Designing in Europe, manufacturing in China: how we run it from Leuven and Shanghai
Most product companies in Europe will produce something in Asia at some point. The ones that do it well treat the factory as part of the design team, not as a file recipient. This is how that works in practice, and when China is the wrong answer.
We design in Leuven and have a team in Shanghai. That is not a sales line; it is how many of our products reach production. Over ten years we have built a network of more than 55 manufacturing partners, most of them in China, and learned which parts of the process need someone physically on the factory floor.
This article explains what the Shanghai office does day to day, what a European client should expect, and the cases where we advise against producing in China at all.
Why the distance is the problem, not the country
The common failure mode is simple. A European team finishes a design, sends files to a factory found online or through an agent, receives a quotation that looks good, pays for tooling, and then spends six months in email threads about parts that do not match the drawing. Nobody lied. The drawing was ambiguous, the factory filled the gaps with what it usually does, and there was nobody there to notice until the parts arrived.
Distance turns small misunderstandings into expensive ones. The fix is not a better factory. It is having someone who understands the design standing next to the person making it.
What the Shanghai team actually does
- Supplier search and qualification. Not the biggest factory, the right one: the process, the volume band, the quality system and the people. We visit before we send a request for quotation.
- Quotations you can compare. We send the same production package to several suppliers and normalise the answers: tooling cost and who owns the tool, unit cost at your volumes, minimum order quantity, lead time, payment terms, what is included and what is not.
- Tooling reviews. Before steel is cut, the tool design is reviewed against the part design: gate locations, parting lines, ejector marks, cooling. These decisions are permanent, so they are made with the designer present.
- Pilot batch inspection. First articles are measured and assembled on site against the inspection criteria agreed in advance. Problems are fixed at the tool, not argued about by email.
- Ramp-up and quality issues. When something drifts in production, somebody who knows why the part looks the way it does is in the room within a day, not a flight away.
- Time-zone bridging. Leuven mornings overlap Shanghai afternoons. Questions raised by the factory in their working day are answered by the designers in theirs.
What the European client should expect
A clear production package before anyone in China sees the design. A shortlist of suppliers with normalised quotations, typically within a few weeks. A tooling decision you can make on the numbers. A pilot batch with an inspection report. And a single contact in Leuven who speaks for the whole chain.
What you should not expect: that producing in China makes a bad design cheap. Tooling is still tooling. A part with a tolerance it does not need costs more in Shenzhen just as it does in Eindhoven.
When China is the wrong answer
We say no to China more often than people expect. It is usually the wrong choice when:
- Volumes are small. Below a few thousand units a year, tooling amortisation and logistics eat the unit-cost advantage. European or Turkish suppliers, or even machining and sheet metal instead of moulding, often win.
- The product is large or heavy. Freight for a bulky product can erase the saving.
- Regulation demands proximity. Some medical, food-contact and safety-critical products are simpler to certify with a supplier whose quality system auditors already know.
- Speed matters more than cost. A European supplier two hours away can turn a change in days. A sea freight cycle is weeks.
- The client has no appetite for the process. Producing in China is a management task. If nobody on your side will own it, and you do not want us to, keep it close.
For a product that is small, high-volume, has many moulded parts and a target price to hit, China remains the strongest option, and the Shanghai office is why we can say that with a straight face.
A practical sequence
- Finish the engineering in Europe, with the production process decided per part.
- Decide the region with real numbers: tooling, unit cost, MOQ, freight, lead time and quality risk, side by side.
- Qualify two or three suppliers, visit the shortlist.
- Review the tool design before cutting steel.
- Inspect the pilot batch on site.
- Ramp up with someone watching the first thousand units.
Step 2 is the one most companies skip. It is also the one we would do for you in a week.