“There is no such thing as ‘the best supplier.’ There are only suppliers that become the most suitable and reasonable choice for your current stage through constant communication, adjustment, and development.”
The more I work in supply chains, the more I feel that there is no so-called “best supplier.”
What really exists is the most reasonable combination of suppliers, formed through constant cooperation, training, adjustment, and improvement under different stages, different projects, different budgets, and different requirements.
“ Working with suppliers is not a one-time decision. It is a continuous and dynamic process. No factory can solve all of your problems. ”
Even a factory with excellent equipment, extensive experience, and a strong track record of producing high-quality products may not be willing to dedicate a lot of resources to a project with small quantities, high requirements, and frequent changes.
This is something I’ve felt very deeply throughout my long career working on IP-related products.
The products I have worked on started from items with fixed materials and fixed structures that only required changing the printed artwork. Later, they became collectible products in which almost every component needed a high level of customization.
These experiences kept proving one fact: making a good product does not simply depend on finding a powerful factory. It depends on the combination of factory capability, project requirements, on-site communication, and the professional judgment of the people executing the project.
Let me give you an example.
One example was a Destiny 2 Celestial Nighthawk blueprint poster I worked on, with a production run of only 600 pieces.
If we used a professional digital printing shop, the unit price would be high, and there would be very limited room for color adjustment.
If we used a capable printing factory, the color performance and final effect would be much better. However, the quantity was too small. The factory could not invest the same amount of time and attention that they would give to a large production order.
In the end, the factory charged us a one-time setup fee, around 80 US dollars. They were only willing to give us a maximum of thirty minutes for color adjustment.
Because after that point, it was no longer worthwhile for them.
During the same amount of time, they could arrange orders with higher output value and avoid creating extra work for their employees.
Within only thirty minutes to one hour, the result was naturally unable to satisfy products with very high expectations like ours.
This is why making products cannot simply mean giving requirements to the factory and waiting for the result.
The result you wait for is often not the result you expect. Because factories will always prioritize their own interests first.
The best results usually come from cooperation and mutual understanding. Factories provide equipment and production capability. The project leader needs to play an active role in the middle. They need to understand the design, understand the manufacturing process, understand the factory's limitations, and also understand what the customer truly wants.
Many times, my role is to find the best possible solution under the circumstances, balancing customer expectations, design ideals, and real-world limitations.
For example, if everything follows the factory's normal internal procedures, even a small file adjustment may take two days.
But if I understand design files, understand the production process, know how to modify files according to manufacturing requirements, and know which areas should be adjusted, I can solve problems on the spot and reduce issues that would normally take two days to resolve to just one day, or sometimes even a few hours.
There are many examples like this.
That is why I have always believed that the core of supply chain capability is not finding the “best factory.”
The real core is building a way of working together that can continue solving problems.
Strong factories are important, but they cannot solve everything for you.
What really keeps a project moving smoothly is whether you can use the factory's strengths, make up for the parts they do not want to do, are not good at doing, or cannot respond to quickly, and keep improving the working process so that future cooperation becomes smoother and smoother.
When a capable factory works with people who understand the product, understand the production process, communicate clearly, and are willing to solve problems, they can often achieve better results by working together than either side could achieve on its own.