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Path: Sourcing
News & Advice >> Import
from China Advice >> How to draft your production schedule with
your China suppliers

How
to draft your production schedule with your China suppliers

Posted: July 18,
2013

by David Chen

Why
do you need to develop a production schedule with your suppliers?

People tend to think that they can be assured of a smooth order process and
compliance of delivery and quality when there is a contract agreed upon, which
defines the product, the delivery time and the commercial terms. However, they
do not realize that they need more insights of the production plan with the
factory to have better control of their orders.

Chinese factories may or may not have good planning skills. Some factories do
not plan at all. Some of them put the production on for the customer who yells
the loudliest. They may give you a “leadtime” out of their experience that your
order is going to take 30 days and they put it on the paperwork, without even
verifying if they can source the material within the timeframe required to
enable the leadtime he promises.

You need to help them understand that as a customer you care about a clear
plan which gives everybody a full picture of what should happen at what time to
ensure the timely delivery of the order.

The production schedule gives the parties involved a tool to deal with
changes along the way. For example, if the packaging production task is
dependent on the completion of artworks by the customer, then when the customer
delays due to an internal interruption, the block of timeslot of the packaging
production on the side of the factory then must move along resulting from this
delay. Everyone can understand visually the impact of such event.

A well devised production plan gives both parties a chance to assess by what
means the production can be speeded up. For example by overlapping tasks or by
investing more resources. This benefit is most apparent when a bar chart is
used.

The production plan let the factory rethink if they are really resourceful to
complete the order as promised with the current work load of his equipment,
workforce and raw materials. The agreement between the customer and the factory
may be altered so a more reasonable commitment is made. This is very important
especially in the case where the customer himself needs to commit to his
customer.

What should a production schedule look like?

A production schedule serving the purpose of a tool to manage the whole
process of the order delivery should demonstrate at least the below
elements.

Tasks that represent the completion of 100% of the overall project. If any
task without which the project can not be completed, the product schedule is
not adequate

Start Date and End Date of each task

The ownership of the tasks, which means who is responsible for the
completion of a certain task

The inter-relationship among the tasks. Such information defines whether
two tasks can move along in parallel, whether one task is dependent on another
task

How to develop a good production schedule?

Before you set out to force your supplier to comply with your need to develop
a production schedule, get him convinced and on board that beyond the
contractual terms on quality and delivery, both of you need to attain a mutual
understanding of the components of the project and their timed interrelation to
manage the process collaboratively.

Providing a concrete live sample or explain in very plain words of what an
ideal production plan should look like to your factory. You can also ask him to
share his format of “planning” he used to manage his production schedule which
is very likely to be too simplistic to serve the purpose of mutual
management.

Hold a meeting or exchange rich content emails if the situation does not
allow a face-to-face meeting to list all the tasks required to complete the
project. Procurement of outsourced materials and components, production of key
parts in house, logistics are the three first level decomposition that you can
break your order up to. Ask your factory what materials and components are
outsourced. What parts of the product are manufactured separately, what are the
processing steps of the key components. The logistics section is normally pretty
standard and straight forward which you can apply a standard task list to
although in some cases additional steps may be required. For example, in China
some consumer product may require an official inspection by the China Inspection
and Quarantine Bureau which may takes up to 5 days.

When you are comfortable that the list of tasks for completion, you will need
to figure out the time required for them to be completed one after another. Also
you need to find out the interrelationship among the tasks so as to reflect them
in the tool or format you are using to visualize them.

David Chen is the
co-founder and account manager at Sourcing Spectrum, a sourcing agency
dedicated to helping overseas clients manage sources in China. Tips and
information can be found at www.sourcingspectrum.com/blog.

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