your payment term for tooling costs? Is it a risk for us?

For the tooling costs, the customer is required to pay 40% in advance, we will bear the rest of the costs from our side. After sample approval, the customer will pay the remaining balance of 60%. In this way, we will share the risks in the development of a product together with our customers. If by chance the project cannot meet your requirements due to some unforeseen reason, we will return the 40% down payment back to you.

How long will you be prepared for production?

When the initial samples are finished and confirmed, mass production is ready. Generally, it will take 45-60 to be ready for mass production from price confirmation.

What is the production time for each delivery?

30-45 days.

How do you do your quality control jobs?

When any new drawings come to us, we have them professionally translated into detailed Chinese.

When the molding and tooling are finished, our engineering team will check the material, make a production run sample, check for any defects, audit the manufacturing process, and if necessary issue a correction report to the plant engineer for modifications.

At this stage we send you the sample for review. If there are no further changes, upon your approval of the sample, we are ready for mass production.

During mass production, our engineering team will make visual inspections on each delivery of goods and issue quality report to you. For a high volume project, we will send a professional quality engineer, full time, to work on sight performing process control jobs to ensure that the whole manufacturing process runs smooth for mass production.

How do you choose your manufacturing plants?

We choose the most suitable plants by: quality, previous experiences in similar products, cooperative and honest business behavior and cost measures. This is where our years of experience will go to work for you.

How about the shipping time from China to here?

Generally, 16 days to west coast of US, 28 days to US east coast, 18 days to major European seaport. Another 5 days for import custom clearance, 5 days for inland transportation.

Totally, it will take 30-45 days for goods arrive customers' warehouse.

What is the easiest way for handling the shipment? Can you ship to our door?

We can ship directly to customers' warehouse, and help to handle all the sea and air shipment, import duty and documentations, and inland transportation jobs. So, customers can wait for goods arrive warehouse easily.

We have our own shipping agency, can you ship to them? How is the costs difference between you and them?

We can also cooperate with the shipping agency that customer familiar with, send goods to major Chinese seaport or major US or European seaport, let them do the rest of shipping jobs.

But generally, our total costs from China is 20-30% lower than customer can have their best price from domestic agencies.

What are the import duties?

Generally, it is around 3%. In some cases, it is 0%.

Is it a complicated job to clear the customs, and all the paper works for import? How to handle with that?

How is your payment term?

We require 80-100% payment against delivery for new customers. But for this payment term, we can consider some price discount for customers.

For trusted long term customers, we can consider payment at receipt of goods.

How about if the quality of your delivered products do not meet our requirements? How will you make compensations?

What is your value in the supply chain?

Our values are:

Technical translation;

Choosing the most suitable plants from China to work for you;

Bargaining the best prices for you;

Quality control jobs: process control, and product checking;

Delivery management;

Shipping service and international transaction;

I wish to do business directly with plants in China, will this save money?