Protecting The Product Design with Ryan Shaffett of XQ Manufacturing - a podcast by Michael Veazey

Protecting The Product Design

The role of Patents in protecting your product design

Protecting your Product Design doesn't necessarily start with  patent protections.

One key is to minimise the chance of your supplier selling your product to other retailers. 

Ryan's team works hard on the selection of and relationship with suppliers to ensure that their factories don't do that.

If you have your own Mold,  nobody else will use that, so that creates a lot of protection against getting copycat versions of your product out there.

How to Protect your Product Design by Keeping a very close relationship  with your main suppliers

The key is a  a very, very close relationship with middle supplier is that we consider Ryan considers them part  of his company and his mother calls the boss her Chinese son.

Keeping the molds locked away is also part of protection against being copied.

They have for example a very specific set of patterns for a client, which are in locked tubes for when they are needed.

How about the “no” vs. Honesty thing?

Mostly suppliers will tell you they can do something when in reality they can do ? of what you want.

Pin down the suppliers - make them repeat things in contracts and in writing.

To be  sure they can hit your specifications - put in testing!

Solution:1

Sample sample sample!

Core QC point - make sure the supplier don't mass produce a product until you’ve approved the sample!

Chinese mentality of “cha abs dour”-'close enough' - is the biggest enemy.

Quality control and protecting your product's quality

Traditionally been so cheap to make stuff that the mentality is that it's cheaper and faster to make an approximate version initially. Then they will try to get the samples approved by the buyer. And if they have to, just redo it.

QC - not just Pre-Shipment Inspection

Process - Say do a tent, custom plastic:



* Send client fabric strips

* Make prototype with factory

* Then if think understand what client was after and custom weave hundreds of rolls



Be part of the process - sometimes prototype throws up new issues, eg,

Didn’t think about how thick the fabric would need to be.

Where are you at in the process?

Prototype

Sample

Order process

Production sample

There is always a tension there

Eg need tent in very specific colour etc.

minimum to weave or dye a fabric - $1000s

How approx do you need your prototype to be?

Ryan has even been developing a product with his daughter!

What sort of Custom Manufacturing service do you offer at XQ?

Our service advantages help navigate some of the challenges associated with custom manufacturing:

Protecting your Product Design

1- We do not sell privately developed products to other parties like many China based factories.

Do you deal with freight?

Usually to ship the smallest thing ocean you will pay over $700 due to the 1 time costs of import export, but we take on all these fees as part of the total container cost.

2 - we have monthly consolidated ocean containers that allow give our clients low shipping cost options to our US warehouse.

3 - We have a US company that acts as the importer so thus our US clients can pay our US company and not have to deal with international transfers, customs importing, shipping logistics, etc.  We can ship all the way to FBA for our clients.

4- We are familiar with duty rates and import restrictions and can advise on all this or for our clients who wish ...

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