The Source Code

What to Expect After Chinese New Year

  

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Now that Chinese New Year (CNY) is officially over, it’s time to get your products flowing out the factory doors again, right? Not so fast. The affects of CNY are long reaching and it’s not as simple as you may think. The fall out will likely to continue to affect productivity levels for at least the next 4 weeks and in some cases longer. 

Unlike the start of CNY where the migrant workers traveling home create a virtual human gridlock at every turn. Travel at the end of the holiday is a little saner. Yes there will still be around 200 million Chinese workers in transit over the next few weeks.  However, since the spring festival is their only opportunity to be home with their families, many of them will stretch the vacation out as long as possible. This creates a tremendous negative effect on manufacturing because some factories will wait weeks to have a full work force back in action while others may never be able to fully staff their production lines. As an example, last year one of our main approved suppliers wasn’t able to produce at full capacity until the end of March.

In addition to the people stretching out their vacation time, there is another faction of people who take CNY as an opportunity to reevaluate their working situation and seek a career change. Meaning the workers who got your sheet rubber order correct for the past year, have now decided they’d rather make dress shirts and naturally the people who use to make dress shirts are now trying their hand at producing your belting order and so on and so on. This worker realignment means your quality control team needs to be on high alert and working in high gear for the foreseeable future. I suggest you keep a close eye on production until you’re satisfied your supplier can reliably produce the consistent quality you require. Don’t make the mistake and think because the holiday has passed your products will ship immediately and as impeccably as they did before.    

Of course employee turnover is not always dictated by the workers themselves. Manufactures actively trim their workforce and recruit during the holiday period as well. In an effort to attract more talented staff members, factory managers will actually visit local bus and train stations to recruit potential works as they arrive. In special cases where a worker is really sought after, the factory will actually send a driver to collect the individual. In any case of how the new employees end up at their destination, bringing in more talented people usually results in the manufacturer running a better operation.  This can manifest itself by increased quality control measures, a more consistent product, better lead times, enhanced production techniques etc. Nevertheless be mindful of what you hear from your supplier and until you see evidence the new workers have contributed in a positive manner be sure your quality control team/process is watching every step.

All in all there’s no doubt CNY is a stressful time for anyone who has product originating from China. The main aspects are to be patient through this 2-3 month window, perform the extra steps necessary to protect your products and after the holidays pasted, collect your breath then get ready to do it all again in one years time!   

That’s it for today. Stay tuned for the next weeks post.

(For more than 10 years, GCP Industrial Products has successfully offered its customers a unique sourcing process that allows them to save money, streamline their supply chain and grow with new products. Our plans are to continue to grow based upon mutually beneficial relationships and the quality of our products and services to our ever growing customer base. To contact us please click here or phone 1-888-893-5427. Thank you.)