Manufacturing in China - Dan Tribbles GTS09 talk

At the recommendation of reader Hulken, I'm listening to this show: GTS 09: Getting the most out of your Chinese manufacturer. This is great stuff.

The speaker is Dan Tibbles, CEO, designer, and producer from Bucephalus Games (BGG profile here).

Some interesting points (I'm taking notes as I go):

Initial contact

• He suggests requesting domestic game publishers for recommendations for factories
• There are hundreds of thousands of printing companies in China, but very few of them are able to make quality cards and boards
• Try for three different factories, and send each of them a sample game as close to production quality as you can
• Boardgames are a somewhat alien concept for the Chinese; they need help understanding what you want
• You need to be extremely specific about components - e.g. paper weights, coatings, etc. - this is where examples work better
• You should ask for a quote and a sample; they'll make free samples, but you need to pay for shipping

Choosing a company and working with them

• Quality is extremely variable, and prices reflect this quality for the most part
• Get the pricing broken down by component, not for the whole thing
• Cross-cultural communication is very difficult; use examples (actual samples) instead of words
• UPS to China and back is $100-$200
• They're willing to go through several iterations back and forth
• New publishing companies - pay half of production run up front, plus set-up charges (tools, molds, plates, etc.)
• Card sheet setup charge = $300
• Game board setup charge = $400
• Plastic figure from mold = $3000-4000 minimum, can get very large; each figure is very cheap
• Metal figure mold = $800, but each figure is expensive
• Part-time, hobbyist publisher (like me) should aim for 2000-2500 games starting print run
• Big push, with marketing money, no more than 5000 copies
• Minimum would be 1000-2000 for Chinese printing
• The reason there's the big drop in price is that there's a bunch of waste - maybe 1,000 copies are printed and thrown away before the colors are right, the press is ready, etc. So, your costs reflect these extra wasted materials.
• Blind rules testing is important - get readers to check your rules out for clarity
• Files need to be in great shape before sending - these turn into print proofs, which can cost several hundred dollars; they get sent back and forth
• Colors are never going to be perfect - often close, but not perfect; three iterations of back and forth sending is about the limit for this being useful
• It takes 30-60 days to get everything right before production, and then there's production and shipping; four months is a reasonable smooth timeline with few problems.
• Files should be totally flattened (i.e., no separate layers); no fonts, no stuff that can be moved or edited; everything should be graphical rather than text or font-based
• Make all changes yourself; don't request that they make edits, since the words and grammar can be messed up
• Factories should have Illustrator, Quark, Photoshop; file format isn't super-important, but make sure it's flattened.

Payment and production

• Payment - send purchase order over to factory; shouldn't be more than 50% up front; 30% up front is also good. They'll expect the balance when the product ships - not when it arrives.
• You will send payment by wire transfer to their bank account
• With lots of pieces, some may be outsourced; more complex means more time in production
• Tip - you should request to see and approve the first few units of the production run - "top of production" samples - as a final proof
• As a small, new customer, you will have very low status; the factory will prioritize other people and other projects; this can take lots of time
• Don't be in a hurry; be willing to use slow shipping for proofs and 
• Quality control for whole run is hard to do; you can do it in person, or you can hire somebody to do it, but it's difficult for small new companies
• Big wood pieces (e.g. gameboards, large parts) have the most variation, so they're the biggest concern - not little pieces, which are generally OK.
• He's worked with maybe 60 companies over there, but would only work with about 10 of them again.

Shipping and Customs

• Factories don't arrange for shipping - it's up to you
• Air shipping - very expensive; maybe $6 per game; 4-7 days
• Ocean shipping - two options
• LCL - Limited container load - you get a little piece of a container, shared with others
• FCL - Full container load - you rent the whole container - but it doesn't matter how full it is - not charged by weight, just volume
• 20' container is 1/2 as much by LCL
• 40' container is 1/2 as much per game as 20' (does this make sense?)
• Might still be cheaper to get a 20' container than go LCL
• Damage rate might be 2%, but more if fragile, and more if they are susceptible to water damage - e.g. wood parts expanding, warping from humidity
• Every single game should be shrink-wrapped individually
• Open at least 5% of the run to see if there are problems; more if there look to be issues
• It can be worth shopping around to get a good rate on a container - the rates will be extremely variable; individual discounts can be big, and you can play the companies off of each other
• Examples:
• 20' container from China to the West Coast of US - $1800-2200
• 40' container from China - $3000
• Depends on fuel
• Extra charges - taxes, paperwork, government fees, fuel surcharge
• They can probably give you an estimate for the whole shipment except for import duties
• Shipping company can handle transport within the US too - can go on trains or trucks
• Shipping - China to the U.S. West Coast - 2-3 weeks, plus another week of factory to ship, plus time to go through customs in U.S.
• Customs can be nearly nothing, not even inspected, or it can be a detailed search, but you have no real control. If you do get inspected, it will cost you a few hundred dollars a day for storage, and it may take several days.
• Good paperwork will help - everything from the factory should have a value included; shipping company can help with this.
• Wood products can include formaldehyde, so wood components (especially plywood) can give you problems
• Customs bond - required to go through customs - this is either $500/year, or $200-300 per container shipped
• Timing is tricky - you can't pay until it clears customs, but you don't know when that will be, and you pay for every day of storage, so you want to pay as fast as possible so you don't pay for needless storage

Final tips:

• Tip #1: Low prices mean low quality; there aren't many companies that rip people off now, but quality will vary
• Tip #2: Proofs won't look like production run, since they're done on different machines. Things will be wrong; you need to point these out, and check again in the top-of-production sample. This can be pretty major stuff; e.g. game board, cards not printed correctly or cut correctly as they will be on final production run.
• Tip #3: English won't always be good - keep asking until you understand; you won't offend them as long as you're talking business.
• Tip #4: They are 9-10 hours from us; their e-mails will come in the evening U.S. time.
• Tip #5: You should be able to save 30-70% even with shipping; more on stuff that requires lots of manpower

Wow, that was one of the most useful things I've listened to. Very good stuff, lots of questions answered. I'd recommend it to anybody.

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Update:  These are available in non-iTunes format at PulpGamer.com - the China one is here - thanks to commenter Eric Hanuise for the link.