New Product Development in China Faces Challenge

POSTED ON August 24, 2021

Many people have brilliant new product development ideas but unfortunately, not all new products are a commercial success. It is rightly believed that due to low costs, China is a great place for new product development. However, there are challenges apart from costs that can render your project unsuccessful.

These challenges are the key reason why you need to spend a lot of time and effort figuring out whether or not you can convert your new product idea into a sellable product. The good thing is that most of these challenges can be easily overcome with better planning and some expert help. These challenges range from capital costs to distribution costs and actual production. While most of these challenges can be overcome as you go through the actual process, but it helps to be prepared and account for these challenges at the very beginning of the new product development process. You must decide at the onset whether or not you have the financial capability and personal stamina to go ahead with new product development.

The best way to address the issue is to break down the entire new product development process into phases and then identify challenges you may face at each stage. Some of the key challenges you may face in new product development include:

Finding the right supplier: It is not always easy to identify a supplier who will be ready to break their mass production business model and work on an entirely new product. It obviously takes a whole lot more effort and expenditure to work on a new product than to mass produce existing products. It can be a challenge to find a supplier who is ready to support your new product idea and can develop the product as per the exact specifications provided. Remember, new products take a lot more effort to produce but there is little guarantee of future orders. If the product is successful, there may be repeat orders, but if it fails, everything stops there.

Communication gap: When it comes to new product development, communication is the key. You need to communicate the design specifications, your exact requirements, moulds, tools and a lot of other things. Quite often, it becomes difficult to communicate correctly due to the language barrier. Not all suppliers are well-versed in English and this makes it difficult for them to understand complex designs and specifications. There is a lot of information lost in translation.

Lack of clarity and involvement: It takes a lot of focus, patience, and effort to make new product development a success. A lot of times entrepreneurs are guided just be a lot of enthusiasm and they jump into a project half-prepared. You must be fully dedicated to bringing your product idea to life. Remember, new product development requires a lot of creative inputs both from the client and supplier side, and not everything can be left to the supplier even if they are experts at it. You must be aware of how the entire process works and be realistic about timelines. Many projects fail to succeed just because the client is in a rush to get everything done, some steps are skipped and by the time actual products are ready, you realize that a lot of things have gone wrong.

These are just some of the challenges you may face with new product development in China. To make your project a success, you need professional help from a local sourcing manager. Also, make sure the sourcing manager is experienced in new product development. Ideally, his duties should go much beyond just finding the right supplier for your needs.

You need a project manager who would act as your single point of contact and would steer your project to successful completion. Having a local professional ensures that most of the challenges that you are likely to face in new product development in China are already taken care of.

They would ensure that you find the right supplier for new product development, then they would communicate the design requirements and specifications effectively, ensure quality control and then have the products shipped to you in time.

If you too are looking for professional help to manage your new product development project in China, get in touch with our team now. We can help find a supplier who can turn your CAD design into a successful final product. Having done it time and again, we know how to overcome the challenges mentioned above.