China's contributions to number theory

There's a Chinese proverb that says "8 and 9 aren't much different from 10". Well, that pretty much sums up how closely manufacturers will follow the specs here.

Our batteries vendors probably think that that being the case, 2 ain't terribly far off from 6 either, and so the batteries we've just received that were supposed to be taken to the lab have a cable that's too short and can't fit inside the receiver. That is after they made a pretty 3D diagram and got our sign off on it and the money.

Trying to negotiate with the lab whether we can remove the heat shrink to lengthen the cable sufficiently because that would expose the terminals (3.6V, no big deal, but you never know what the rules might be).

If we can do it we're ready for testing otherwise... one more round of batteries.

Even with connectors supplied by us these guys managed to take 2 weeks to make the batteries, then send them with wrong information so that they were sent back, then finally deliver them to us with wrong cable length, wrong cable color, and no company mark as they had promised.

Realistically we're going to have to move all manufacturing except for the plastic and rubber parts away from China at some point, because when we leave there's no way to keep the house standing. They will screw up everything. They don't care about the relationship, don't care about the order, even the money. Just don't care at all. Whatevah. Bah. Batteries. There. 2mm. 6mm. Same. Next.

On the positive side the components with the biggest lead times are on the way.

No reason to be alarmed. It's China as usual.

Comments

By lizliz at 2010-10-30 17:36:42 Reply

I've been reading about some of the issues you've had with China and am curious about a couple of things. It seems as though everything back here is 'made in China'. Is the stuff that you've gone through the same kind of stuff that everyone else who's manufacturing over there has gone through? Do you think it's just because you're the small fish that they don't pay too much attention to you?

The bar over there just seems low enough that anyone could come along and without too much effort secure a whole lot of business just by improving customer relations. That's sort of the way capitalism is supposed to work, if you see a way to make something better/cheaper/faster, you move in and make a market for it. We all hear about how China is embracing capitalism, one would think you wouldn't run into all these problems.

Maybe I'm just spoiled by dealing with US businesses and having WalMart act as a buffer between me and the Chinese manufacturers.

By dreamloverlabs at 2010-10-30 20:49:08 Reply

>The bar over there just seems low enough that anyone could
>come along and without too much effort secure a whole lot
>of business just by improving customer relations

That's exactly right. But they're not used to the way we do things in the west, for them it's normal to operate this way and to patch things up as they go along rather than provide reliability, so manufacturers who can do stuff right are rare, in high demand, and make millions of dollars in business.

Unless you're a really micro operation, or you've got enough funds to open your own factory here and send management from other countries or train them/supervise them some way, it's sometimes not even cost effective to do things here. Delays, flaws, bad shipments etc. impose a huge deterrent.

Not sure how Walmart does it. Our case is particularly bad though because the device is miniaturized, so if they screw up the battery thickness by 2mm or change the cable length by 2mm the battery becomes useless. In most cases it wouldn't make a difference.

By sub-eli at 2010-11-03 13:57:13 Reply

Typically, we get someone from here to live over there full time and babysit the factory. Look aside for a day and it all goes to hell. Once you get a couple shipping containers full of crap on the water, it's too late.