"Made in China" doesn't have to mean poor quality

Certainly, some of this poor reputation is deserved as there have been numerous high-profile incidents where products made in China have been deficient.

However, it is important to keep in mind that the supply chain in global trade is very long and the products that are sold in the end markets are a culmination of many hands in the trade process including the manufacturer, importer or wholesaler and eventual retailer. This article is going to take a brief look at how products made in China end up in your home market and try to determine whether the quality of these products is strictly a result of poor manufacturing in China or whether it is the result of poor global trade practices.

The first step for a product made in China actually comes from the importer in your home market. This is the person who decides which products will hopefully achieve high sales in your local stores. If the importer focuses on the toy industry, for example, and wants to import action figures then he or she will likely have a very good understanding of what types of action figures will sell well.

Once the importer has the product idea in mind, then he'll look for a manufacturer to make the product. Since action figures made in China are often cheaper to purchase than in other countries, primarily because China has a large number of factories assembling these types of products and lots of factories making the components for these products, then naturally the importer is inclined to look toward China to get his action figures made. The first problem the importer faces at this stage is to choose the proper factory. Like in any industry across the globe, there are large, medium, and small-sized factories making toys in China, all with different machinery, quality control procedures, and management processes in place. This is where the issue of quality really begins to matter.

If the importer's main goal is to achieve the highest possible profit margin when selling his action figures regardless of quality and safety, then he might be inclined to choose a factory with the lowest price. Unsurprisingly, the factories with the lowest prices are also often the factories that use the poorest quality raw materials, have the fewest quality control processes in place, and have management that might be willing to bend a few rules, or cut a few corners to save cost. This is where the main quality concerns come into play for most products made in China. It's also the area most difficult for the importer to control.

Factories that sell at incredibly low prices still need to make a profit. This means that they will likely purchase the lowest quality components from their own suppliers. This part of the supply chain is often where many of the big problems occur. Problems with lead paint on toys imported to the US, for example, developed in this manner. The factory making the toys purchased paint from another supplier at a low cost. This improved the toy manufacturer's profit potential, but the paint supplier still needed to make a profit as well and saved money by selling poor quality paint with traces of lead. This is a classic example of a poor product made in China resulting primarily from an importer trying to increase his profits.