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SELLER SOLUTIONS
Sourcing 101
© Cascadia Seller Solutions Page 1
SELLER SOLUTIONS
Sourcing 101
By Rachel Greerwith Emily Murray
C O M P L I A N C E C O U R S E
SELLER SOLUTIONS
Sourcing 101
© Cascadia Seller Solutions Page 2
Table of Contents
Sourcing domestically vs. abroad 3
Importer of record 4
Legally required documents 5
Penalties or failures when you’re the IOR 6
Incoterms 6
Timelines for reorder 11
Working with a Chinese factory 12
China Study Tour: Brother Machinery Co. Xi’an 14
China Study Tour: U.S. Embassy 17
China Study Tour: ENN – Butterflies and Children 19
Working in other parts of the world 21
Trip to India - Entry 8 - Full day in Delhi 22
Trip to India - Entry 21 - Accenture 26
Working with a US domestic manufacturer 31
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Q: What is the primary difference between sourcing domestically and sourcing abroad?
A: Liability.
When sourcing domestically, in most situations, the private label holds no legal
liability for the product’s safety where regulatory requirements are concerned.
Typically, domestic companies will allow you to be added to their product
liability insurance, and thusly be covered from potential issues resulting from
lawsuits.
A major exception to this is that the CPSIA (Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act)
does NOT exempt children’s products – a private labeler of domestic children’s products is
still jointly liable – in this case, the manufacturer probably has it handled, but you should
always be aware of your obligations.
When sourcing abroad, the importer of record is solely legally liable for the
goods, in most situations, from a regulatory and litigation perspective. There
are situations in which liability can be joint, as in jewelry, where the seller is
jointly liable with the importer and retailer, or if someone were to private label
your product and it fits the above requirement under CPSIA, then you’d be
jointly liable.
But if you import, there is not a time in which you’re NOT responsible for the
products.
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You must get an LLC to protect yourself from risk. Do not EVER import
products with your personal social security number! If you have to, save up
until you can afford the LLC filing, rather than put your personal finances at risk
for this business. I cannot stress this point enough.
Q: What is an importer of record? A: If you’re sourcing the product, it’s you.
Importer of record is a term used in customs law. It refers to an importer,
whether an entity or individual, who is responsible for ensuring that compliant
goods are imported in accordance with the law of the place. Importer is
responsible for filing legally required documents.
As I said above, get yourself an LLC! But when would it be reasonable for an
individual to be IOR (importer of record)? Let’s say you’re on Amazon as a
customer, and you see a totally adorable owl necklace, or THE perfect leather
wallet for a great price. You then purchase it, and enter in your shipping details
so that the item can ship from China. By putting in your details and allowing it
to ship you by mail, you are personally the importer of record from China.
Why is it alright to be an individual importer in this context? I’m harping on
you getting an LLC, and now I’m saying it’s OK to be an individual IOR? It is
because the item is classified for personal use, not resale. Your legal liability is
virtually nil if you’re the one using it; you can’t sue yourself for importing faulty
or dangerous products. But think about that now in the context of a whole
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SHIPMENT of adorable owl necklaces, or perfect leather wallets, for resale to
people everywhere who can sue you...
Q: What are the legally required documents? A: It depends largely on what product you’re importing, but typically you can expect to include security filings, bill of lading, commercial invoice, and HTS classification.
New sellers, please review this basic importing and exporting information
from US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). It’s packed with useful
information.
Experienced sellers (or those buying large ocean going freight all at once),
check out this book (literally, a book) with everything you need to know about
importing into the US.
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Q: What are we talking about when we reference penalties or failures to declare properly when you’re the IOR?
A: Check out the following 2 videos. You definitely do not want to be on the wrong side of CBP.
CBP News: Unsafe Mattresses
CBP News: Unsafe dolls
Q: What are Incoterms?
A: Incoterms are a set of rules which define the responsibilities of sellers and buyers for the delivery of goods under sales contracts. They are published by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and are widely used in commercial transactions.
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The terms found in the column marked FCA is most common for air freight,
while FOB is most common for ocean freight. DDP (Delivery Duty Paid) is also
a common air freight shipment method, wherein the seller is fully responsible
until delivery. EXW is the exact opposite, where the buyer is responsible for
nearly every part of the transportation, freight, clearance, and insurance.
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This infographic shows us that the responsibility for loss transferred to the
Buyer upon being loaded onto the boat – this means Customs filings, legal
responsibility, etc. However, the seller insured the shipment and paid for the
boat transportation, rather than the Buyer, leaving the Buyer to insure the
shipment and arrange transportation after arrival.
Here is a nicely detailed example for CIF:
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In this case, the ownership transfers at the point at which the container crosses
the bow of the ship.
Here’s another visual way to imagine this for FOB:
Why do Incoterms matter?
1. You need to know who’s legally responsible for the shipment, and who is
the official IOR. If it’s you, you’re on the hook for the filing and for the legal
compliance of the product.
2. You need to plan for additional costs if you’re shipping anything other than
DDP. With EXW, you must get quotations and manage costs for the entire
supply chain, which is why pricing can be so attractive with that term.
3. If something goes wrong – say your container falls off the ship, or a machine
smashes the container while loading – the terms clearly spell out who
owned it, who insured it, and whose loss that shipment is.
Check out this video that explains Incoterms in a very accessible way.
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Q: What are the usual timelines for reorder? A: Re-order is dependent on a few different key factors.
1. Factory production lead time (raw materials purchasing, production,
inspection/shipment)
2. Port of export and port of entry
3. Holiday schedule (very little happens in February in countries that follow the
lunar new year, such as China, or Vietnam)
Interactive Map of Ports of Entry: https://www.cbp.gov/contact/ports
Here is a reasonable timeline you can expect for a reorder:
Place Re-order May 1
Factory sources materials May 21
Factory produces product May 31
Inspection and Shipment June 11
Ocean Freight July 5
Customs Clearance July 18
Prep & Truck Shipment July 31
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Typically, the import supply chain is about 12 weeks. With your first order,
which is at best 12 weeks, we save a lot of time by going air freight, which
typically takes 5 days instead of closer to 5 weeks, with all shipping, loading,
transit time, and so on factored in.
For domestic shipments, the factory lead time is far more important than
any other factor. This is because most shipments can travel by truck or rail
within the United States within a week, about the same timeframe as air
shipment overseas. Some smaller factories can produce and ship within a
week, making your re-order time only a few weeks, and some factories in the
US are so busy that you’ll be in line for months before your next order can be
completed.
An important note – Mexico and Canada are both import countries, but the timelines
are much more similar to domestic production. So your legal responsibilities are like
an overseas import, but your reorder process and timelines are more like domestic.
Q: What can you expect working with a Chinese factory? A: This is a very broad question, and there are a lot of factories in China. But, to paint with broad strokes, you can expect a few things when working with Chinese factories.
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1. If they have any belief they can produce a product for you, they will say yes,
even if they have never done it before, don’t have the equipment, or don’t
have the expertise. If they really, absolutely don’t think they can do it, they’ll
tell you maybe. Always be specific in asking what their capabilities are so
that you can determine yourself whether they can meet your expectations.
2. You must spell everything out. When contracting in the US, you can expect
that the factories you use will ensure legal compliance is met. This is NOT
something you can assume when working with China. You must spell out
precisely which regulations, and which test methods are to be used to
verify compliance, simply saying that they must comply with US law is
insufficient.
3. Because they want your business and want you to be happy, Chinese
factories often will not clarify terms for overages or for costs if you
change your inspections AQL, or if you need a different package. They will
try to quote you the most advantageous and nice looking price up front,
to make you happy and gain your business. They know you may not know
all the costs involved, and may choose the best looking price, even if it’s
incomplete.
4. If they have agreed to terms, they will fix the problem for you. I have never
encountered a situation in which the factory failed to make a wrong right, if
the terms were discussed and agreed to before production started. They will
not try to cheat you; but you must be aware that they will also not go out of
their way if you haven’t put in the procedures to protect yourself in advance.
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China Study Tour: Brother Machinery Co. Xi’an
Brother is a Japanese company that initially began a joint venture with
a Chinese firm in Xi’an in 1993. In this location, they make low-end to
high-end industrial sewing machines as well as machine parts for large
machinery primarily located in the south of China.
Our presentation was made by a Japanese employee who was fluent in
Chinese, and reasonably good at English, although he kept distrusting
himself and switching to Mandarin and one of the Mandarin speakers
in our group would translate, usually Derek. He said that there were 11
Japanese employees at the plant, and only one of them spoke Mandarin.
Their upper level plant managerial staff all spoke Japanese, and workers
could attend Japanese courses if they wished. We found this very
interesting – this is something seen in France and Japan, I would say
most, this sense of national pride and an unwillingness to compromise
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national culture in a multinational venture. This is in reality too broad an
indictment of all Japanese and French firms. However, I do believe that
firms in China
will either
wish to speak
their own
language,
or expect
to conduct
business
in English.
I feel that
the Chinese
have not yet
attained a
level of status
in the world that would force those who wish to do business here to learn
their language. Until then, I will be pleased that my language is now the
language of the world, making my life much easier when traveling.
Our presenter wasn’t actually prepared for us when we arrived. He said
that Chinese people are usually 1-2 hours late, and thus he didn’t expect
us to be on time (we were five minutes early). Thus, some of the charts
weren’t in English, and he seemed very flustered and unsure of how to
structure what he had to say.
The most surprising part of visiting Brother was in hearing how not lean
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the processes at the plant were. Brother is headquartered in Nagoya, the
same city as Toyota, and they ascribe to lean principles and the Toyota
manufacturing method, and yet the volume of work in process inventory
just sitting on the factory floor was staggering. The workers also weren’t
wearing hard hats or safety equipment, but that is probably beside the
point. The company’s core values, dress code, and team metrics were
posted in prominent places in the factory. But, I just couldn’t get over the
volume of inventory lying about – it was clearly not a just in time sort of
operation.
The most interesting part of the presentation to me was the discussion
of profit, or lack thereof, in the operation. Brother already makes virtually
no profit on their lower-end sewing machine, which retails for $300, and
is primarily intended for markets such as Bangladesh. They do quite well
on their high end machines, but the presenter was saying that wage
increases and logistics difficulties in transporting parts and finished
goods were seriously eating into the potential profits of the business.
I really appreciate the time that Brother gave us in Xi’an. This was a real
business tour, not a sanitized version for public consumption. We got
a real picture into difficulties running an outsourced manufacturing
business in China... something China is famous for in business worldwide...
the ways in which it wasn’t a successful venture, and the ways in which it
was.
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China Study Tour: U.S. Embassy
As much as I like to complain about my country, I am, like many
Americans, very patriotic. There would be no sense in complaining unless
I actually cared about the place that I live. So, it was really fun to see and
visit the U.S. Embassy in Beijing for that reason only – seeing the Great
Seal of the United States of America. It took awhile to get inside, though,
due to security measures. Since my name was submitted with my old
name, it was confusing to the officers. Three of us in the group have
different names, due to marriage, and apparently this completely threw a
monkey wrench into their well-oiled security machine. In all seriousness,
though, the security was quite good just to get inside to see the Marine
military guard. The doors are strong, and there are multiple doors to get
through before you’re inside. It makes me feel happier about the level
of security that our diplomats and local staff enjoy when working at the
Embassy.
The presentation by Rosemary Gallant of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce
was the most candid and realistic picture of doing business in China that
we’d seen or heard . She was very clear about what the U.S. government
could and couldn’t do in terms of facilitating trade, advising companies,
and working to improve the balance of trade. Being there made me want
to apply for the Foreign Service again.
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Some of the most interesting things she told us:
• 30% of the water supply is contaminated
• 20 new nuclear sites are under construction (none have been
approved in the U.S. since Three Mile Island)
• There are 53 open positions in Rosemary’s team, but she has only 40
employees due to the hiring freeze
• 70% of healthcare costs are incurred by urban population, but 70% of
the population is rural
• All Americans visiting China should assume that they are being
watched, and their goods are subject to snooping at any time
Overall, the visit to the Embassy painted the clearest picture so far
of what American businesses would really need to deal with when
doing business in China. Also, the bathrooms were standard American
bathrooms – it was heavenly.
And I didn’t see any pictures of children or butterflies anywhere.
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China Study Tour: ENN – Butterflies and Children
The visit to ENN was interesting for a number of reasons, not the least
of which was that it was very clearly a marketing presentation. The first
place we went into was a very expensively decorated room, with TV
screens and interactive display. The history of energy usage was told in
the “progress” perspective, and was concluded with a presentation on
“clean coal.” After the visit, I discussed with some of the others on the trip
that there really isn’t any such thing as clean coal – just potentially less
dirty coal. I understand they’re using “clean” to refer to the burning of the
coal, but I think that any “clean” energy technology needs to be viewed
in aggregate before saying that it is, in fact, clean. Upon leaving the first
building, we saw a video of children laughing and butterflies.
The second manufacturing site we visited was for solar energy. This was
actually quite fascinating, as I didn’t realize that solar panel technology
has changed so much in the past decade. No longer is a clunky large
silicon based panel necessary; thin-film technology fits between two
sheets of glass. Potentially, an entire high rise could be powered only
by its windows. Even here, though, in such a high-tech area – and there
were a lot of machines, this was not a labor heavy manufacturing center
– there was a leaky roof, and a sketchy walkway that made people in the
group feel slightly uncomfortable walking on it.
The last area we visited was the algae facility. This was merely a
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demonstration facility, the real gas production from algae facility is
in Inner Mongolia. The machines looked a lot like flash pasteurization
machines that I saw at Beecher’s cheese in Seattle.
Overall, the work they’re doing is very interesting, and it’s good to see
that China is so concerned with green energy and green technology.
I simply found it rather suspicious how impressive and developed the
presentation was – and there were five other groups that day other than
us – and it makes me wonder what exactly they aren’t saying.
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Q: What can you expect working in other parts of the world?A: For the most part, you can expect working in SE Asia to be similar to working in China, except even more willing to please and work hard for their customers. They like import shipments because usually they can charge more, and it helps increase their prestige with other potential buyers to supply to the US or Europe.
If you’re sourcing from Africa, you can
expect longer shipping times, more
delays overall, and the potential for
higher “fees” or corruption charges.
This can be seen in nearly all less
affluent parts of the world where
customs inspectors augment their
income through careful search of your
shipment for errors.
In my experience, sourcing from the
Indian subcontinent can be a real trial
for US based sellers because they’re
not aware of how manual everything
is in this region of the world. Products
are often made by hand, packaged
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Trip to India - Entry 8 - Full day in Delhi
Yesterday was a less early morning than the morning before, with a wake
up call at 6:30 rather than 2am. That’s always good.
In the morning, we went to Hewitt, an HRO – Human Resources
Outsourcing – company. I found their optimism and can-do attitude
particularly worthy of note. All of us found a great deal of negativity
in the readings we had about India for our papers before arriving. For
example, comments about the infrastructure, which is to our minds
quite terrible, or about a lack of potential qualified workers for the BPO
industry. And yet, the speakers mentioned oh yeah – we do have to have
our own generators and we do need to provide a shuttle service for our
employees, or yes, it takes four years to fully train someone on our system,
so it’s a really big deal if someone is lost due to attrition – which would
all appear to be huge issues, but the attitude was that it was no biggie.
If I were in the position of deciding where to open a new call center,
by hand, transported by hand, and loaded into containers with hand dollies.
Because everything is done by hand, there are a lot of places for errors, and
frequent inspections are required to ensure consistency of quality.
Here’s an excerpt from a business study trip I took to India a few years ago,
visiting a factory in Gurgaon (north of New Delhi), and some other local color
aspects of visiting factories in this part of the world...
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I believe that the additional cost of running my own generators and
shuttling my employees around would be a factor – it makes me wonder
how long India can maintain cost leadership when wages keep rising and
infrastructure is still such a huge issue for new ventures.
Another aspect of the company visit I found to be very interesting were
the people we got to talk to. One of our speakers, Akshay, is head of
global talent acquisition – not just Indian talent, but ALL talent acquisition
globally. That guy is pretty high up, and he showed up and was like hey…
what’s up? It’s really quite amazing, the kind of people we’ve been given
access to here in India.
One of the items I found very interesting from the Learning &
Development manager who spoke was the training program they have
for new associates. This reminds me of the training that is necessary for
associates in my department in Amazon. American associates can get
by on minimal training and reliance on “tribal knowledge” – and while I
personally feel that this is not ideal, most associates will do fine on this
model. I have yet to meet a German or Indian associate who can manage
without significant written material and clearly drawn out SOPs. I find
this cultural difference in terms of training and individual expectations
regarding self-sufficiency to be fascinating. Indian associates at Hewitt
also have their career progressions mapped out for them by their
managers. Those of us speaking about this at our lunch table agreed
that one of the primary factors in our career development was our own
engagement in the process, and willingness to both manage up and
manage down in an effort to make our own career progression happen.
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It is interesting to me to speculate on the value of engendering such
intense self-driven attitudes in one’s American employees, while other
locations worldwide are far more paternalistic in nature.
Our second visit of the day was to the Gurgaon manufacturing plant of
Hero Honda, a joint venture between the Indian Hero group and the
Japanese company, Honda. Their sales of 100cc two wheel motorbikes in
the past decade have been astounding, and the growth has simply been
exponential since the effects of 1991’s liberalization policies began to have
an effect on the disposable incomes of Indian workers. The ability of even
relatively poor people to purchase these items now was my personal
major takeaway from this presentation – it took Hero Honda 20 years to
sell 10 million bikes (they began their venture in 1984). They sold another
10 million from 2004 to 2007, and sold 5 million from 2007 to 2009. That
kind of growth is simply mind boggling.
The visit to the manufacturing floor was amazingly impressive, as there
are three production lines producing a bike every eighteen seconds,
thus the plant produces one bike every six seconds – there are three
plants doing this, and thus Hero Honda produces a motorbike every two
seconds. It was incredibly noisy, busy and fascinating – and I couldn’t hear
a word our guide was saying. One item upon which nearly all the females
in the group agreed – the guy at the engine room assembly line putting
on the green squares was definitely hot.
Since our company visits took so much time, we didn’t have much time
for shopping as planned, but instead went to the Cottage Industries
Emporium to check out some of the items there. There was some pretty
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amazing stuff there, but what in the world I would ever do with a life size
wooden carved statue of the Buddha, I have no idea.
We then went traipsing through Delhi on our empty stomachs to get
to our restaurant. It is amazingly dirty. The smells, the general state of
disrepair throughout much of the city actually reminds me quite a lot
of Yangon, Myanmar. The major difference is that this is ALL that Yangon
is, while Delhi is also high rises, Mercedes, and Hero Honda. You would
never see such an incredibly complex and high quality manufacturing
venture in Myanmar. Also, I think the attitude is a major difference – most
Burmese people I met had a very laissez-faire attitude and didn’t think
twice about toilets not functioning, or the fact that half the sidewalk had
been torn up months before and nothing had been done about it – in
India, the toilets sometimes don’t work and the sidewalks are torn up –
but I get the impression that when asked, someone will attempt to fix
the toilet, and the sidewalk will eventually get repaired.
The food, once we finally arrived… was quite good. I really love the naan
and the sauces – those seem quite safe and delicious to me. The meats,
I’m very leery of, and am unable to eat more than a few bites before
caution takes over. I feel the same way about any dairy or water. I have
only two weeks here – the last thing I need is to be puking and or on the
toilet for a significant part of it.
We finally made it to India Gate – a tomb of the unknown soldier sort of
affair – around 10pm. The hawkers there weren’t quite as insistent as the
ones at the Taj Mahal, and generally responded well to a firmly spoken
NO. They laugh if you say Nahin, in case anyone tries to get you to use that
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if you ever visit India. A firmly spoken NO will get you much farther than
a polite Nahin. Anyway, it was a lovely monument, and a fitting end to a
very long day. I think most of us passed out pretty quickly last night – at
least, I know I did.
This morning, shopping is planned, as well as checking out and flying
to Mumbai. Our airline is on strike, so we might be having to travel on
another airline. Apparently, this is also a frequent issue in India – lot of
strikes. A lot of Indian culture reminds me of southern Europe…. And
striking at the drop of a hat reminds me of nothing so much as Italian
train employees.
But for now… getting ready for a new day, and giving thanks for a healthy
stomach, clear head, and healthy nasal passages…. And we all want to
keep it that way.
p.s. The internet here.... really, really really REALLY is lame. I have no idea
how people deal with this.
Trip to India - Entry 21 - Accenture
This morning, I woke up itching like crazy due to the many bug bites that
appear to have been multiplying on my legs in the past couple of days.
As I am one of those who elected against taking nasty malaria pills, I can
only hope that I do not get the still nastier reason for taking those pills,
malaria.
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Today, we have Accenture in the morning and Boeing in the afternoon.
Never say we didn’t get to visit some significant places of business while
here in India - when I signed up for the tour, I didn’t even realize how
much we would be doing and seeing.
There were two significant parts of the Accenture visit - the first was the
talk given by the Managing Director of Accenture India, Sandeep Arora,
and the second was meeting the mid-level managers and speaking with
them.
Sandeep’s message was that the growth of India means good things for
overall economic growth in the world, and that thinking with an attitude
of scarcity is a negative course of action whenever it is chosen. However,
I think that this attitude is quite understandable, given what I’ve seen
here in India. At Hewitt, Indian managers were discussing how best to
move the non-entry level positions to India after having moved nearly all
entry level positions - other than governmental support positions which
couldn’t be moved - from North America. At Accenture India, Sandeep
took over a group of 15,000 employees in 2006, and in 2009, Accenture
India employs 40,000 people. As an American, one who is working in a
department where more than half of the operations staff are in India,
how am I supposed to look at this as an opportunity? This is a time of
opportunity for Indians and for upper level American managers; I do not
see this as a time of opportunity for the average American wanting to get
an entry level job in HR - because those jobs don’t really exist anymore in
the United States.
However, I noticed the same problem with the person who spoke before
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Sandeep that I noticed with the Christ U MBA students. One of our group
asked a big picture question, and the speaker went off on a tangent filled
with interesting data tidbits that really had nothing to do with answering
the question. I was honestly surprised to see this tendency with someone
who had so much experience at what is, after all, a global company.
My colleague asked his question three different times, with different
phrasing each time, and still got the same non-response. I also found it
interesting that this speaker was so convinced that India will continue to
be a low cost leader. It would seem from what we’ve learned on the trip,
that cost of living and wages in India are rising at exponential rates. In
light of this, it would seem odd to suggest that the cost of doing business
in India will remain the same without some sort of significant change
in the status quo. One final question which was asked was regarding
intellectual property laws. India has great intellectual property laws on
paper, but truly lax enforcement of those laws, which places the onus of
protection of IP upon the business itself.
It actually seems as though this is a common story in the Indian
businesses we visited - they were all very independent in their
development - choosing generators and their own developmental
structures over reliance on existing infrastructure (because the existing
infrastructure wouldn’t be able to handle the need), and treating it
as simply a by product of having to do business in India. While that is
obvious, it begs the question - can a business which must act like a self-
contained capsule actually be a cost-savings model for the future? Or are
the cost savings achieved by outsourcing to India merely a short term
window of opportunity which will be over within the decade before
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companies move on to cheaper and cheaper destinations?
We did get some great book recommendations from Sandeep, however:
Innovator’s Dilemma, Driven and Tipping Point.
The meeting with the mid-level manager was also very interesting.
She was surprised to see all the notes that Kyle and I had taken during
the lectures, and said that while her team used to be all entirely in the
US, now there’s a whole team in India, and one contact point person
in the US who continues to lead and direct the team at the wishes of
the client. If India is ever to break the mould of just being the “go-to”
person for cheap, intelligent English speaking labor, it would seem to be
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necessary that the leadership on these projects move to India, otherwise,
the entire Indian team is just as replaceable as the entire US team was
before it. Again, as an American seeing a massive recession in the US that
isn’t likely to recover soon due to a lack of jobs, I don’t find any of this
particularly comforting, in spite of being told that an attitude of scarcity
isn’t helpful.
Sourcing in Europe is similar to sourcing in the US, in terms of the quality
and sophistication of the suppliers. I have visited factories in Portugal
that were higher quality and more automated and consistent in their
production than anywhere else in the world. As with the US, however,
there are often
concerns
around
meeting MOQ,
or minimum
order quantity,
because
downtime
is the worst
aspect of
running a
high efficiency
warehouse.
The best part about sourcing in Portugal – the port wine!
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Q: What can you expect working with a US domestic manufacturer? A: You can expect that they will do better with nearly every aspect of regulatory compliance and quality than you will, and you can confidently leave this in their hands. If you can find a domestic supplier where you can still make a profit on your product, this is the method that I recommend for sourcing.
However, many industries are completely decimated in the US, and the next
best option is sourcing from Mexico or the Caribbean for freight/re-order
timelines. However, they typically can’t do high end products like complicated
machinery or anything containing electronics/electrical circuitry.
There are also a variety of ways to source and develop products innovatively
in a domestic market – you can create a network of sewists or hand crafters,
people who might try to sell on etsy, but instead you can take advantage of
their ability and time. Or, you can tap into the growing cottage industry of
manufacturing outfits in textiles and small manufacturing, where there are no
more than 5-10 employees, and quality is the name of the game. This is a good
space to be in for delivering high quality goods to your customers.
The last aspect of sourcing in the US is that it may be an option once you
have sufficient capital to purchase from the large manufacturing facilities
that do remain. Many US based manufacturers have higher MOQs for printing
on logos, or for doing custom work, so they’re only cost effective when those
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MOQs are met.
Lastly, due to regulatory issues, I highly recommend sourcing food and
supplements domestically, regardless of cost.
I hope that this information has been helpful to you, there is so much to
know! But we’ve got you covered. For help with sourcing, manufacturing, and
importing your product, you’re in good hands! Visit us to see which of our
Management Plans suits you best!
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