If you’re thinking about getting your new electronic gadgets made in China, the most affordable and efficient way is to get it done with a Chinese electronics ODM factory that already produces similar models. Armed with years of experience, manufacturing power, the leanest design and reasonable cost structure, ODM factories in China can customize your products based on their previous similar models in a short time frame at a cost much lower than starting everything from scratch.
It sounds tempting and compelling, however, there’re some tips to be aware of if you’re looking to outsource the electronic production to a Chinese electronics ODM factory.
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6 tips to source a Chinese electronics OEM factory
Ownership of your design
Some Chinese electronics ODM factories might only charge a symbolic fee if you’re making some minor modifications based on the models they have. However, one thing to be aware of is you might not have ownership of your design as the modifications you make are based on the intellectual property of the China electronic manufacturer. You might not be allowed to take the design elsewhere if you decide to change suppliers. State clearly with the ODM factory at the beginning or pay the fees for ownership of your design.
Make sure you have a confirmed specification
Changing specifications from time to time during the manufacturing process is gonna to incur lots of additional costs. The best thing is make sure you have a clear and firm specification before starting the project. Most factories have a short attention span, if your team keeps making modification, you would be charge for your mistakes or sometimes lead to overcharges or factories refusing to do any further modifications.
Protect your ideas
You’re not the only customer making this model in the Chinese electronics ODM factory, usually ODM electronic manufacturer produce similar items for several brands, that means chances are high that your ideas might be leaking. Every improvement you spent days and nights working on might likely be spotted on the next products of your biggest competitor.
Plan ahead of time if your order is not big
Most China ODM factories have few engineers with manufacturing oriented missions to keep the manufacturing lines nonstop as priority than product research and development. If you’re looking for R&D support from the Chinese electronics ODM factory and your order is not big, they might accept your project when the business is low. However, expect delays if there’re some bigger orders coming in, your project will surely be put on hold.
Firmware
It’s easy to copy PCB layouts and plastics, however, creating the firmware is challenging that most factories spent years improving it and would not leak to outsiders. That means your team would not able to see it, unfortunately, this is the major part and can often be the weakest point that would cause long delays should there be any problems.
Platform
Most Chinese electronics ODM factories tend to base on some low-cost local IC or ASIC platforms that you might later run into lots of limitations and bugs for further customization as they’re generally tailored to support one standard design only.
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