Blog

A quotation says 35 days. Two people read that number and picture two different calendars. The gap is not bad faith, it is an undefined start point.

When the same mug appears at a much lower price, it is usually not a better factory. It is a different grade, and the grade is where the risk sits.

Asking whether a factory has an existing mould sounds like a shortcut. It is actually a decision about cost, exclusivity and who owns the shape three years from now.

Most sample failures are not capability failures. They are the predictable result of a brief that left the buildable details to be guessed.

The second order is rarely identical to the first. The question is whether the difference was decided by someone, or simply happened.

Three different rights sit inside a custom mug programme, and they are owned by different people. Confusing them is how disputes start.

Factories rarely fail without warning. They fail after a sequence of small signals that buyers are in a good position to notice, if they are looking.

A breakage rate without a denominator and a segment is not a number, it is a complaint. Here is how to build the one that can be claimed against.

At small quantities the carton, not the ceramic, sets the price. The reason is not the material but the setup that has to be paid once.

Building stock before the peak is not buying more. It is trading cash and space for time, and the trade only works when the quantities are derived rather than guessed.