The big factory finds your demands excessive. The little one responds without flinching. It’s not a question of size, but of suitability for your needs.
When a French manager looks for a supplier Chinahe is spontaneously attracted by the big factory. The large stand at the show, the impressive showcase, the production lines as far as the eye can see, the certifications displayed everywhere. All this is reassuring. We say to ourselves that a structure of this size is necessarily reliable.
This is an error in reasoning. Not because big factories are bad. Many are excellent. But because the size says nothing about the suitability between the factory and your precise need.
I’m seeing it right now on a file.
What the big factory told me
I source technical parts for a client, with a specific requirement in the specifications. Nothing extravagant, but a clear, non-negotiable constraint, because it conditions the function of the room.
This customer is not a small buyer. Its volume is real and recurring, divided into orders of several thousand pieces for each production. There is serious work involved, over time.
I am sending the request to a very large factory. Serious, equipped, known.
His answer does not technically challenge my requirement. She puts it into perspective. I am made to understand that I am asking a lot, that no one demands such a level, I am even asked what the room will be used for, as if my requirement was the real problem.
This is not a refusal. This is an attempt to bring my request back to their standard. And it’s revealing.
A large factory lives on standardized volume. Its margins come from the repetition of simple pieces, produced quickly, without variation. And that’s the real issue. The problem is not the quantity I order, it is more than enough. The problem is that my level of requirements is beyond its standard. She prefers a large, simple volume to an equivalent but demanding volume. So rather than clearly saying that this level of rigor is not her niche, she suggests that it is you who is asking too much.
The French leader, from a distance, can take this at face value. He thinks that if a factory of this size finds its demand excessive, it may be because he is exaggerating. He begins to doubt his own specifications. It is exactly the opposite that he should do.
What the little factory did
For the same need, with the same volume, I consulted a much more modest factory. A smaller manufacturer, focused on the local market, without a spectacular showcase.
The difference was immediate. He met all my requirements, without putting any of them into perspective. Quickly. And he made the effort to send the samples for free, without me having to negotiate.
Why this difference? Not because he is nicer, nor because he would be happy to get any order. The volume is the same, it is serious in both cases. The difference is that this level of requirement on this type of series is exactly his territory. He knows how to produce in quantity with rigor, where the big factory only knows how to produce in quantity on a standard basis.
My requirement had not changed. Neither does the volume. It was the factory’s view of this requirement that changed everything. The same request, treated as a problem by one, as a normal order by the other.
Why are we wrong with the criteria?
In a previous column, I explained thatin China, what the French leader takes for a fault is often another way of doing business. It’s the same logic here. The reaction of the big factory is not a lack of seriousness. This is a sign that your need does not correspond to its model. You still need to know how to read it as such, instead of seeing it as a judgment on the validity of your request.
This reflex of the big, reassuring factory often comes from the way we discover suppliers. A show, a fair, a large stand at the Canton Fair. We are impressed by the size, the staging, the number of machines. Industrial capacity is confused with suitability for the project.
But these are two different things. A factory can be huge and completely unsuitable for your needs. Another may be discreet and perfectly tailored to you. The window doesn’t tell you which is which.
What tells you this is how the factory reacts to your requirement. Does she take it seriously or is she trying to dilute. Does she go into detail or does she refer you to her standard. Is your project at the heart of what she knows how to do, or on the fringes of what interests her?
This reading is not done from an office in France, based on an online profile or a trade show memory. It takes place in the real exchange, in the concrete way in which the supplier processes your request.
The real question is not size
I’m not saying we should avoid big factories. On the right type of project, with large volume and standard products, a large structure is often the best choice. The message is not big versus small.
The message is that size is not the criterion. Adequacy is.
The right factory for your project is not the biggest, nor the most reassuring, nor the one with the most beautiful stand. She is the one for whom your need is not a constraint, but her job. And the only way to know is to watch how she responds when you make demands, not how she presents herself when she’s trying to seduce you.
Nicolas Allard, founder of EasybuyRPC and field agent in China for 11 years, supports SMEs French, Belgian and Swiss in their import operations.
