Best Practices in Manufacturing Sourcing: Single Point of Contact

Avela Corporation has been sourcing China manufacturing for our clients since 2002.

When you have been doing something like this for so long, you accumulate a lot of experience that guide your best practices in manufacturing sourcing. We plan to share these with our readers from time to time and we will start with the topic of the value of a single point of contact when manufacturing in China.

We take pride in ourselves for our transparency in China manufacturing sourcing. When Avela sources your manufacturing you know who the manufacturer is. If you want to visit the factory we will be happy to arrange it. In fact, we encourage it.

That said, experience has taught us that it is essential that Avela serve as the single point of contact for communication with the factory. There are a number of good reasons for this.

One is language. Unless our client is proficient in Mandarin, problems can arise if the client tries to deal with the manufacturer directly. It is not guaranteed that a factory will have an English speaking employee, and if they do, there is no guarantee that employee will have the technical background to understand the client’s concerns and accurately relay them to the production team. Even if the person is ideal, he or she could leave for a position with another company, leaving you high and dry.

With Avela Corporation, clients get a team on the ground in Shanghai that is fluent in English, Mandarin and local dialects. We speak English to English with our clients and Chinese to Chinese with the factory for maximum clarity in communication. By being the single point of contact, responsibility lays with us to make sure the clients’ message gets through and is properly understood.

Another reason is cultural. Avela has been bridging the cultural gap between the China and the West since 2002. With backgrounds so different, it is not unusual for offense to be taken when none is intended. We understand the sensitivities on both sides and are experienced in smoothing over differences to keep everyone focused and working on our common goal.

As far as communication goes, experience has taught us that a single point of contact is always best. We have had situations where two people in the client organization give the manufacturer differing direction. The manufacturer doesn’t object, he or she simply tries their best to reconcile the difference (again, this can be a cultural thing) and the result can end up unacceptable. The client might think the manufacturer is at fault for not bringing the differing directions to  the clients’ attention. From the manufacturer’s viewpoint, he or she was simply expected to make both people in the client organization happy as best as possible and shouldn’t be faulted for the results. The situation could have been simply avoided with a single, clearly defined and understood point of contact.

A single point of contact is also crucial when dealing with project management. Having Avela in the position of issuing payment to the factory puts us in the position of authority needed to meet client goals and expectations. Not only do we act on the clients’ behalf if any issues arise, we are experienced and work in a proactive manner to get ahead of issues before they become serious problems. We also provide the institutional memory on projects to lessen the impact of any factory staff turnover. Our experience is it just works best when a single point of contact handles all invoices, payments and communications. That said, as mentioned earlier we pride ourselves on transparency and relationship building is key to success in China. Clients know and can visit the manufacturer. If the time ever comes that client choses to become the single point of contact, Avela will aid in the transition and then step out of the project management.

Contact Avela to put our China sourcing best practices to work for your company.