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Stage 3 of 6 — 3–6 weeks
The right factory, not the first one that answers
The factory decides most of what happens next — your unit cost, your lead time, your defect rate, and whether a problem in month eight gets fixed or argued about. This stage identifies manufacturers that match your product, your volume and your quality expectations, and verifies that they are what they say they are before anything is committed.
A supplier that quotes quickly and cheaply is not evidence of anything. We check the business licence and what it actually permits, the production capability against your specific product rather than their catalogue, the capacity against your volume, and how long they have been making this category rather than how long they have been trading.
OEM and ODM are different arrangements and the difference matters to who owns what. OEM means they build your design. ODM means you buy theirs with changes — cheaper and faster, but the design is not yours and neither is the tooling. We will tell you which one a quote actually is, because quotes do not always say.
Where an ISO-certified quality system exists we prefer it, and we verify the certificate rather than accepting a copy of one. Where a factory audit is warranted by the volume or the risk, we arrange it and you see the report.
Negotiation covers unit price, tooling cost and who owns the tooling, MOQ, lead time, payment terms and what happens to the price at higher volumes. Tooling ownership in particular is worth settling in writing at the quotation stage, not discovering later.
OEM and ODM manufacturer identification
Supplier verification
That the company exists, trades, and is permitted to make what it says it makes.
Factory capability assessment
Against your product, not against their catalogue.
Business licence verification
Production capacity evaluation
Manufacturing experience review
How long they have made this category — not how long they have been trading.
Quality management assessment
ISO-certified supplier preference
Where applicable, and the certificate verified rather than accepted.
On-site factory audit
Arranged where the volume or the risk warrants it. You see the report.
Price and production negotiation
Unit price, tooling, MOQ, lead time, payment terms, and who owns the tooling.
Sample coordination
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