Hot water bottle cover supply chain truth

The production process of rubber Hot water bottle is extremely complicated mainly because of various chemical additives and the adjustment of various formulas for different countries. The manufacturing process of the Hot water bottle cover is relatively simple. Outsourcing is the main problems.

The production of knitted hot water bottle covers use circular knitting machines, at present, there are few factories making knitted hot water bottle covers in Shiqiao Town. Although the quality is good, but they do not have a complete supply chain advantage. Most of the knitted hot water bottle covers are produced in Tianchang City, Anhui Province. It is about 1hour drive from Shiqiao Town. Here we mainly discuss the production process of hot water bottle cover materials other than knitted fabrics.

1. Sign the contract

The trading company or hot water bottle factory or SOHO discusses the details with the hot water bottle cover factory and signs the contract.

The specific difference is that the Yangzhou local trading company and SOHO separately signed a contract with the cover factory, and only the trading company outside of Yangzhou placed the order to the hot water bottle factory, then hot water bottle factory buy from cover manufacturer

2. Raise money

Most of Trading companies, hot water bottle factories, and SOHO pay No deposits, and the owner of the cover factory needs to raise money

3. Order raw materials base on samples

The raw materials involved in the production of hot water bottle covers include fabrics, nylon elastics, Velcro, woven labels, zipper, sewing threads, fillers, etc.

4. Receiving raw materials and cutting it to demanded size

After the factory got the raw materials, the fabric will be cut to meet the requirements of different sizes of hot water bottles

5. Embroidery

Some covers have a customer’s trademark or pattern on the surface, then use a computerized embroidery machine to embroider

6. Sewing

Sewing the cut fabric to make the two pieces of fabric spliced together, while sewing nylon elastic, woven label or Velcro

7. Order cartons, order packaging bags

When the hot water bottle cover supplier starts mass production, it will order cartons and plastic bags (hot water bottle cover export independently, and employee will also put the cardboard inside the hot water bottle covers to keep the shape) from the supplier

8. Inspection

Carry out quality inspection after mass production

9. Packaging

Start packing works after passing the quality inspection (covers export independently)

10. Shipment

Send to hot water bottle factory, or contact logistics company to ship to Shanghai port or Ningbo port

11. Invoicing and receiving payment

Issue an invoice and collect payment from the buyer

Please note that there are 2 different modes of operation depending on the buyer of the hot water bottle covers factory.

The first is to send the covers directly to the hot water bottle factory without directly exporting it overseas. In this case, the hot water bottle covers is not carefully packaged, just simply put it in big bags.

The second case is to export directly overseas in accordance with the instructions of the trading company or SOHO. In this case, the hot water bottle covers will be carefully packaged before leaving the factory and then shipped to the designated port.

The above is the operating mode of a regular hot water bottle cover factory, but more than 80% of the hot water bottle covers are not manufactured by this kind of factory.

At present, the real production works of the largest hot water bottle covers supplier in Shiqiao Town is all outsourced, and they only undertake the cutting and final packaging works. The advantage of this way is that there is no need to buy sewing machines, and no need to recruit professional employee, which saves a lot of cost. The biggest problem with this way is that the quality is not guaranteed.

According to the number of hot water bottle cover orders and the delivery date, they will choose many self-employed individuals to undertake part of the production of the covers. Only the fabrics and woven labels are provided by the factory. Other nylon elastic, Velcro, and sewing threads are all undertaken by the self-employed individuals. Whether it is an Indian importer order, a British customer order, a German customer order or an Italian customer's orders all handled in this way. It is not the lack of the supplier’s ability but the quality problem caused by the crazy cost reduction of the trading company.

Usually the sewing thread for hot water bottle covers in Germany or the United Kingdom needs to use No. 402 sewing thread, but many self-employed individuals use cheap No. 202 sewing thread in order to save costs. The skills of each self-employed are different and the equipment they used is also different, resulting in a great difference in the quality of the covers produced.

The manufacturing process of plush toy hot water bottle cover is much more complicated, and the number of suppliers is not many.

The difference between the production process and the ordinary hot water bottle cover is following

1. It is necessary to use a laser cutting machine(not cheap) to cut the fabric into different shapes

2. In addition to general raw materials, fillers are also needed, usually use polypropylene cotton

3. Special employees are required to put polypropylene into toy covers, which is called needle worker in the plush toy industry. This job requires great patience.

4. The most difficult part of the soft toy hot water bottle cover is the design and pattern making (according to the animal photos or toy cover samples sent by the customer, designer use cardboard to make all parts of the sample, and then keep adjusting to the best shape)

5. In the Chinese market, soft toy hot water bottle covers still follow the same GB/T 9832-2007(EN71 for European market) standard as plush toys, while ordinary hot water bottle covers do not have corresponding standards.

6. Because the design and making of soft toy covers require lots of experience, some SOHO and trading companies go to the factory to steal the samples put production in small workshops in order to save the cost, This part involves illegal acts and has been arrested by the police many times.