3 Questions To Ask When Choosing Your Manufacturing Partners

 

You’ve created a wonderful idea for a product, but it needs to be manufactured. You toyed with the idea of doing this yourself, though the cost of setting up a manufacturing facility was too great. 

Instead, you’re entering the process of vetting different manufacturing partners to find the right ones for the job. While you do this, be sure to ask these three critical questions: 

What are your main capabilities?

You must learn what a company is capable of before choosing it to manufacture your products. Many manufacturers may seem great, but they end up struggling to deal with things like really heavy products or extremely intricate designs. 

Be sure you have 100% confirmation that the manufacturer is fully capable of doing what you ask. For instance, a company like JDI Plastics specializes in injection molding and if you learn about the company, you’ll see it can handle the most complex tasks. This would make it ideal if compared against a similar manufacturer that doesn’t possess the same capabilities. 

Partnering with a company that is not capable of doing exactly what you ask will lead to serious financial losses. You’ll also waste loads of product parts and have to figure out a way to safely get rid of them. 

What is your manufacturing process?

It is so easy to find a company that looks like a great outsourcing partner for your business. They seem to demonstrate the capabilities you’re after, so you go ahead and sign the contract. It’s only after doing this that you realize their manufacturing process does not align with your wishes. 

For example, they could use 3D printing, which you wanted to avoid. If you wanted to go down this route, you could easily have done it yourself. Or, you want to cultivate a brand that cares for the environment, but you discover your manufacturing partner uses wholly unsustainable methods. 

Get confirmation and clarity on how manufacturers will make your products to check that this aligns with your wishes and your brand image. 

How much do you charge?

We’ve saved the biggest question until last! Every business must know how much a manufacturer charges for its services. From here, you can work out the true cost of making your product. It will tell you if you can legitimately make a profit from sales. When a manufacturer charges really high rates, it could cost too much money to make each product. Compared to similar products on the market, yours would have to sell for a premium price. 

You can make this work in some situations, but you need to sell the quality of the product to consumers and convince them it is worth more than your rivals. There’s a low success rate with this approach and every chance you’ll have to slash prices to make sales, just to try and break even or mitigate losses. 

Partner with companies that charge affordable rates based on your pricing strategy. You don’t want to pay too much to make your product if you can’t sell it for a profit. 

We definitely encourage you to ask more questions, but these three are great ones to lead with. Never rush the decision of choosing manufacturing partners - this choice can make or break your business idea.