The idea of moving into China has much appeal for South African firms. However getting your head around the market is tough and many local firms would do well to learn from some of the experiences from the team over at Cadac who have successfully implemented China into their supply chain.

Cadac, an iconic South African brand will be part of an outstanding team of speakers at the Supply Chain & Logistics Workshop presenting on 20 May 2009.

The workshop will be taking an in depth look at the challenges facing local companies that outsource their manufacturing to China.

Cadac amongst others will be relating their experiences to you. Cadac which stands for Commercial and Domestic Appliance Company, started manufacturing in South Africa some sixty years ago, and had built up a proud heritage with its local brand in South Africa.  They were however forced through various circumstances to move their manufacturing to China. In doing so they had to deal with many challenges and learn the hard lessons of managing their manufacturing process in someone else’s back yard. At the same time they had to protect their brand and meet their quality objectives.

In doing so it also expanded its supply chain enormously, and has had to deal with far more complex issues for forecasting and managing its supply chain, to meet the customer expectations.

 This learning curve can be very harsh and place undue pressure on your operation if you do not know what to look for. Cadac has learned many of these lessons the hard way, but we believe it has been a very positive experience for our company and has opened many other unexpected doors for us.

The very nature of how Cadac operates as a company has changed radically since it outsourced its manufacturing. We will discuss both the positive and negative impacts it has had on Cadac as a company. 

The challenges that we faced and how we overcame them will be discussed, and hopefully others can learn from our experience. The pitfalls are numerous, but with the right insight and upfront understanding of what to expect, you can make the process a lot less painful and add some huge benefits to your organization.

Cadac has been far more able to grow its brand globally since the change, something that they were not able to achieve whilst manufacturing locally. Research and development had to continue and remains at the forefront of our efforts to grow the brand globally.

Manufacturing in China is about change in the way you operate, but often change is what gives you the competitive advantage, something all companies strive to achieve,

For a booking, contact Dave Tootill  at 083 453 8318