The Mercury (Pottstown, PA)

Businesses find pitfalls in making goods overseas

- By JOYCE M. ROSENBERG AP Business Writer

NEW YORK >> Danica Lause manufactur­ed knitted hats in China for four years and struggled the whole time.

“I was unable to achieve the level of quality control our brand requires in any of the factories we worked with in China,” says Lause, whose company, Peekaboos, makes hats with openings for wearers to pull their ponytails through.

To begin with, the factories were unable to make the hats on machines. Lause then had the hats knit by hand, but the sizing was often off or the openings were in the wrong place — problems she only learned about when shipments of the hats arrived.

Small businesses have been drawn to manufactur­ing overseas for the same reasons as Fortune 500 companies: Labor costs are lower than in the U.S. But there are downsides and complicati­ons to making goods overseas and owners have contended with these issues for years, long before the Trump administra­tion’s trade wars and tariffs added another layer of difficulty. Small businesses without the resources and bargaining power that larger companies have can struggle as they deal with issues like poor quality, missed production deadlines and legal disputes.

“It’s a vexing problem for anyone, but being small and offshore makes it harder,” says John Gray, a professor of operations at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business. The disparitie­s can start during the process of finding a manufactur­er, Gray says, noting “large companies will get more attention from the suppliers.”

Most companies soldier on and find solutions, but some end up moving their manufactur­ing to the U.S.

In 2016, Lause began moving the work to a facility in Germantown, Wisconsin. She found engineers who figured out how to get the hats knit on machines, and she discovered it’s not as expensive as she thought to manufactur­e in the U.S.

When the owners of beyond Green began producing their compostabl­e plastic bags three years ago, it was a natural for them to manufactur­e in India. CEO Veejay Patel came from India and had already been involved in plastics manufactur­ing in his

home country.

But by early this year, Patel and co-owners Rudy Patel and Achyut Patel had reasons to move their manufactur­ing to the U.S., says Katrina Hart, coordinato­r of business developmen­t for the Lake Forest, California, company.

“Quality control was not up to our needs,” Hart says. Customers were complainin­g that bags, including those used to contain produce in supermarke­ts, had slits, making them unusable.

The Patels also realized they would save money by not having bags shipped from India to California and then sent to customers across the U.S. Cost aside, their shipping method wasn’t as environmen­tally friendly enough for a company whose mission is to be green. They began production in Lake Forest early this year.

“This reduced our costs, allowed for a better handle on quality control, and now we are able to contribute to the business and economic success of the community that most of our employees grew up in,” Hart says.

Problems beyond quality issues can crop up during the manufactur­ing process. A 2017 paper Gray coauthored studied some of the problems small and medium-sized businesses encountere­d overseas; it described one company that found out its overseas supplier had unilateral­ly decided to swap out one of the components in a product. In another case, a clothing company discovered to its surprise that a thinner fabric was being used.

“What you actually get as your final product doesn’t exactly match what you originally purchased,” the paper quoted one executive as saying.

Companies often end up negotiatin­g with manufactur­ers to try to get products made as ordered. But sometimes they end up in legal disputes that are difficult to win.

“It’s harder to get an accord across time zones and cultural and language difference­s,” says Lee Branstette­r, an economics professor at Carnegie-Mellon University’s Heinz College.

While very large companies might have employees or representa­tives at overseas factories as a matter of course to monitor quality, small businesses owners without such help must operate on faith that the goods will turn out right.

When Aaron Muderick wanted components for his putty that’s sold as a toy, he turned to a manufactur­er in China. The first batch came out well, but the next two were defective. After arguing with the manufactur­er about how to address the problems, Muderick, owner of Crazy Aaron’s Thinking Putty, hired a representa­tive to keep an eye on production.

“It helped things get better but it also reduced the cost savings because that person was getting a piece of the action,” Muderick says.

A decade ago, Muderick decided to manufactur­e the putty itself at his headquarte­rs in Norristown, Pennsylvan­ia. He had searched for a Chinese factory, but grew increasing­ly anxious about the possibilit­y that either the manufactur­er or one of its employees would steal his formula and start selling their own putty to compete with his. That’s the kind of intellectu­al property theft that has long been a point of contention between the U.S. and China.

“It didn’t feel right in my gut so we ended up going on our own path,” Muderick says.

 ?? CHRIS CARLSON - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO ?? In this Friday, July 5, 2019, file photo Achyut Patel, Director of Operations, Rudy Patel, Director of Business Developmen­t and Katrina Hart, business developmen­t coordinato­r pose for a picture at beyond Green, a maker of biodegrada­ble bags in Lake Forest, Calif.
CHRIS CARLSON - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO In this Friday, July 5, 2019, file photo Achyut Patel, Director of Operations, Rudy Patel, Director of Business Developmen­t and Katrina Hart, business developmen­t coordinato­r pose for a picture at beyond Green, a maker of biodegrada­ble bags in Lake Forest, Calif.
 ?? CHRIS CARLSON - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO ?? In this Friday, July 5, 2019, photo Andre Harris works on the line at beyond Green, a maker of biodegrada­ble bags in Lake Forest, Calif.
CHRIS CARLSON - THE ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO In this Friday, July 5, 2019, photo Andre Harris works on the line at beyond Green, a maker of biodegrada­ble bags in Lake Forest, Calif.

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