How To Find a High-Quality Supplier from China (Step-by-Step)

Foreign.

Welcome to More Supply Chain. It has been a long break from the last episode that I have uploaded for you guys and there's a reason behind it. We've been crafting a lot of products to support our clients and More Supply chain fractional support. There's a little bit of rebranding ongoing for, for our fractional support and at the same time, the experience that we've had working with different brands like, like five brands that five clients that we have right now gave us the opportunity to craft and improve our current services. And the reason why we're back, and I think this is the best time to record a new session is because Gleiser and I are in China in time for the Canton Fair and at the same time visiting our vendors for the first time. So again, Lara, managing partner and CEO of More Supply Chain, More Staffing and Gleza is our CEO and managing partner of More Supply Chain. We have been practitioners in the supply chain industry for more than 15 years and we are here now to actually record this podcast and share with you the best practices that we've applied here in China and at the same time our experiences so that you learn if you have plans of visiting Canton Fair in the future or if you have plan of visiting your vendors in the future. I know that a lot of you have seen or met your vendors went to China. And so this is something that is also hopefully a huge support for those listeners who haven't done it yet and for those who have done it before and you find the result lacking or needs improvement. I hope that what we're going to discuss today could help you with your negotiation skills. Right, yeah.

By the way, please don't mind our rules. We just came from a planned visit and we just arrived at our hotel. So yeah, we just relaxing, eating our noodles, drinking some, you know, water to hydrate. So yeah, let's talk more.

Yeah, we don't want to lose the momentum of the information that we're missing. So we arrived April 30th night here in China. There's no time difference. Manila and China. So it's another advantage of someone from the Philippines handling the supply chain because we don't have a time difference. So it's the same. It's actually two hours flight. It's very, it's very near, it's somewhere near Hong Kong and Macau. So it's very near the Philippines. We arrived April 30th and we started actually April 29th night. And so the whole April 30th is more of preparation for the canton fair and plant visits and client visits. A lot of those we will discuss later on. How did we prepare what, how we communicated, how we booked our hotel or transferred from one place to another. We'll also include that in our discussion. Gleiza and I've mentioned 15 years ago of working together. It's more of a. It's a huge history between Gleza and I. We have the same college, we have the same university in college. We are both industrial engineers and. And our. And then we both have our first work as a purchasing as a buyer in ramcar which handles KFC Philippines. Tokyo. Tokyo. Mr. Donut and we met there and we, we actually worked together. We didn't met, we didn't meet there. We worked together for, for a few years before we have our own families and started building our businesses together. So this is a, this business more supply chain is a collaboration between me and Gleiza and when I started using, when I started planning to launch this service to our clients. One the requirement that I have is Gleissa should be the one leading this product because I cannot.

You trust me so much.

I cannot think of anyone who will be helping me and supporting me in building supply chain for the brands, E Commerce brands other than Glyza.

So and likewise like I cannot like just go into a business that especially for a supply chain business. That's not without Lara because she's an expert more than anything else. Yeah.

And I hope that our experience in the industry before so just a very quick background. I know that a lot of our listeners are some are newcomers in the industry and E Commerce and some, some are veterans who has experience working with multinational companies, international companies. And so it's a, it's a mix and for those who are in the younger generation or younger business owners, there has been a. A huge shift of working supply chain in a corporate setup as compared to E Commerce. So a lot of our experience, more than 10 years of experience working for corporate. We have to really make sure that we're getting the best practices and applying it to E Commerce and it's more of not just learning new things in applying in ecommerce but also unlearning. There's a lot of unlearning that we have to do to make sure that we can make the process simpler and more effective and efficient for a small to medium sized business. So related to this visit to China we wanted to discuss share more about our experience in our plant visit. Blaza, how old were you? And if you can share More about your age experience in and when you went to US Brazil for plant visit. So for that this is for KFC and we and, and Liza and her manager went to actually these places to meet the vendors. So this is not a new situation for us. Like we 10 years ago.

Yes, more than 10 years ago. I think like, yeah, if you can.

Share more about that experience in your Brazil.

I was really a newbie, like literally newbie. Like first, I think that was my first international like flight. We went to the US And Brazil because we were sourcing chicken for I was handling chicken commodity and so I need to go to the plant specifically in Georgia. We went there to see their production. I was so amazed how, how the, the process and the machines that they've been using was like compared to the Philippines. I mean I don't want to, you know, just compare negatively, but they're really advanced in terms of the, the machines. Of course they also do halal. Those things. Those are like the first, my first experience was really I was in awe on how, how different and in terms of the processes, it's different here, it's different there compared to the Philippines. How efficient they do it, like how fast, how their quality check those things. And of course knowing those things when you, you know, knowing what's happening in the ground, you will know more and you can, you can discuss more with your vendors and suppliers on how you can work together, strategize, do even costing negotiations, those things. You have to see the actual production, how they do it. Like are they still, you know, getting the profit that they want? Like do they use the machines? Of course that's, that's really pricey machines. They invested on that so, and also that's the reason why the price is high. Right? So those things, it, it was really a good, great experience for me. I, I, I will never forget that. Not only that, I went also to Brazil to check the plants of chicken still chicken.

I just wanted to add to that. So again, I keep sharing that there's a huge difference between supply chain corporate to supply chain E commerce. But the best practices are the same. Ten years ago we were already visiting plants, we were already traveling to different countries because 10 years ago we were getting chican not only from the Philippines, but also from us, Brazil and other countries. So imagine the limitation of of course the number one product of KFC is chicken. So we cannot just rely on one source that's alternative vendors. Although we have a lot of chicken poultry in the Philippines, it's not enough. We actually build Our own. I as I remember had a project of building their own poultry. But aside from that it's not enough. And so we need supply from us, we need supply from, from Brazil. So it's not a very new situation wherein you will find an alternative vendor to protect your number one product for kfc. That's, that's chicane.

Yeah, right.

So that is planned visit and at the same time for the fair a lot of local fairs is also happening has happened in the Philippines and aside from that, there are fares in Singapore for oils, there are fares in Malaysia, there are fairs in the United States and others that we have attended. But why? The first one that I would like to share is why. I hope you can see that. Why attend a fair? Why attend a fair like Canton Fair? What's the advantage of coming here instead of just communicating with them as we usually do? We have been an E commerce supply chain for around five years, so why not just continue doing the sourcing remotely with, with his clients and why attend the fair? And I wanted to share a very impactful experience that we've had yesterday when we were able to combine the magic of working remotely and going here to the fair. So as an example in our supply, in our more supply chain operations, we have new product lead development, project manager, supply chain manager per client. And what happened is while they are sourcing remotely for the new product developments that we have for that client, they were already asking if they are present in Canton Fair. So again it's actually holiday here in China from May 1 to 5. So there's a lot of a little bit of challenge in terms of responses and schedule. But our vendors have been very accommodating and so it made us possible to still be efficient for this trip. So as an example, as I've mentioned, our team from the Philippines sitting from his room is doing the remote sourcing online. And then after an hour of focused sourcing, he came back messaging us in Viber of all the vendors that is actually present in Kanban Fair. So imagine that the efficiency of us getting the boot number and seeing the vendors right there and then and being able to negotiate with them. Or actually just in the, in the beginning, it's not a negotiation negotiation tactic. It's more of presenting yourself, presenting your company, sharing the agenda. While we are in Tantan Fair, there's a huge impact of seeing a physical relationship when the buyer or the purchasing or the new product development or the vendor or the client is meeting the vendor face to face. So that was the first actually that.

Process, the one that Lara mentioned that our team member from the Philippines are searching or sourcing, that was done like weeks ago. They've been doing that already. So we had the list already. It's just sometimes when the client wants on the spot, I think we can find this also. So there were instances that when we're actually there already and the client requested for something we can easily source, we can easily find those vendors there with the help of our team from the Philippines as well. So that's how we did the process of actually listing all the booth numbers, the names and you know, the category. And if for later maybe we can discuss more about how, what's, what's the structure of the content Fair is really huge. So we have to like focus on a specific area first. Like a category, for example textile. We'll focus on the fabrics first. So yeah, that's, that's how we did it.

Yeah. So first is the advantage of getting sales health right there. Donetan Fair is three phase type of fair. So it's, it's there. There were two phases last April and the last phase is May one to five. So five, five days each phase and each phase there are like, like it's a five day event and there are three halls. It's hall A, Hall B, Hall C. And you will be given a catalog or a map in the first day of Canton Fair. So you will see which of the products is in hall A, B or C. So what we did, as Gleissa mentioned, we made an organized sourcing. So we make sure that we are focusing on one category per day. Because it's impossible for you to finish the, the whole process of, of walking. It's, it's.

Yeah. Even in just one category like you can, it's impossible for you to finish the whole thing. So we make sure that there's dedicated time for each client, actually for each client and even the category that we're sourcing for them.

And yeah, and it's like making sure that you also are spending a quality time to ask the vendors, ask for samples, ask for details like minimum order, quantity, lead time. Number one question for me is are you a factory or a trader? Because we want to connect directly to a factory as much as possible. There are times that or working with a trader is not, is more efficient. But as much as possible for products like that, the one we're sourcing right now, we want to make sure that we can go directly with to the factory and not. Not the middleman. So Moq minimum order, quantity, lead Time knowing or understanding more about the factory. Who are the representative present in the booth. That building, that moment of building the relationship is, is the first goal that we have agenda. And then also we were able to ask and get samples right there. And then it's in our bag. So we have a luggage, we have.

A actually bringing the luggage.

We have a luggage we bring. Because it's a lot of catalog, they are thick. A lot of samples that you can get right away. So I'm opening this to just share with you what we saw. So this is a catalog this thick for exhibitions on one hall. This is just directory of area B. There's a different catalog for area A and area C. So that is the catalog that we have. And at the same time this is something that I really find very, very advantageous is getting samples right there and then. So we're sourcing detergent sheets for two of our clients actually detergent sheets. So laundry sheets. So this is the sample of the laundry sheets that we get right away. Fabric softener sheet, grabber collar grabber sheet. And a lot of, a lot of things, A lot of things that we can, we were able to, we can test it right away. We can send this to our client and ask them to test it right away so that we can move forward to the next step in the E commerce global supply chain. Usually times after you message a vendor online, you will request a sample. It might take up to a week to one to two weeks for them to prepare the sample. And of course because they have to send it to you where you are in the globe. So the advantage is the sample, the samples that we got right away. And also for laundry products or toiletries, example for the textiles or the swatches. Yeah, the type of fabrics that we can get. And just to give you an idea, Canton Fair is five day event and on the last day they will allow you to buy the display samples at a very low price. So you should, you should stay until the last day if you wanted to get a real sample so that you can check it and bring it with you for testing. So for example, a lot of resourcing and overalls for a client. Protective gears for farmers. So we want to make sure that we communicated the requirement and the specification that we needed. Waterproof, cut, resistant. We need it flexible, stretchable. So five major requests from our clients. We communicated it with a, with a client in Camden Fair and on the last day of the event they will give us the sample overalls for that so we can check it right away. So Imagine shortening your lead time, sampling lead time from around two to three weeks to a day or a week. Because we have to wait for the last day of Canton Fair.

Great. And yeah, we also check how flexible they can, you know, they can be. Like if ever we don't, we didn't. We don't see the, the actual product that we're looking for. Say it's not yet cat proof. Can they do that if they don't have the actual sample yet? Those things. So it's really a good avenue to, to just quickly discuss things. Because it's not like the typical meeting of vendors just to give you an idea. It's not like discussing for an hour.

No.

Because it's really time sensitive for us. We take time for sure, but we make sure the quality of conversation. It can take like 15, 20 minutes, 30 minutes. But we make sure that we ask the right questions.

Yeah.

Because there's a lot of vendors that we want to talk to. Right. So we make sure we ask the right questions.

I think. Liza, I wanted to ask you, and this is out of curiosity, Charlene, what makes you stop and connect with a vendor? Because the way they are formed is like amazing. Right. You have to. We want to make sure that all of the aisle we can get, we can see them. So we cannot talk to thousands of vendors. Of course we, we walk and then we stop when we find the product. Of course, they have to be the product of our clients. But given that they are, there are lots of like, for example, laundry detergent sheets. What's attracting you to stop and talk to the representative actually?

Well, as a, as a consumer or customer first their displays, if it's really catchy, like there's a good presentation of their product. For example, those detergent sheets and other dishwasher sheets, they have, how they call that, like a visual music. They also flash their company profile right there and then. So I can already see that this company is like maybe this is a big company. Right. So we can, we can start with that. And I want to make sure that when I approach the vendor or the supplier that he, he or she will. Will really give time and he or she will. Will. Will make me feel that I'm, you know, he's his she. He's listening. Right. So unfortunately, most of, most of the vendors there's really. They really want to sell. They really want, you know, customers. So. Yeah, that's number one for me. How about you?

For me, it made me stop. If there's a, like, what do you call that? The tarpaulin or printed display that they are a factory. And oh yeah, in that print out you'll see that we are operating 15 years in the industry. We are 20 years because we want to. To work with vendors who are expert in the business but at the same time has the time to work with small, medium sized businesses.

We have one more. Yeah, also those, those vendors that are displaying their certifications, they have like big logos of certifications. And also the, the vendors or sorry the clients that they've been supplying the brand. Yeah, the brands. So but of course this doesn't mean that we're not sourcing for like the other vendors that just have simple booths.

Right.

And we have, we've experienced this already that we've found one with just a simple booth and it's just the question of what struck us or what, you know, caught our attention first.

Yeah, the communication as well. There are most of the representatives in Camden Fair speaking English speakers. However there are a few that is not really very helpful or they cannot communicate properly. So what did we do? Yeah, we have a Google Translate.

Yeah.

And Glyza keeps on doing. I'm sorry, what do you call that? Like a sign language.

I will not do that again because some, some are really good speakers. I mean they, they speak English well. So since I have like gestures. Yeah I feel like it's offensive. But yeah, they usually speak in English here pretty well, especially those in Canton Fair. But to be prepared you have to have your Google Translate app so that it's going to be more effective in terms of communication.

I wanted to share a technique of what we've done as well. So I shared something that the first one is a remote team from the Philippines is doing the sourcing online and while we are doing our sourcing internally sorry sourcing physically in Canton Fair. So it's a two way sourcing strategy when there's someone working online, someone in the physical aspect. Also it's very important to. How would you continue discussing with the vendor? So we usually just for me using an iPhone, we usually just exchange contact contact details for WeChat and WhatsApp. So from there I the way that I I am making sure that I will remember them as we. We take selfies, we take pictures, we take take picture of their calling cards and catalogs and we have a channel in Slack wherein I share that. Yeah, the deposit where we will deposit where all the, the information, the photos, the videos, the catalogs that we got E. Catalogs are also a thing here. So make sure that you ask For e catalog instead of getting that. Yeah, so. So make sure that you have notes in that. In that Slack channel or viber group or WhatsApp group. I make sure that for example, supplier number one vendor for client client, a MOQ. If there's an information lead time, are they a factory or not? There are. I actually really typ those information and then at the bottom, which is the most important for me is next steps. Next steps, connect with a vendor, ask for samples or start discussing or sending technical specifications or product specifications so they can create the sample for you. Most of our clients are have customized products. So even though we're sourcing for overalls, for example, we want to make sure that they can print. And then we will ask what type of printing do they do? What are the capacity of printings that they do? We will ask all the details that we can get from that short meetings and then we are going to make sure that they are deposited in that Slack channel again. Another remote team member from our team will be populating an Excel sheet and I hope that I will do my best to share it in this podcast. Depending on the date that this will be edited and aired. I hope that this template is available. Someone remotely is also populating the template. So the name of the vendor, years of experience, where is it located, their whole products, the catalog that they have, they have the MOQ lead time. So it's all populated in a very efficient way or organized way in Excel sheet or in Excel or sheet. And so since we have a lot of team members working remotely, Gleason and I are the only ones here in China, but there are how many? Probably 20 members working remotely. So we want to make sure that. That there's no. That all of the information that we can get will be used efficiently. And there's no gap, there's no break that we will not be able to maximize what we have, what we've gotten here in China. So the next steps there when we. When it's what's whatever is written in the next steps, that would be the first steps of our remote team and they will start communicating. So last Ming one for all the vendors that we've connected with in main one, they should already be working with them and connecting with them today. However, again it's holiday and they are in the Canton Fair. So probably we would get more information and start the ball rolling next week after the Canton Fair. I think Canton Fair wise it's just May 3rd. This is the third day. Today is the third day of Canton Fair. We Will still go back there tomorrow and on the fifth, which is the last day as a tip is to wait for the last day so that you can get as much samples as you can. They will be selling their displays for a very low and discounted price. They cannot give it to you on the first and second day because they need it to be 100% complete for all of the participants of Canton Fair. So we are going to bring our big bags on the last day to make sure that we get the samples.

We need extra by the lunch so we'll buy more. Yeah, that's. But yeah, in between our visit in the Canton Fair, we also meeting other vendors.

Yes, it's part two and I think I'll have to prepare. I'll pause it for, for, for the time. But, but before that I wanted to quickly share with you. I have been sharing this actually in many podcast episodes that I have Twitter if you're following me and in blogs that we have. It's a quality control in a global supply chain setup. Where's our plaque of appreciation? So we have been working with this client for five years I think.

Five years. Five years.

So they are the trust. I gave a lot of information, even discount codes in Twitter. We've been working with them for five years now. They are doing pre shipment tests, plant audits, plant factory, factory audits during production, QC check and at the same, a lot of certifications test. So I mentioned some of those later on. But yeah, again they are the biggest production inspection company here in Asia. They have inspectors in China, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, India, Pakistan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia. So they have around 460 full time inspectors all over Asia. They have four testing labs and 600 plus employees. So they are a very big company. But you'll really be surprised how they are doing the white glove service to all of their clients. Like for example Wendy shown in this picture. So we visited their office and plan and so this is me, Gleiza, Wendy and the manager. We've been working with Wendy for five years and this is the first time that we meet in person face to face. And so that's a side trip that we did yesterday. Their office is very near the location.

Of content because we are always recommending this third party in QA to our clients. That's one of our recommendations for their products. We want to make sure that the quality standard is, is high and so fortunately I think they're very open. Most of our clients are already using VTrust and our upcoming clients for sure will also benefit from this partnership. That we have with VTrust. Yeah.

So guys, a question for you. How would you compare the quality control checking in our setup before corporate work as compared to E commerce global supply chain? Like how do you make sure that if you're. If you're like vendor, if your vendor before is local as compared now that they are somewhere around the globe a.

Totally different like ball game. Like it's. It's a different standard. It's international standard for sure. So in E commerce I really am a third party QC is really recommended because we are remote. We don't see the actual production from time to time compared to when we were still in corporate. Yeah we can just easily go there and check the QC manager what's happening. Those things we can easily see through the actual production and give comments and those things. But now that we are in this E commerce era, we need a support that will do this qc our eyes.

And ears, wherever they are, wherever your supplier is. And I bet you as a listener, aside from the sample, if you're the new, usually the owners are the new product development. They start the new product development. So if you're an owner or, or the founder who's doing the development, you probably have seen samples. Of course they have sent you samples. You ask them for any revisions, you got the final samples, you approve, you sent the PO etc, of course you've done that. But after that I don't think that your warehouse is just beside you in your office or I bet you're working remotely and your warehouse is in the other state. So from China it will be shipped via sea or via air to your warehouse. They will receive it there and you don't have the visibility anymore. Imagine what could be the negative impact of that. If a defective product has shipped and sailed to your warehouse, it's not just wasted money on the products that you've paid. It's also the shipment cost, how expensive that is. If it's flown via air, it's super expensive. And then you'll find at the end of the delivery that the product is defective. So a lot of you haven't worked in with a third party qc. And not only we trust there are other options. You feel free. We don't earn from this. We are just sponsored audio, not sponsored. We're a loyal customer of BE trust from our experience. But there are also other third party that you can check.

I mean they're very professional, they're very quick in terms of response. Just to give an idea, when we were meeting in the, in their office, we Just asked something like, do you have like a sample reports on this kind of product category? And then they just say, okay, I'll get back to you on that. And then I think five minutes after we're just discussing, then they just presented the actual sample of reports. So they really are experienced and they're big and reliable for sure. And they know what they're doing. And we cannot emphasize enough how we want to recommend their company as a third party.

So we will be sharing this and like probably scan and share this with you. These are the prices.

So just here's the link.

Yeah, there's a link of the website. These are the whole list of their products or the services that they do. It's like a lot of compliance, testing, evaluation, testing. Also prices are here. So we'll share this price. Yeah, we'll share this. And also their booklets will share if they have E catalogs, what are the products and product evaluation and testing scopes that we that they do. What are the products that they inspect? Do you have is your products under this category?

Yeah. And they can accommodate special requests in terms of what, what kind of test do you want? A specific request that you, you may want might be not in the list, but they can accommodate that as well. All right.

And in the show notes of this podcast we will be sharing the links of the videos because I recorded our 30 minute meeting with them, for example, if you have time and I encourage you when you're driving, listen to that meetings and learn from it. At the same time, we also filmed the office visit. So you will see the team members that they have. They have their own warehouse, they have their own testing R and D rooms in that building. There are customer service who will be receiving your request. They have the technical people there and the international team that translates the resort into Korean, a lot of Japanese, a lot of different Portuguese, Spanish, a lot of different languages that they can translate. So I think if you have questions regarding VTrust, we'll be sharing links information in show notes. That's the second topic that we had. The last topic that we'll be sharing with you today is the experience of actual negotiation and planned visit. So what this entails, what are the agenda that we have? So I'll pause this video very quickly for tea time, but we'll be back. Okay. And we're back with our tea's tea.

Time goes to tea real quick.

So we have our jasmine and chrysanthemum tea here and our biscuit. So thank you for giving us time. All right. So the third part that we would like to share with you is actually a very important discussion which is the plant visit or the factory visit that we've done earlier today. One client of ours who's selling medical devices, wellness product. So this is a new product, this vendor is supporting a new product and launching a new product. The major challenge that our client has mentioned is that it took a longer period of time or lead time in developing the new product. They started last year, late last year, which of course we all know that the Chinese New Year made it more complicated to develop a new product at those times. And so from an estimate of a month development, it's now more than three months actually, right, for four months. And so the main purpose, the main agenda of our visit is of course to this is the first time that we're meeting the vendor first is of course, of course building relationship, understanding their capacities, their capabilities, their team members and meeting their team members, their managers and at the same time making sure that we can discuss end to end supply chain topics like minimal order, quantity, cost, lead time, payment terms. And so the agenda is to make sure that we can discuss that end to end supply chain capabilities, see their actual production plant, their factory, and at the same time discuss any challenges that we have. Of course we want to start first with building relationship, followed by just visiting and roaming around the factory and at the same time, at the end of it, it's the major negotiation part and at the same the challenges. Discussing the challenges. So I think for today, what was your key insight or take away in what's the best achievement that we've done in this visit?

We were able to find out why there were delays. So that's really the pain points of our client or the specific product that they're producing. They want to know what's happening with the product. So by doing the actual plant visit, we were able to find out that there are lots of processes that were not discussed, were not included in the actual total time that were given to the, to our team member. So instead of I said like one month, it should be like two months, right in terms of the processes that's involved in producing the specific products. So I think that's of course that we hit our goal to know what else.

I think from that lead time we were able to support and enhance the process by discussing with them keeping raw materials. So I shared this in one of the podcasts, I think with Andrew Faris. But the main agenda or the goal of keeping raw materials is to skip or to avoid the lead time of ordering the raw materials. So the process is as you receive the po, they will input in the ERP system. They will be advising their planning department to purchase the raw materials. And the raw materials procurement will take 10 to 14 days.

Actually, yeah, that's a good point. Just knowing how much raw materials are they keeping for us, actually, that's also a good information to know because we don't know if they need to buy materials once we place the po, how long will it take to buy those materials? But knowing that, for example, they have like at least 500 or 1000. 500. 1000.

They said that they have a thousand worth of raw materials. They can produce 1000 worth of finished product from that raw materials. But that was, that is for the whole clients that they have. So the negotiation that we've done there is, and the support that we've done is we are asking if they can keep 500 worth of raw materials just for our client. Just to make sure that when we send the po, they can start right away with producing the 500 pieces. For example, our po is 1,000 pieces. They will then order for the replenishment of that raw material stuffing while producing. And so we can continue producing another 500 once the raw material has arrived. And so it's a huge improvement in lead time as you're slashing out the 14 days raw materials support. And it's always a discussion of how you can support the vendor as well. For example, the raw materials of the product is not very expensive and they can keep more. The negotiation we've done earlier is can we help you pay the raw materials worth 500 units, and then you will be stocking or keeping raw materials worth 500 units paid by you, especially for our company or only for the brand. So in total, we supported them with 500 worth of raw materials, and then they supported us with 500 worth of raw materials. In total, we have 1,000 pieces worth of raw materials with them. In that case, we can order a thousand pieces without having to wait for 14 days for the lead time of the raw materials. And as we place our po, as we place our po, they will then replenish these stocks, the raw material stocks that they have. So that's, that's, that's the main, actually the main agenda, and a very successful one, is understanding their lead time and improving, Improving, improving it also, you know, those are the.

I feel, I feel like that's the top one. Top one too, right? The lead time and the raw material. And another thing is since this is a new product that we've. They're producing for us, for our client. We saw the actual products. Yeah, yeah. And specifically the packaging and we saw how we can improve further. Yeah. So it might not be for this batch of order. Yeah. Because it's actually produced. It's produced already. But moving forward, we can recommend to our clients how can we further improve. Like for example, we saw that, you know, the finish of the packaging can cause fingerprints and can easily get dirty.

Because it's white and it's matte. The packaging is white and it's matte. And so adding a layer of glossy. Yes, finish is going to be helpful, but it's not. It's for the next order. So it's being able to see the actual product, their production, the capacity of their machines, even their handling. Yeah. Like we got all the information from since we have the tour that we will also be sharing the link in the show notes. When we had the tour, we saw the capacity of the cutting machines, the accessories. At the same time, the one the QC testing internal. Because of course we trust that we've mentioned is a third party, but at the same time they have an internal members as well. So the internal QC members to do the internal testing. And we've seen the stock that they have when they said that they have raw material stock. Is it true? Is it really there? We've seen it verified verification. Because your vendors can say that they stopped raw materials for you, but in reality they don't have it. So those are the massive advantages of having the actual visit and meeting them.

And I think, yeah, one more point is we saw that they've been producing the same products for other clients. So we will know more about how we can position ourselves.

Right.

It's a class our client. So how, how much are they. They producing a day, their capacity? And so we know like, are we like 50% of their business? Are we like just 5%? Those things. So 1% or just 1%?

Yeah. Just to give you an idea, our clients order is 2,000 pieces and they are getting 20,000 pieces from other clients. So we are very, we're very happy that this client is treating us fairly as compared to other clients that more bigger. But at the same time we want to position ourselves into what are the growth that we can do with them. Probably we cannot increase our order to 10,000 pieces, but we can order different new products.

Yeah, actually that's, that's, that's good. We saw other products that they can produce and our client has been into new Product development, I think that's the goal for this year. And so we can recommend and we got samples actually of those products that they're currently producing. And we might, you know, our client might, might see a potential of those products that maybe he can also do similar or. Yeah, maybe similar products or the same category products.

Yeah, we've seen a lot of innovative products that they do for other clients. And so that's something that we can. It's a good news for our client is to share that they can do it also as well. And they have been producing another product that is a major product of our existing clients. So again, they can be an alternative vendor of these products. It's not. Since they are an existing.

Anyway, there's a lot of opportunities there. Like not only. I'm not sure if the vendors are. Well, some might not be like into like don't visit our plant. Yeah, like. But to be honest, this can be. This is a win win situation for the client and for the vendor because the opportunity is there. Once the client see the production and see products, it might be an opportunity for them to sell more to that client. And it's the same thing for us. For the client. We can see the products, the opportunity for us to sell and to produce the same product. It's a win win situation.

Yeah, we've seen other brands, big brands, competitor brands, they have. It's very informative and helpful to know that they are being trusted by big brands. And so that's good. And of course we've tackled not just lead time, but also minimum order, quantity, discussions, pricing. I actually did a strategy of open costing earlier. I will be. You will be hearing more of that in the video. I will not discuss that in detail in this podcast, but check the link and listen to the recording or the recording of the meeting because that's something that you want to. Although it's hard to establish and accomplish the open costing strategy in the first meeting, it would be very helpful if you can do it in person rather than online. So I've given the idea of open costing and if they are, of course it's something that the owner of the company has to approve. So we've given the idea, we've shared why you'll hear in the recording, why are we requesting it? What's the purpose? What's the advantage to them as their vendor and what's the advantage for us as the diet. It's a win win situation. It's a win win situation strategy. And so I hope you learn from, from, from that part and then now so in the next few days we'll be hearing more about the result of that negotiation. I will, I will update you on that. So price negotiation, lead time, MOQ relationship building. We got samples, we see the factory. It's, it's, it's how many hours, three to four hours of spending time in this vendor, in this client, in this manufacturing plant. And I, and I believe that we've gotten a massive advantage.

We've even talked about their other businesses.

Yes. Yeah.

Not only the products that they've been producing for us, but other businesses. And yeah, it's also an opportunity for us to know case we have that business we might, you know, and the client has other factories as well that they want us to visit. Unfortunately we don't have time.

But, but yeah, it's just May 3rd. It's just May 3rd. We're here, we're here until May 9th. Tomorrow is, is another visit. On May 5th is Canton Fair. May 6th is another visit. Seven, eight until we fly back on the, on the 9th of May. So a lot of learnings opportunities that we're going to share and record for now. This is the three part three topic that I think is very important to share with you. First is the candle fair. Second is the VTrust third party QC inspection. And third is our first planned visit. And if you're looking to visit and attend the Canton Fair next year, hopefully you can because it's a huge experience. It's a great experience for you. You ask the business owner if you have time, plan it ahead. Plan it ahead. Gather the data before flagging. Make sure that you're ready with negotiations and information. If you can't do it, we can do it for you. And at the same time, if you have a team member, if you have a team member that can fly here to represent you, that's a very great idea. Having a fractional support or someone in the. In. In some. A member remotely working for a supply chain flying here to visit your vendors if you don't have time. But again, it's a good way. Guangxi. I'm not sure how to pronounce it properly but building relationship with Chinese vendors is very important. And I hope that you've learned.

Yes.

Something from us today as much as.

We'Re learning in our robes.

Yeah. Certainty. And, and I hope that Lysa and I were discussing in the future we can also visit Vietnam.

Yeah, we plan to India, Asian countries, India name it. We, we will plan for it. But yeah, for now it's we'll ask.

Our kids if they allow us to travel again because we left our our boys. Yes, in the Philippines. But yeah, the goal is to do the do the visit and share as much information with you so that you can learn from our trips and experiences. As Gleisse said, as much as we're learning, we are practitioners for more than.

15 years, but we're still learning.

We keep on learning and we're very happy to share that learnings and best practices with you.

So for that, until next time, let's see.

I'm not sure, but whatever the chrysanthemum just. Yeah. Thank you for staying in and and listening to our experiences, craziness and us. Yes, yes. And I hope that you continue to support our supply chain podcast. We will record more for you next time. Until next time, by.