Top 7 Questions to Ask a Potential Contract Manufacturing Partner

Having a great idea for a product isn’t enough to create a successful business. Unless you can mass-produce your product, you’ll never be able to grow a large company. That’s where manufacturing companies help.

The good news is that there are more than 638,000 manufacturing companies in the United States alone. However, finding the right contract manufacturing partner isn’t the easiest thing to do. Keep reading to learn seven questions to help you find a contract manufacturer that can meet your product needs.

1. Do You Have Quality Certifications?

It’s one thing to set up machines for a manufacturing process. It’s another to prove that you have quality controls in place to produce quality materials.

That’s what quality certificates are for. They’re a strict set of guidelines manufacturing companies need to comply with. If you don’t have those certifications, there’s no guarantee about the quality you’ll get from a manufacturer.

Take the ISO 9001:2008 certification, for instance. This is one of the most common guidelines that manufacturers can follow. It provides an outline of best practices that produce high-quality results.

Don’t work with a contract manufacturing partner unless they have one of these certifications. Someone with these certifications will have documentation that verifies their certification, so make it one of the first things you ask for when interviewing potential partners.

2. What’s Your Cost?

Manufacturing a product gets expensive, so you’re going to spend a lot of money with your manufacturer. That makes getting pricing quotes a critical part of the selection process.

Try to get quotes from a minimum of three manufacturing companies. Tell them your requirements and needed quantity, and they’ll send you a quote with what you can expect to pay.

Even though you’re trying to spend as little money as possible, don’t just take the lowest quote you see. Find someone that offers enough quality for the price they charge.

3. Can You Scale?

The chances are good that you won’t have many needs initially. You’ll run a limited amount of production to get your first products into the store and online.

If you do your job right, you’ll need to ramp up production in the future. In some cases, you’ll get a significant increase in demand and need to scale up faster than you can imagine.

The question is, can your manufacturing partner scale fast enough to meet your demand?

Check into the scaling capabilities of your potential manufacturers. You want to be able to grow with them instead of jumping ship when your current partner can’t meet your needs.

4. Will You Protect My Intellectual Property?

Not all products need protection. They’re just iterations on existing products or replicants of products that already exist. However, there will be cases where you’ll have patents for your products that you need to protect.

You need to ensure your manufacturing partner will protect your intellectual property. Ask if your contractor will sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevents them from using or selling your property for their own purposes.

This is more critical to do if you source your manufacturing overseas. Not all intellectual property law is the same everywhere, so working with a trusted partner is even more critical.

5. What’s Your Production Timeline?

If you’re like many businesses, you source your manufacturing globally. It makes sense with the cost savings, so a little extra time to ship the product isn’t a big deal.

However, it’s a mistake to go into the manufacturing process not knowing how long it will take to receive your products. The last thing you want is to run out of stock and not be able to fulfill orders.

Ask about the typical turnout time offered by your manufacturers. You don’t necessarily need a quick turnaround, but you need that timeline to be reliable.

If you want to learn more about sourcing overseas, make sure you check for more info.

6. Can You Provide References?

While you can find many reviews for many companies on the internet, the same isn’t always true for manufacturing companies. People who work with these companies don’t have time to write reviews online, and regular consumers will never sign a contract with a manufacturer.

That makes getting references from a manufacturing company very important. You’re spending a ton of money creating products, so you don’t want to waste that money on a company that can’t handle the job.

Use your time speaking with references to learn about the pros and cons of working with a manufacturer. A few issues here and there may not be a dealbreaker, but watch out for big red flags that point to a poor-performing company.

7. Will You Meet My Compliance Regulations?

Some manufacturing companies have a set way of doing things. They don’t deviate from their process because it requires more expense and time to get right. While this isn’t a bad thing, it’s an issue if you have more needs.

Many industries have strict regulations on how products need to be manufactured. If you’re in one of those industries, your products must comply with those rules.

Check with your contract manufacturing options to see if they can help you meet your compliance requirements. You can’t afford to work with a business that doesn’t.

Do Your Due Diligence When Hiring for Contract Manufacturing

You have a lot of money on the line when you work with a contract manufacturing partner. You can’t afford to go into the process without knowing what makes a good partner. Use the questions above to help vet contract manufacturing companies to ensure they can handle what you need them to do.

Do you want to read a few tips that will help you sell your products after the manufacturing process? Check out the blog to learn how to take the next steps in your business.