Sourcing in China: Are the Buyers Getting Smarter?

During my discussion with the WSJ reporter last week (see Assess Your Risk, Plan, and THEN Outsource to China), I was asked whether or not I thought buyers were getting smarter.

At that time my answer was an unequivocal “yes and no”.

There are defiantely companies like B&Q, GM, Nike, IKEA and GE that have put together very strong quality control systems in place. they were put into place by well seasoned professionals and were well funded. In short, their firms saw quality control as an investment in their supply chain rather than as an investment.

On the other hand, you have firms who are smaller, who are new to China, who are lacking seasoned talent, and are looking to at investment required as an expense. they are pushing onto suppliers the QC function, and for some of these products the cracks are beginning to show.

Shortly after this conversation, I read several very relevant articles on this very issue (Toy-Train Maker Discusses Lead Paint Problem (NY Times) , Toymaking in China, Mattel�s Way (NY Times), RC2 outlines safeguards following Thomas recall (Chicago Tribune) that explore the China based supply chains of RC2 and Mattel and give some interesting insights into just how critical investment is to the quality process.

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