China Job Boards
Made in China – Getting our Product Manufactured in China
Having our pump manufactured in China was an interesting, and rewarding, experience.
We had determined that we could not make a profit with our product without finding a way to manufacture it for substantially less money than it was costing us at the time. My partner who does the marketing had met a gentleman (Jerry) who was having several products made in China and selling them through U.S. and Canadian companies.
John was familiar with our product and believed it could really be a big seller if we could get it off the ground. Jerry had an associate, Sue, a Chinese woman who lives in Shanghai and works with him doing translating and acting as a go between for several small factories.
Our product, a small pump that installs under sinks to bring hot water fast to the fixture without running water down the drain, would require a motor, an injection molded pump, an electronic circuit board, and the case. Since we had to have new tooling made we wanted to make some improvements and changes to the pump at the same time.
Our old pump was a gear pump and made a lot of noise. We sent our old pump, a small centrifugal pump similar to what we wanted to switch to, and a set of drawings of what we wanted to end up with. We also sent a schematic, circuit board layout, and even a fully functional sample circuit board.
After about 30 to 60 days, I don’t remember exactly, we received the first set of prototypes. There were a host of problems with the parts, and we sent back instructions how to bring the parts up to par.
For some reason the Chinese had made changes to the circuit board even though we sent them a functional working sample. Part of our arrangement with the Chinese manufacturer called for the product to be listed with ETL labs as complying with the UL standards for motor operated pumps. I could see that some of the spacings on the circuit board were too close together to be approved. After a couple more changes we got the circuit board problems straightened out.
Pretty much the same held true for the pump, motor, and case. They all had initial problems, but after several tries the factory got it right, and we place our first order, a sample size of 250 pumps.
My partner headed off to China for the first run of 500 pumps, and it was a very good thing he did. It took about 2 weeks, but they finally got those first 250 pumps assembled and tested. We placed great emphasis on testing. The circuit boards are functionally tested before the pump is assembled, and each motor is tested before being assembled to the pump head. After everything is assembled the pump is hooked up to water lines and tested again.
One of the problems we encountered at first was difficulty with translations and things like being able to view drawings and get files to open.
The Chinese manufacturer is just as concerned as we are with quality control. He wants lots of orders and he knows they won’t come if we have quality control issues with the product.
Even with all that testing, the real test begins in the field. We got about 30 percent of the pumps back from that first batch. There were a number of problems that showed up. Not enough testing apparently. We had to beef up some of the injection molded parts, make some small changes to the mold tooling, and do a much better job of testing. The same thing happened with the following two small batches of 250 pumps, and we had finally reached the point where were confident enough to put in our first big order…well to us it was big…of 1,000 pumps.
In the meantime we were having all kinds of problems with ETL labs in Shanghai. The factory kept having difficulties with the ETL engineers, so they would ask me to intervene, and I would then get into an email exchange with an engineer at ETL labs in Shanghai. It seemed to me like they didn’t really understand what they were doing. For instance, at one point they told us that the 2.5 amp fuse we were using was too small and we needed to put a 4 amp fuse in. Excuse me…that is crazy, the fuse would never blow!
It took about half a dozen emails and some data sheets from the manufacturer to convince ETL Shanghai to let us use a smaller fuse. There were several more strange requests from the Chinese ETL engineers, but we finally got everything resolved and obtained our ETL listing. It seemed to me that most of the problems were probably due to translation problems with the UL Standards documents.
Now things are proceeding quite smoothly. We were fortunate to stumble onto a very good situation. Jerry travels to China frequently and Sue is a very good translator and has a good relationship with the manufacturer that we are dealing with. The manufacturer recognizes the importance of producing a superior product, and has bent over backward to comply with all of our wishes.
If you can find good people to deal with and good translation, and if you are willing to travel to China a few times, it can be quite worthwhile.
About the Author
For help with new products, inventions, online marketing, prototyping and more: Help with patents, new products, online marketing, building prototypes, injection molding and more
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Are southpoint surfboards hard to ding?
Good day, i scored a south point schaper 8'0 last week, was able to surf 2ft slop but it worked. wanted to say good job with these makers.
i just have a question... Is this board tough to ding and crack? my other boards (china made) cracked due to traveling and usage. was just wondering if i dont have to worry as much with the southpoint especially when traveling.
whats this 3 phase epoxy? does this make the board more durable?
i dont want to have to worry about dinging the board. so there, simply put, is it hard to ding, crack or leave a pressure marks?
http://bp3.blogger.com/_hPACOtZKKko/RkSTwhvv9kI/AAAAAAAAAfg/QMqBFAtXzQ4/s1600-h/chinaboards.jpg
ALL Chinese made popouts are substandard. Don't forget, the shape is the result of a design made by a real surfboard shaper. Beacuse if the shape (design) the board will perform adequately. However, after that phase. all production is carried out by people with NO knowledge of surfing with minimal quality control (either in the actual manufacturing or in the materials used).
All popouts are harmful to the surf industry, and threaten the continued existence genuine, custom made surfboards.
http://www.mckevlins.com/nopopstory.htm
The fact that epoxy is being used in many of them instead of PE resin does nothing to improve the quality. The epoxy 9or resin) is used to bind fiberglass cloth, which comes in different qualities and thicknesses. Only the lowest grade is used in boards made in Chinese sweatshops. Read some of the resolved questions in YA surfing and hear about the horror stories of excessive pressure dings and delamination in these boards.
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People who are interesting in teaching English overseas come from many different professions and backgrounds. A lot of times they are unsure about how to start the process of becoming an English teacher. However, people don't need to worry as the process is fairly easy. You don't need a lot of skills or requirements to become an English teacher in a different country. Though rules and regulations vary from country to country in general, an English teacher needs the following things: They need to be a native English speaker, they need to have a college degree, a TEFL, and some experience. For many countries, you only need to have a university degree. For some jobs, you will need a TEFL degree. Moreover, if you want to teach at an international school, you will need to be a certified teacher with experience.
The most important qualities for a teacher to have are patience and commitment. Whether you are an ESL teacher or any other teacher, you need to communicate in a friendly and approachable manner. Teacher and student bonding is essential for a child to learn the language, especially when you are in a foreign country and your students don't understand much of what you are saying and might not be that interested in learning English. Creative ideas and methods can be used to make teaching interesting for your students. If you are bilingual and can speak the native language then it'll be easy to make the subject interesting. An ESL teacher can enhance a child's language skills by expanding their knowledge to include proper written and spoken English. This will help children to succeed in their field of profession in future and For more information please visit this website: http://www.teachmideast.com
If you are considering a move to Taiwan to teach English, then the good news is that there are a lot of schools and positions that are available all year round. This makes finding work as an ESL teacher in Taiwan fairly easy, but it isn't until you look a little closer do things not look so simple. Teaching English in Taiwan is a great way to explore Taiwan and earn a living at the same time, but what kind of classes or students will you teach? Japan, Korea and China have a wide number of private schools, colleges and universities that hire teachers, so getting working teaching adults, teenagers or children is easy to do. This isn't the case for Taiwan where there is one primary employer of foreign teachers, private schools. The main employers in the ESL industry in Taiwan are cram schools or more specifically cram schools for children.
The bulk of the learning English market in Taiwan consists of children aged 6 - 12 years of age. Most other Asian countries have students of all ages wanting to learn English, but this isn't true for Taiwan. Because the market in Taiwan is made up primarily of children, this means that most places advertising for teachers are cram schools that have classes for children. Parents are obsessed with trying to give their children an edge and one perceived way of doing this is by sending them to English classes. Most children finish their day at public school around 3 or 4pm and then find their way to some kind of classes in the evening, of which one kind is English class. If you are looking online or on any job boards for work in Taiwan, you will notice that 99% of the positions advertised are for teaching children in cram schools.
The primary factor governing a student's decision regarding getting English lessons online is that it is the best alternative for people who have no time to attend classroom studies. There are many colleges and teachers who tend to give the suggestion of adopting the latest technologies in English learning programs online. Learning the English language online is a comprehensive and result-oriented method for understanding the linguistic concepts.
This is good news. As the number of students who prefer learning English online increases, the job opportunities for people who want to teach TEFL (or Teaching English as a Foreign Language) lessons also increases. Before even deciding on pursuing a career and getting a teach-English job, an aspiring teacher needs the proper qualifications and some related experience. To teach English as a Second Language (ESL) courses entails preparation, just like many fruitful careers.
For more information please visit this website: http://www.teachmideast.com
About the Author
I am Mohanchen read mathematics at Stanford and remained there for his MS. From 1998-1999 on researched in Evolution and in Animal Behavior in Camrbidge, UK. I was was then a professor in the departments of Anthropology and Biology, New Jersy College, USA. Now teaches at the department of Zoology. Carried out research in several areas of evolutionary biology, particularly in sexual selection and the comparative method.
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