Guide
Guide
Contract manufacturing in China: how a custom order runs
You bring the design. A factory in China builds it, and someone has to hold the order to your drawing all the way to your door. This guide covers what to have ready, the steps, what drives the price and where these orders tend to go wrong.
The basics
What contract manufacturing means
In contract manufacturing the product is yours: your design, your specification, often your brand. The factory brings the machines, the materials and the labour, and builds to what you approved.
Buyers also call it OEM work. When a factory adapts a design of its own and puts your brand on it, that is usually called ODM. Buying from a catalogue is different again: the product is the factory's, and what you can change is limited.
We are a trading company, not a factory. On a custom order we find the factory that can build it, go through the drawing with it, follow the order while it is made and ship it to you.
Before you ask
What to have ready
A factory can only quote what it can see. The more of this you send, the closer the first quote comes to the final one.
A drawing, or something close
A technical drawing is best. A sketch, a photo or a sample of something similar also works; we go through it with the factory and settle the details before anything is built.
Materials and finish
What it is made of and how it should look: the steel and its coating, the plastic and its colour, the fabric and its print.
The quantity
How many, and whether the order will repeat. Quantity moves the unit price, and a repeat order can change which factory is the right one.
How it is packed
Inner packs, master cartons and labels, and whether you receive goods by the pallet or the container.
Where it is going
The delivery address, or the nearest port or rail ramp. Freight, duty and delivery are all priced to it.
The date it has to be on site
Every other date in the order is worked back from this one.
What it has to meet
Any standard, listing or test report the goods need in your market. Say so at the start, because it changes which factories can make them.
Step by step
How the order runs
This is the order the work happens in when we run a custom order.
You send the brief
The drawing, the quantity, where it is going and the date it has to be there.
We find the maker
We look for a factory that can make it to your specification. Where the product allows it, we compare more than one.
We settle the drawing
We go through it with the factory and settle the details it would otherwise guess at.
You get one landed quote
The goods, freight, the customs entry, duty and delivery on separate lines, with the dates worked back from yours.
A sample, if you want one
Quoted next to the production run. Once you sign it off, the order is held to it and to the specification.
Production
The factory builds to what you approved, on the terms written on the quote. We stay on the order from deposit to packing.
Checks at the factory
We visit while the order is made and check the goods against what you approved before they are packed.
Packing
Master cartons counted to your pallet and container plan.
Export, freight and entry
Haulage to the port, export clearance, the ocean leg, then the customs entry, filed through our broker at the tariff line on your quote.
Delivery, then the reorder
To a port, a rail ramp or your door. We keep the specification on file, so the next order is a quantity and a date.
Where it goes wrong
Where custom orders go wrong
Most problems on a custom order start before production, with something nobody wrote down.
The drawing leaves room to guess
A factory fills a gap in the drawing with its own habits, which may not be yours. Settle the dimensions, materials and finish in writing before production starts.
Production drifts from the sample
The sample was right and the order is not. What prevents it is a sample and a specification you have signed off, and a check of the goods against both before they are packed.
Changes after the deposit
A change once production has started costs time, and usually money. Make changes before the deposit if you can, and put any later one in writing with what it does to the price and the date.
Packing left to the end
Cartons that do not suit the pallet or the container waste space you pay freight on. Plan the packing when you specify the product.
The unit price taken for the cost
Freight, the customs entry, duty and delivery all sit on top of the unit price, and on bulky goods they can add a lot. Compare landed costs, not unit prices.
A date planned from the wrong end
Plan back from the day the goods have to be on site, through production, the sailing and the customs entry, at the slowest time for each.
Work out a landed costPlan back from your dateWhat the deposit and the balance are tied toPlan around the Chinese New Year shutdown
Price
What drives the price
A custom order has no price until it has a drawing, a quantity and a destination, so we quote rather than publish one. These are the things that move it.
Materials and finish
Each material and coating has its own cost, and a better finish takes longer on the line.
How it is made
More parts, more welds, more hand work and more steps each add labour.
Quantity
Setting up a run costs the same whatever follows it, so the unit price usually falls as the quantity rises.
Tooling
If a part needs a mould, a die or a jig, ask how it is charged: once, on its own, or spread across the unit price.
Packing
Custom cartons, inner packs and labels add cost, and so does packing that wastes space in the container.
Freight, duty and delivery
Bulky goods cost more to ship per unit than dense ones, and duty depends on the tariff line the goods are filed under.
From our work
What we build to drawing
The clearest example on this site is our custom LED motif displays: walk-through arches, 3D figures, light tunnels and photo-op structures, each made to a buyer's drawing, crated to fit the container and cleared through customs at the other end.
Built to drawingCustom LED motif displays
Six display types, each built to your drawing or to one we draw up from your sketch.
See the display typesSee the case studies: work described without names, with the paperwork
Questions
Questions about custom orders
Do I need a finished drawing?
No. A sketch, a photo or a sample of something close is enough to start. We go through it with the factory and settle the details before anything is built.
Can I get a sample before the order?
Ask for one with your request. If a sample run makes sense for the product, we quote it next to the production quantity.
Is there a minimum order?
It depends on the product and how it is made, and the factory sets it. Tell us the quantity you have in mind, and the first reply says whether it works.
How long does a custom order take?
That depends on the product, the quantity and the date the goods have to be on site. The order-by calendar works back from that date through production, the sailing and the customs entry, at the slowest time we plan for each. Your quote confirms the dates.
Can you work with a factory I already use?
Yes. If you name the factory, we run the order with it as your buying agent, for a fee written on the quote. You contract with the factory and pay it directly.
Request a quote
Have a drawing? Send it with the quantity and the date
We reply within 1 business day. The first reply says whether we can get it made, and by when, and the landed quote follows.
- Reply within 1 business day
- Landed cost, itemised
We take on the orders we can do well, and we will say so if yours isn't one of them.
