Manufacturing in China: The Business Risks, Part 3

My first post in this three part series focused on a post entitled The 7 Major Risks You Run With Your China Manufacturers, by China manufacturing expert Renaud Anjouran. In that post, Renaud outlined the business risks foreign companies face when having Chinese factories manufacture their products. I noted how Renaud’s list nicely accords with what our China lawyers tell our clients who retain my law firm to draft their Chinese manufacturing contracts. See China Manufacturing Agreements: Binding Contract or Contract Terms. I noted how our manufacturing clients usually want to focus on a) intellectual property protection/prevention of counterfeiting, ownership of molds and tooling and after sales warranty service. In other words, the sorts of things legal agreements are really good at resolving. But oftentimes, core business issues like price, quantity, delivery date, quality and resolution of quality issues, subcontracting and shipping are of at least equal importance.

My second post focused on the first four items on Renaud’s China product outsourcing list. In this, my last post in this three-part series on China manufacturing, I focus on the last three items from Renaud’s list.

Risk Five: Subcontracting. Subcontracting of production presents a number of risks often not clearly understood by foreign buyers. Renaud identifies the first and most common risk. The foreign buyer goes to substantial effort to verify that the Chinese factory it has chosen is capable of meeting its quality standards. If the factory then subcontracts the foreign buyer’s product manufacturing to another factory, all of the buyer’s verification work becomes meaningless. This then leads to other issues: How will inspections take place? How will quality control standards be enforced? How will worker safety or worker age rules be enforced? How will anti-bribery and related rules be enforced? Working to the next level, manufacturing by a third party where there is no contractual relationship means that confidential information agreements are automatically breached, and this is a primary way intellectual property gets lost in China. Finally, molds and tooling are often moved to the subcontractor, resulting in loss of control and the inability to retrieve these items when required.

There are three reasons Chinese factories typically subcontract. First, the “factory” is a front for a trading company that actually does no actual manufacturing on its own. This type of trading company will subcontract all of the manufacturing and will limit its involvement to supervising (usually very poorly) the manufacturing process. Second, the factory may be capable of doing the basic manufacturing process, but it requires subcontracting assistance on key elements of the production process. For example, it is normal for Chinese factories to subcontract mold making and electroplating of key components. Finally, the factory may decide that the foreign

Manufacturing in China: The Business Risks, Part 3

Manufacturing in China: The Business Risks, Part 2

My first post in this two part series focus on a post entitled The 7 Major Risks You Run With Your China Manufacturers, by China manufacturing expert Renaud Anjouran. In that post, Renaud outlined the business risks foreign companies face when having Chinese factories manufacture their products. I noted how Renaud’s list nicely accords with what our China lawyers tell our clients who retain my law frim to draft their Chinese manufacturing contracts. See China Manufacturing Agreements: Binding Contract or Contract Terms. I noted how our manufacturing clients usually want to focus on a) intellectual property protection/prevention of counterfeiting, ownership of molds and tooling and after sales warranty service. In other words, the sorts of things legal agreements are really good at resolving. But oftentimes, core business issues like price, quantity, delivery date, quality and resolution of quality issues, subcontracting and shipping are of at least equal importance.

The source of the problems for Western companies that manufacture in China is the pervasive use of the purchase order approach to purchasing contract manufactured product from China. In China Manufacturing Agreements: Binding Contract or Contract Terms, I wrote how there are two basic ways to structure a China contract manufacturing agreement.

Option One is to enter into a legally binding contract (in Chinese!) that addresses all of the basic manufacturing issues. The agreement on price binds both the Chinese factory and the foreign buyer, and even if costs change, the parties remain obligated to pay and sell the product at the agreed-upon price, no matter which party benefits or loses from the changes. This sort of contract is common in much of the world, but less so in China. China, however, the entire risk tends to be loaded on one side or the other. The same applies to the other key business terms in China manufacturing agreements, such as the terms for payment, quantity, delivery date and quality. Foreign buyers who do not want to be bound or who cannot be bound due to lack of resources will follow Option Two. Under Option Two, the contract terms and conditions are binding on the parties only after a purchase order is presented by the foreign party and then accepted by the Chinese party. It is this lack of a binding agreement that is the primary cause of the seven manufacturing risks Renaud discusses in his post.

The obvious path to contract certainty  is to enter into an Option 1 manufacturing contract that formally commits both parties to the basic business terms for a specific period of time. However, the lure of China for many foreign buyers is that Chinese factories are willing to do small runs on a purchase order basis. The purchase order system is oftentimes THE reason why the foreign company is having its product developed and made in China. For this reason, our primary task as lawyers is to develop contract manufacturing agreements that deal up front with the risks that come from using the purchase order approach. Our job as China attorneys then is to make sure that our foreign buyer clients understand the risks and then to work on mitigating those risks in a practical way.

I explain below and in Part 3 of this series how our China manufacturing lawyers do that with each of the seven risks Renaud identified.

Risk 1: Lack of “Motivation.” The major risk we see stems from the foreign buyer loading the development costs onto the Chinese side with no incentive for the Chinese side to follow through on development. Renaud calls this risk “loss of motivation” and we see this all the time. The foreign side relies on the Chinese factory to do the product development, normally loading the cost on the Chinese factory. After two years, the development is not completed and the market has moved on, leaving the foreign side high and dry with no marketable product. The Chinese side assures the foreign buyer that they are “working on it,” but in fact the product development project is a low priority as compared to their ongoing manufacturing that pays their bills and so they are “working on it” only when times are slack. It is also common for Chinese factories to agree to take on a development project when they do not actually have the capability to do the work. In this situation, the delay results from the Chinese side being pushed up against the limits of what it can actually do.

The best way to address this lack of motivation risk basic method is to enter into a legally binding product development agreement with the Chinese factory that includes the following:

• Milestones: hard dates for development of prototypes or samples.
• Allocation of costs. If all costs are loaded on the Chinese side, the chance of success is dramatically reduced.
• A real incentive for the Chinese side to succeed. This incentive can be payments for the Chinese factory hitting its milestones or it can be a commitment to purchase reasonable (but predetermined) quantities of the developed product at a fair price.

Few foreign buyers follow this approach, with the predictable results described by Renaud.

Risk Two: Quality Failure at the Production Stage. The Chinese side agrees to manufacture the product at the “China Price.” Initial samples are acceptable in terms of quality, but once production starts, the quality is consistently bad. When pressed, the Chinese side says: “We gave you the China Price and you knew that at that price

Manufacturing in China: The Business Risks, Part 2

Manufacturing in China: The Business Risks

In a post entitled The 7 Major Risks You Run With Your China Manufacturers, China manufacturing expert Renaud Anjouran outlines the business risks foreign companies face when outsourcing their product manufacturing to Chinese factories. Renaud’s list nicely accords with what our China lawyers tell our clients for whom we draft Chinese contract manufacturing agreements. See China Manufacturing Agreements: Binding Contract or Contract Terms. When we first talk, our manufacturing clients usually want to focus on the following: a) ownership of intellectual property, b) prevention of counterfeiting, c) ownership of molds and tooling and d) after sales warranty service. This is the kind of thing legal agreements are really good at resolving and it is easy to allow the discussion to center on these issues.

But in my 25+ years of working in China, it is rarely these issues that result in bankruptcy of the foreign purchaser. The matters that result in bankruptcy are usually on the list provided by Renaud. That is, the most serious issues are the core business issues tied to outsourced manufacturing: price, quantity, delivery date, quality and resolution of quality issues, subcontracting and shipping.

Renaud describes the basic issues, but, we should ask at the outset: what is the source of these issues and what can be done to address them. The source of the problems is the pervasive use of the purchase order approach to purchasing contract manufactured product from China. In China Manufacturing Agreements: Binding Contract or Contract Terms, I wrote how there are two basic ways to structure a China contract manufacturing agreement.

Option One is to enter into a binding contract with the China factory that directly confronts all of the basic manufacturing issues in a manner that is legally binding on both the parties. Under this option, the agreement on price binds both the Chinese factory and the foreign buyer. If material costs change, if labor costs change, if production costs change, the parties remain obligated to pay and sell the product at the agreed-upon price, no matter which party benefits or loses from the changes. Both parties are taking the price risk. If the agreement is long term and if the various input costs are likely to change over time, then the parties either take the risk or develop a detailed system for adjusting in response to the change. In most of the world, this is what is done. In China, however, the entire risk tends to be loaded on one side or the other. The same applies to the other key business terms in China manufacturing agreements, such as the terms for payment, quantity, delivery date and quality.

The issue for many foreign buyers is that under Option One, both parties are bound. Foreign buyers who do not want to be bound or who cannot be bound due to lack of resources will follow Option Two. Under Option Two, any form of contract manufacturing agreement is little more than terms and conditions. Such terms and conditions are binding on the parties only after a purchase order is presented by the foreign party and then accepted by the Chinese party. If the Chinese manufacturer does not accept your purchase order, there is no binding agreement you and your Chinese manufacturer. It is this lack of a binding agreement that is the primary cause of the seven manufacturing risks Renaud discusses in his post.

Consider for a second why that is the case from the perspective of the Chinese factory. Under the purchase order approach, the factory has no assurance that its foreign buyer will place even a single order. During a fiscal year, the Chinese factory has no assurance on price, quantity or delivery date. The Chinese factory is expected to develop the product, taking on the risk and expense of commercialization. The Chinese factory is then expected to turn over to its foreign buyer the plans, molds and tooling so the foreign buyer can move production to a lower cost factory down the road. In this type of situation, the factory really has nothing solid in the relationship with the foreign buyer. So the factory acts in the manner described by Renaud. This is perfectly natural and it is to be expected. That is, any foreign buyer that expects a Chinese factory to act differently under the purchase order approach option is living in a dream world.

So what is the solution? The obvious solution is to follow Option 1 by entering into a binding agreement with the Chinese factory that formally commits both parties to the basic business terms for a specific period of time. However, the lure of China for many foreign buyers is that Chinese factories are willing to do small runs on a purchase order basis. The purchase order system is oftentimes the reason this why the foreign company is having its product developed and manufactured in China. To tell these buyers to follow Option 1 is unrealistic.

For this reason, our primary task as lawyers is to develop contract manufacturing agreements that recognize that the purchase order approach will be used and deal up front with the risks that come from that. The key here is that the foreign buyer understand the risks and work actively with the Chinese factory to deal with mitigating those risks in a way that is practical and fair.

We can now consider the situation in China in relation to the risks Renaud identifies. In my follow-up post (on Sunday) I will consider the risks in the order that most often arises in our work in China.

 

Manufacturing in China: The Business Risks