How to find a suitable garment factory for long-term cooperation after the epidemic

Although the epidemic has an impact on the clothing industry as a whole, the industry will "shuffle" and regroup. As a practitioner of clothing foreign trade, how to achieve a win-win situation for factories and buyers? It has always been a very challenging topic. For a long time, due to the lack of understanding of domestic factories by foreign buyers, there were many difficulties in communication during the cooperation process, which led to many problems with orders. We have summarized the following points and hope that everyone will avoid detours and work smoothly.

1. Selection of factory scale

The size of the factory is not the only criterion for judging the quality of the factory. The management system of large factories is relatively complete in all aspects, and all aspects of quality control are relatively better than small factories; but the disadvantages of large factories are the overcrowding of people and the high management cost, which makes it difficult to adapt to the current flexible production lines of multiple varieties and small batches. . Relatively speaking, the price is relatively high.

Because large orders are now becoming fewer and fewer, large factories are no longer able to meet the current demand for orders, and it is relatively easier for small factories to change varieties. Moreover, compared with large factories, the management costs of small factories can be relatively better controlled, so the scale of factories is now shrinking.

As for the automation of clothing production, currently only suits and shirts can be realized. There are also many craftsmanships for suits, and it is difficult to automate mass production for fashion. Especially for high-end customized clothing, the degree of automation is even lower. In fact, for the current garment technology, the more high-end categories require human participation, and it is difficult for automated things to completely replace all processes.

Therefore, when looking for a factory, you must: Find a factory of the corresponding scale according to your order size.

If the order is very small, but you are looking for a large-scale factory, even if the factory agrees to do it, it will not pay much attention to the order. But if the order is relatively large, but a small-scale factory is found, the final delivery time is also a big problem. At the same time, we should not think that many processes are automated operations, so we bargain with factories. In fact, as far as the current technology is concerned, the degree of automation of clothing is not very high, and the labor cost is still very high.

2, product category positioning

Looking for a factory, it is best to find out which objects your intended factory serves. First ask the main cooperative service partners of the factory, understand their main product categories, and understand the grade and main style of the clothes produced by the factory, and find a cooperative factory that matches you.

Factories that have been dealing with foreign buyers for a long time will basically understand the needs of customers. Customers only need to bring samples, and we will do all other things such as purchasing surface accessories, cutting, sewing, finishing to packaging and shipping. Our customers only need to make sales.

3, the integrity of the boss

The integrity of the boss is also a key indicator to measure the quality of a factory. Apparel sellers must first review the integrity of their boss when looking for a factory. If they want to know the integrity of their boss, they can go directly to Baidu or Qi to check to see if the boss or company has any bad records.

This kind of information is relatively transparent now. Just add the name of the boss or company with words such as "liar", "Laolai", etc. If the boss or the company does have related bad experiences, you can basically find the relevant information. If the boss has Lao Lai's record, he must not cooperate and try his best to avoid it, otherwise various problems will easily arise. In fact, a boss has a problem with integrity, and the factory can't do it for long.

4. Staffing and management manpower cost

By looking at the factory’s management staff, we can also see how good a factory is. If there is too much staffing, or a responsibility structure of one carrot and one hole is adopted, it may seem formal, but the management cost will also increase.

The factory management cost is too high, and the processing fee quoted will be higher than that of peers. However, if the factory blindly reduces costs, it will not deploy personnel or cooperate with key positions. Especially for quality control positions, many factories are now reducing such positions. Whether a factory can make good quality products has a lot to do with the boss's awareness of quality control.

Regarding quality control, normal factories should have three inspections before, during and after. This is the most basic, but quality control does not produce direct benefits, so some factories will shrink. But if the boss only focuses on production efficiency and saves costs in quality control, he cannot cooperate.

The reason for mentioning this is because it can be said that 80% of factories now lack QC (Quality Control) positions. After all, for factories, it must be production yield. But for cooperative businesses, quality is the most important thing, and two aspects need to be balanced. In terms of workmanship alone, the overall quality of the current factory is declining compared with the previous factory.

This section mainly discusses the fact that sellers can understand the actual situation of the factory from four perspectives: the scale of the factory, the customers of the factory, the integrity of the factory owner, the staffing and management cost of the factory. Before looking for a factory to cooperate, it is very necessary to understand the situation in these four areas. It is very important to whether we can achieve long-term cooperation in the future.

In general

Apparel sellers must do everything in their hands when looking for factories.

It is unlikely that factories will face price increases in 2020. For factories, it is a good thing not to reduce prices, so the cost should be better controlled this year. In fact, many domestic foreign trade factories have very strong manufacturing capabilities. Many domestic factories of well-known brands are also expected to be short of orders this year. This is a great opportunity for foreign buyers.

Clothing foreign trade practitioners must have the ability to turn crises into opportunities and learn to find business opportunities in danger. For novice buyers, because manufacturers are in a difficult period, at this time they can seize some factories with good resources.