China, and China manufacturing, have seen massive changes in the 25 years since I arrived in Hong Kong and neighboring Shenzhen has seen a complete transformation. A fishing village some 30 years ago it is now a city dwarfing Hong Kong with every manner of industry and one of the largest concentrations of LED display screen manufacturers anywhere in the world.
If you are in the LED screen industry, have visited any of the shows in recent years, or have ever used Alibaba the chances are you will be a frequent recipient of ‘marketing’ emails from the hoards of China LED screen manufacturers competing in what is an increasingly cut throat business.
If you have ever posted an LED screen requirement on Alibaba the chances are you will have received hundreds of offers, 90% of them nothing to do with your posting, and will be still receiving the same over and over. By the time you had filtered out the 10% of useful offers you may have been stunned by some of the prices and may even have asked yourself who these people are and how these prices are possible.
The fact is that you can pay just about anything for a screen out of China. Literally from the sublime to the rediculous, but you do get what you pay for in most cases. So how do you judge what is a fair price and which manufacturer can be relied on to consistantly produce quality product?
Quite simply you cannot rely solely on claims made by email or through B-to-B marketing sites because specifications, even when offered, rarely detail the cost saving tricks that manufacturers have learnt from competing in the aggressively priced mainland China market.
Poor quality steel or aluminum workmanship, poor weatherproofing, rusting metal and screws, lack of conformal coating, non UL or CE PSU’s and cabling, cheap replacement components, low performance drivers, steel LED lead-frames and ‘local’ LEDs are a small selection of the issues to check and constantly look out for.
Sites such as Alibaba certainly play a major role in the marketing strategy of the majority of China manufacturers and can be a useful starting point but with no clear bench mark against which to judge advertisers you could easily ignore a quality manufacturer and short list poorer options based on price or promises alone. A few days in China can be a costly experience if you have selected the wrong list of manufacturers but many visitors leave disappointed and have to repeat the exercise because getting into detailed discussions on specifications and negotiating quotations with several prospective manufacturers via email or Skype can be a lengthy, time consuming and frustrating exercise.
Personal references certainly help when available but many buyers are reluctant to share a good source, so at the end of the day you either have to work through this exercise and visit China to see manufacturers for yourself or use the services of someone like Bateman Consulting to handle the negotiations, arrange factory inspections, and produce a report on which you can then base your planned visit or purchasing decision.
The actual quotation process has to be managed very carefully. Not too long ago I experienced a case of a Shenzhen based manufacturer who had aggressively courted a UK distributor with very attractive prices, promises of great terms & conditions, short delivery and amazing quality, but then when product was actually defined the price was 20% higher and in my opinion the factory and its products on show were simply not acceptable. This is by no means an isolated case.
The majority of manufacturers are either focused on the local market or have only recently decided to increase focus on an export market, and with such manufacturers you are dealing with engineers and QA staff who have a local mindset. It takes time to explain that connectors, wiring and power supplies acceptable in China may not be acceptable to an overseas client.
Many of the larger manufacturers are now employing the services of experienced consultants and overseas staff to help them transition from a local to an export mindset, and a manufacturer with a reasonable export track record, or one which has had the forsight to import needed expertise is going to be more understanding of your needs and more willing to make changes to suite your market. Even then however you need someone who will manage the manufacturing process making spot checks at key points during production, and conducting pre-shipment inspection to ensure that the product meets the specification. Again, Bateman Consulting fills this role.
When comparing manufacturers I find it useful to compare prices and specifications for similar pitch products as this serves as a broad strokes indication of what product standards are being manufactured to. However this is only useful combined with a factory and product inspection. On product, it is not simply enough to view an operating screen image but important to understanding the manufacturing processes and materials including cabinet quality, PSU’s, connectors, cables, screws, whether conformal coating is used, the type and quality of tile plastics, manufacturing processes, burn-in and QA procedures to name just a few.
In addition to product price indications, key considerations in selecting a manufacturer include the factory & its location, equipment available, organization, engineering and operational resources, sub contract resources, current product designs & quality, materials and components used by the factory and export experience.
Selection is all the more difficult when looking for screens for the events industry because there are relatively few China manufacturers with an understanding of the needs of the events industry. There are however some very good companies manufacturing truly ‘European design’ fast-rig products but these manufacturers are rare.
If you are presently in the market for LED screens, I would encourage you to contact us to discuss how Bateman Consulting can support you.