Happy year of the Water Rabbit!
A symbol of longevity, peace and prosperity, the year of the Rabbit is seen to be a year of hope.
In 2023, the Lunar New Near – more commonly known as the Chinese New Year – took place on Sunday 22nd January, with the 7-day national holiday running from Saturday 21st January to Friday 27th January.
Despite the festival lasting just one week, businesses across the world feel the impact of Chinese New Year for much longer. Particularly with delays in production and distribution.
Production
Without exception, all factories in China close for CNY celebrations.
This obviously has an impact on your business if you produce goods in China. But beyond this, the lead up to the New Year sees factories slow-down production in preparation for the closure. Production is often a little slower to start up again due to staff shortages following the celebrations.
Chinese transport officials expect some 2 billion journeys to take place over the festive period alone – with many employees taking additional holiday around this time. All-in-all, it can take more than a month for factories to properly build back up momentum after Chinese New Year.
Distribution
While Chinese ports and postal services remain open over the festive period, freight forwarders and logistic companies do not.
This can be frustrating for businesses in other countries that to do not observe the holiday, but with factories closed as well, product cannot be picked up from the factories anyway.
Quality
A third potential issue to be aware of is that there can be a dip in quality control for manufactured goods both before and after the Chinese New Year.
While the lead up to the festivities sees factories pushing their workers hard to get jobs finished before the holiday; a significant proportion of workers decide not to return to work afterwards too, having found employment closer to home. As a result, most factories need to bring in new, untrained, workers to bring manufacturing back up to speed.
An increased production volume combined with lesser-experienced staff can lead to a higher number of errors in production and assembly, as well as an increase in misunderstandings and miscommunications.
Another option?
While China does account for nearly 30% of manufacturing output across the globe, it is not the only option for manufacturing goods.
At Design Reality we not only provide design and development services, but can also offer 3d printing services closer to home, here in St Asaph, Wales.
With increased import fees and associated taxes from foreign production, there has never been a better time to switch to British manufacturing.
If you’d like to find out more about our services and capabilities, please get in touch: https://designreality.com/contact/
