What caused the delay in the delivery of the hot water bottle

According to the geographical location, the Hot water bottle trading company is divided into the trading company (or soho) in Yangzhou area and the trading company outside Yangzhou, such as Shanghai area, Hangzhou area, Nanjing area, Ningbo area.

The trading company in Yangzhou (or soho) only let the hot water bottle factory be responsible for the production of hot water bottles, while other related parts are produced by the trading company contacting other factories, such as instruction manuals, Hot water bottle covers, and gift boxes.

Hot water bottle trading companies outside Yangzhou area entrust the hot water bottle factory to provide all products, including gift boxes and covers.

Delivery delay caused by cartons

Usually, the factory will not order cartons before producing hot water bottles. The production cycle of hot water bottles ranges from 10 days to 2 months, while the production cycle of cartons usually only takes about 10 days. It is relatively late for many importers to provide the label information to the trading company. Misunderstandings in the middle and production delays in the carton factory will cause the final hot water bottle packing date to be delayed.

It must be pointed out that many importers only provide the label information, while the carton size and type of carton are often provided by the factory to the trading company, and the trading company provides the customer for confirmation. This part of the time must be calculated to ensure that the cartons are delivered to the hot water bottle factory on time.

Delivery delay caused by plastic bags

Plastic bags involve printing, printing mold costs, time to make printing molds and other factors. This part of the cost is borne by the trading company, the factory or the importer? these factors will take a lot of time.

It is often the case that the hot water bottle has been tested and waiting for packaging, because it lacks plastic bags and can only be stored in the warehouse.

Delivery delay caused by manuals, card headers, and color boxes

The instructions, card headers, and color boxes are produced by  special factories (not produced by a carton factory), and the reasons for the delay are similar to those caused by plastic bags

Delivery delay caused by screw stopper and filling aperture

In the production process of the hot water bottle, the defects of screw stopper and stopper will not be found. When the leak test is performed after the production of the hot water bottle, water or air leakage may be found (the two situations are not the same). The factory will investigate the cause If you can’t use the hot water bottle, it will be scrapped, re-produce or replace the stopper. This part will take a lot of time.

Delivery delay caused by hot water bottle molds

The production of hot water bottle requires many molds, including the body (3 pieces) and the bottom (1 piece)

The specific reasons are divided into the damage of the mold during the production process, which needs to be sent to the mold supplier for repair, the engraved trademark information and production information before mass production, the mold core is coated with Teflon, and the bottle mouth is chemically corroded.

If the customer’s hot water bottle order has many shapes of hot water bottle and also includes rectify the mold, matching molds, these tasks will take time. Any delay in any step will lead to the final delay, because these works are not done by one mold supplier but by many mold suppliers.

Delivery delay caused by stickers

The order details of many importers are that the shape and capacity of the hot water bottle are the same, only for the difference of the covers and cartons, which will lead to many kinds of stickers and different sizes of cartons. This part requires factories and trading companies to spend a lot of time to communicate and confirm. It often happens that all the pre-ordered stickers are scrapped, regenerated, and re-attached.

Delivery delay caused by busy warehouses

During the Chinese New Year or other holidays, the warehouse of the freight forwarding company was full. When trucks pulled the products from the factory to the warehouse of the freight forwarding company near the sea port, there was congestion, and the queue at the warehouse door was very long or even waited for a week.

The serious result is that the shipping schedule will not be catch up, and needs booking again.

Delivery delay caused by insufficient production capacity

There are many hot water bottle factories in Shiqiao Town, each of which has a different scale. The production capacity of a hot water bottle factory is usually measured by how many real BS hot water bottles the factory can produce per day. Some factories can produce 1,500 pieces per day, and some can produce 5,000 pieces per day, and few can produce 10,000 pieces per day.

The factory does not put all the production capacity to a certain customer’s order but allocates it to many different customers. Delays in delivery due to insufficient production capacity often occur.

Delay in delivery due to communication between the factory and the factory

Many importers and trading companies outside of Yangzhou area are not aware of the real situation of the Shiqiao Town hot water bottle factories. Many orders are placed by factory A to factory B and even factory C.

There are two cases. The first is that factory B and factory C only produce the hot water bottle, then transported to the factory A for packaging and transportation to sea port. In the second case, factory B and factory C have also completed the packaging work and shipped them from their factories to the port.

Merely the communication or production arrangement is not smooth, it will lead to the final delivery delay

The inconsistency of the production date between the ice bag supplier and the hot water bottle supplier will also lead to delays in delivery

Many importers of medical supplies also import ice bags while importing hot water bottles. The production of the two products is not completed in one factory, which will also cause delays in delivery.

The time to wait for the sample test report and the customer's confirmation leads to delays in delivery

Many professional clients specify testing items not only BS1970: 2012, and the designated testing agency is not only in Shanghai, perhaps in Guangzhou or Hong Kong. The work efficiency of testing agencies in each region is different, leading to the issuance of final testing. The reporting time is also different

Delay in delivery due to work stoppage

Power outages in the area, government environmental and sanitation inspections(In the winter of 2020, all the hot water bottle factories in Shiqiao Town be shut down for inspections and pollutant purification equipment be installed), deaths of factory employees (This happened to the manufacturer of Paul Murray PLC in the summer of 2020), and factory shutdowns caused by holidays can also cause delays in delivery.

Delay in delivery due to production arrangements

For example, our company’s partners, their production capacity is huge, they produce 15,000 pieces real BS hot water bottles every day, the operation mode here is very different from other factories. From February to March each year (the Chinese New Year has just ended and before the official production), the cooperative trading company will meet with the factory to discuss this year's order delivery date. Except for the factory shutdown due to COVID-19 in 2020, the annual production tasks will be scheduled until the end of the year.

During this period, orders from other companies were all rejected.

Delay in delivery due to payment disputes

This kind of delivery delay is usually not known by overseas importers, and mainly involves trading companies, factory A, and factory B in China. After such a delay occurs, it is difficult for overseas importers and domestic trading companies to find the real reason.

In 2020, Italian importer S imported a batch of hot water bottles and medical rubber air cushions from Hangzhou Medical Supplies Trading Company A. The trading company in Hangzhou placed an order to the hot water bottle factory H in Yangzhou. H only produces hot water bottles and does not produce rubber air cushions (shown in H’s Alibaba store that they produce rubber air cushions). The production of the air cushions is done by the hot water bottle factory X.

When H's hot water bottle completed the production work, and X's air cushion also completed the production work, a dispute occurred before delivery. H owed X a total of 200,000 RMB in payment for 3 years. Every time H found an excuse to postpone the payment but never fulfilled their promise of payment, the rubber ring cushions were subsequently detained in X's warehouse. After A’s many questionings, H informed that the production of the air cushion was actually made by X, and then A and X got in touch directly and paid the entire amount of the air cushion before H finally arranged the delivery.

Delivery delays caused by raw material suppliers

There are more than 10 kinds of chemical raw materials for hot water bottle, and the current raw material suppliers have two different attitudes towards hot water bottle factories.

The first is reliable hot water bottle factories, which will be delivered to the hot water bottle factory only by paying a deposit.

The second type is hot water bottle factories with a bad reputation. The raw material supplier will only deliver the goods after the full payment has been paid.

Just these two different payment methods can cause many hot water bottle factories to require high liquidity (most of the trading companies pay no deposit to the hot water bottle factory).