Succesful case

TA toy company

Due to tough competition a world famous European toy manufacturer (TM) defined target products to start a (out)sourcing project in China. Packaging was determined as the test-case. WtC helped them in finding suppliers for packaging. TM contacted suppliers and collected information. TM traveled to China to finalize the research and to inspect some factories. After a positive evaluation, TM put a trial order for with one of the suppliers. WtC was involved in these activities.

Since the packaging project was worked out successfully, TM defined more products to be sourced from China. Because of competition reasons, TM decided to diminish the production in Europe and take the advantage of cheap Chinese labor. A tight schedule was fixed, starting with establishing a long list of potential Chinese suppliers. The supplier selection process started with sending a request for information (RFI) to the selected suppliers to obtain their company profile. The next step was a business trip to China. During this trip the production of a trial order for packaging products was checked. And, the suppliers that were sent a RFI in order to check their company profile, were interviewed. WtC joined TM and assisted them and operated as an interpreter between TM and Chinese local manufacturers.

As a next step, TM decided to make a sub-selection of possible toy-suppliers and to check their production facilities. Important during these visits, was to get the confirmation of the capacity, the quality, the organization level and interest of the management. WtC was involved in all of this and made arrangement for TM in China, such as the itinerary, hotels and flights, agenda during the meetings, pick ups etc. WtC attended all meetings at the suppliers. In this way wtC learnt the outsourcing project of TM into detail and gained thorough knowledge of their products.

After this trip, TM finalized the market research and choose two manufacturers as their preferred Chinese suppliers. A trial toy-order was put. To ensure the order intake, wtC checked, based upon administrative facts, whether the trial order could and would be accepted and if enough production capacity and raw materials would be available. After the acceptance of the order, as part of a follow up during the manufacturing, TM together with wtC checked the production according to a checklist which was established before. Again wtC made arrangements for the trip to China and attended all activities. In between, as a result of successful sourcing procedure for the packaging products, TM put a repeat order for packaging to be supplied directly from the preferred Chinese suppliers. wtC followed up this order on behalf of TM.

As a last step, wtC checked the goods of the trial order before shipment. Being involved more and more in the business of TM, wtC was appointed as their sole QC office to perform these final checks. Together with TM checking criteria were defined. WtC checked the goods at the two manufacturers on quality, quantity, labeling and packaging and requested the factories to separate the unqualified goods or to correct minor failures if possible. After checking, wtC sent a detailed QC-report to TM at once and to guarantee the quality of the goods and to allow TM to transfer the final payment. At the same time, wtC coordinated between the suppliers and shipping agent for and solved unforeseen issues to guarantee the punctual shipment from China to Europe.

When TM received the goods from Chinese toy-manufacturers at their premises, wtC was invited to evaluate the outsourcing project at the offices of TM. Both parties summarized the project, marked the problems and discussed how to avoid these problems in the future. Since the evaluation was positive, TM decided to enlarge the outsourcing project and more semi-finished products were sourced from China. For the repeat order of the other products, and for cost saving reasons, TM appointed wtC to be involved in their Expediting Procedures.

More successful cases

wtC has established successful business relations between Western and Chinese companies. Similar to the case as described above. One of the largest operations that have been performed, were the assignment for global operating companies such as Mondi Packaging and Mahle Industiral filtrations. For Mahle, we managed to source high pressure 1 kg aluminium precision casted and machined parts for the automotive. We also developed supplier bases for wire mesh, machined and stamped semi finished products.

Latest years more and more we have specialized in metal related sourcing projects such as construction, welding, casting and machining. For Brastec Gouda (former SAS Gouda), we have managed to establish a supplier base for construction, casting (3 ton chain wheels and up to 5 kg baseblocks under RT), machining and steel plates. These projects are subject to Lloyd's approval. For Brastec Gouda we perform leverl 3 expediting including follow-up of and QC's of their PO's in China.

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