Innovation with Asian Factories

I have some mechanical challenges in front of me. At my company, I do not have engineers, but do have Asian factory engineers to work with. It is difficult to get them to really help us get to the innovation we are looking for.

Does anyone have tips for working with Asian factory engineers to provide real innovation to improve efficiency, reduce waste, improve product?
It would be especially great to hear from Asian designers and engineers out there.

Thanks

May I know which part of asia exactly are you talking about?

I’ve studied engineering in Singapore and done some time in some automation facilities.

I’ve also visited china when I was looking for sub-contracting options to manufacture some lifestyle products. Not easy to work with of course.

Really anything coming out of this would be a super generalization.

Where in Asia?

What vendor?

What are their capabilities?

Asian factory could be everything from a highly talented Taiwanese engineering house to a small shed in China with an injection molding machine.

em from asia to, as we are producing the best quality of design in bed sheets and clothing and selling it to american as well as European countries.
i dunno what kind of innovation you are taking about ?
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I’m an American industrial designer. I’ve been designing and going to the Taiwan, China factories to develop fitness equipments for 10 years.

Asian factories have a different set of priorities and constrains. They’re all about how to make it with their current tools and efficiency in production. To overcome the “NO, we can’t do that”. Here are my suggestions through experience.

  1. Learn what the have to work with.
  2. Communication is the key. The one that does the actual development does not speak English. Use more pictures less language.
  3. Control the overall innovation, leave room in the innovation for the factory to fill in the blank. Control more details on later samples. This way factory is less overwhelmed and will not reject difficult ideas.

Let me know if this is helpful, then I’ll provide more details.

Keep on design and innovate! Cheers