It's one of the hardest aspects of doing business in China for companies who are looking to outsource their production, learning the language. English is not widely spoken in the country; in fact estimates give China the lowest level of functional literacy of any country in the world when it comes to English.
Mandarin Chinese is most commonly spoken in China, with Cantonese coming a distant 2nd. So learning Mandarin would seem sensible, until you consider that much of the country's manufacturing heartland is based around Guangzhou and in that region Cantonese is the predominant tongue, though not in Shenzhen only an hour away and closer to Hong Kong (where Cantonese is the standard).
Sadly though even if you do learn to speak both languages you're going to find that quality concepts aren't common in China, in most cases your new factory won't have heard of Kaizen, Total Quality Management (TQM), Six Sigma, ISO, or CE marking and if they have, their understanding of the ideas will likely leave a lot to be desired.
The Chinese public aren't particularly bothered about quality when it comes to their own purchasing decisions, despite the "economic boom" that has catapulted their nation to the status of the world's second largest economy. The ground level picture is very different to the headlines. A salary of around $500 US dollars a month is enough to enable you to join the middle class, but it's not enough to leave much in the way of disposable income.
In truth China has the least affordable housing market in the world when you compare property prices to wages, and the average Chinese family will spend around 90% of their income on buying their house on a mortgage, paying transport costs to their work place and feeding themselves and covering utilities bills.
This means that the little disposable slice of their salaries has to stretch as far as possible, which has led to the local consumer becoming obsessed with cost at the expense of anything else. As long as something is fit for purpose for now, it doesn't matter about tomorrow.
Which presents a problem for Western companies outsourcing to the country, their customers do care if goods last, they do care if they are made to an ethical standard and there will be enormous public outcry if a lack of care leads to a dangerous product resulting in a recall or worse personal injury or even death.
Which means that while you may not need to learn the language, after all most businesses rely on a local translation service which provides an interpreter and ensures documentation is understood by both parties to any agreement, you may well need to teach your supplier the language of quality.
When you begin outsourcing it's worth spending some time working out your objectives, which should not be limited to; "saving money". Your customers want to save money but they don't want to save money at the expense of their safety or the quality of the environment nor do they want their products to be made by children working for 10 cents a day.
You need to be very clear about your client's requirements prior to beginning any negotiation; you must be able to articulate precisely what it is that matters to your end users.
When you begin to draw up an agreement with a supplier again you should not focus solely on price, after all it's cheaper to manufacture a product with no standards for raw materials (the factory can change their sources at a whim without letting you know about the corresponding drop in quality) and no quality inspection procedures in place, than it is to make products that are fully assured to meet your exacting requirements.
You should work with your supplier to develop quality checklists and process documentation for production, for packaging and for materials and any other requirements you may have. All of this documentation should be bi-lingual (English plus the local Chinese dialect) as clear and easy to access as possible ideally with diagrams explaining any complex points (literacy rates vary among Chinese workers greatly - your guides may be fantastic but if they aren't understood by those doing the work, they still aren't much use to you).
You also need to build in some form of auditing and inspection regime, the local "face" culture may mean that your factory will tell you they understand your demands when they do not, or may agree to your demands with no intention of following them (it's hard for people to say "no") or they may implement them and then swiftly or slowly start to cut corners or move away from processes either accidentally or by design.
Many companies do all this work themselves, it can be time consuming but in the end it assures their customers that their brand can be relied upon. Other outsourcers work with a local company specialising in quality, with both local and Western staff who can make sure that all communication is clear and standards are ensured. Whichever way you choose to go remember that Quality Inspection in China is not an optional route, at least until the country learns the language of quality anyway.
Here you can find a reliable China Inspection company as well keep up on all the latest China Quality Control news.
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