How to identify an injection mold company is the REAL manufacturer or just a trading company?

The difference is only from a house called factory. If you want to have a pleasant cooperation, you will find responsible engineers and molds seller.

Actually, this is very easy to identify an injection mold company. If he is really anxious for a good supplier, he should come to visit the factory, talk a lot with the related person from the factory. Only in this way can he have a good grasp of that supplier.

Some points as below：

advanced equipments
suitable price
experienced staffs,
directly price
factory better, avoid trade company
delivery on time
good after-sales service
performance team
.............. Executive Ability
Tks

I have the same experience in helping one of my Euro friends find the tooling partner in China several months ago. We have selected several candidates in south China. One strange thing happen that we came into the same company when we took the factory tours for different candidates. One of the candidate is trade company and another is the exact manufacturer. I summarize the differences of trade company: The office address is different with the factory address and you can't see the company name from the picture of the factory which showed in their website. Suggest you asking your Chinese friend to do some investigation for you before the business.

Dear Cai, thanks for your sharing experience, as usual, what you occurred is right. So, would you share what is the different service between trader and manufacturer? what's more, some manufacturers will avoid to use his own name and use another to register a offshore company for lower high tax.

Anyway, it's a small tip for your reference, best luck to you.

Dear all, thank you for your participation and contributions. Eric provided a good way to see the difference. Except the address and logo, you can also identify whether it's a trading company or an exact manufacturer from these points:

1. Whether the sales introduce their engineers, boss or manager during your visiting. If it's trading company, they will avoid to do so.
2. Experiences of attending famous mold show, such as Asiamold, Euromold, Chinaplas, Amerimold, NPE, etc. Generally speaking, it is expensive for any company to exhibit at a trade show so this gives you some idea of the status of a company among others. Trading company seldom attend such shows so much.

Welcome any new suggestions or comments!

Hello,
As to distinguish the trade company and manufacture factory, It's depend on the service and management, If you are willing to get more satisfactory service partner, the trade company will be your right choice, while If you are prefer better management partner, the factory would be somewhat suitable to you. while, in fact, most trade company and factory are closed connected, so,it's not too much difference to cooperate with a trader or a manufacturer.
Best Luck

I appreciate this one, very short but hit the point

advanced equipments
suitable price
experienced staffs,
directly price
factory better, avoid trade company
delivery on time
good after-sales service
performanced team
.............. Executive Ability

first ask for their profile and company picture especially the front gate with logo or company name,
second ask for latest picture of stuff picture taken in front of the gate. next compare...result come out.

This is one of the best comments that somebody posted on this subject. And I agree 100% with it. I think that we also have to remember what Japanese government did to change it and that is no more bad quality out of Japan. Maybe that change will also help Chinese suppliers. And even better, with so many engineers that are coming out of technical universities in China I am sure that somebody will start to rise the bar of quality higher and higher up. I am looking forward for that day even that I am sure that we have some examples even today.

I believe the first point is ti visit them, look around and talk to the people one by one if possible. This can give you an idea about the company from different perspective. Molds on the floor can tell you more about the company than very nice presentation and so on. Last but not easy, talk to some customers for the same company.

Again, talking will not solve anything as well as looking at the molds on shop floor. Understanding each other is sometimes more difficult than we think. We are very often have different views/perceptions on the same thing and that is what is causing issue of reliability. I will not talk about this as issue of reliability but also of perception of quality. The paper is suffering a lot (many certificates obtained from wired companies) and we need people who will be able to see it in between the lines. "Do I or my company want to invest time and money in building relationship" or/and "do I believe that this supplier will be able to create the product as I expect any time in future" and then start with the small steps.

All thing changes, the trade company do something to make you think and sure they are manufacturer, but the manufacturer will tell you they are not trade company. True and false, false or true, it is a question.

Turn to your core care, what is the most importance for you?
advanced equipments
good price
experienced staffs
delivery on time
after-sales service
Easy communication etc.

A experience sale with professional mold technology background could give satisfy service and save much cost. Don't care much who they are, but what they could provide for you. Seeing is no believing all the time. It is much more complex than you think.

To size up capabilities of the manufacturer it is possible only on a place personally. Certainly provided that you are thoroughly knocked down in this area.
I make five years moulds in China.
And never I will begin ratios with new corporation, without having researched at first on distance, and then on a place real production.

Please give this some thoughts "guys".
I feel that this is not really about trading companies (and all you expats trying to make a living out of your knowledge) via manufacturers!!!
This here is about how good the actual service is. This is about culture, about bothering or more often not to read specifications (in other words taking chances or not) and about having a hit and run attitude rather than building long term mutely beneficial relations ships.
Many of my clients openly proclaim that the DON'T really care if they are dealing with a "trading company" or a manufacturer, as long as the service (i.e. no trouble with quality, good and timely communication {in the customers language and in correct technical terms} and on time delivery) warrants the price.
I think we need to stop blaming trading companies (or as I would prefer to call them tool management service companies) for everything.
If the trading company has build up the customer base, has truly research the needs of their clients and in earnest manage the project, it can be a real blessing for both the client (who does not know China, the language and is unfamiliar with the culture) as well as the toolmaker (who does not know the clients country, the language and is unfamiliar with the culture).
Also for many smaller companies making tools "trading companies" are to best and often the only way to the market.
The all important issue here is what does the "trading company" do for the money and how good is the service they provide!

The really good thing is that we all have an opinion exchange view points and as long as there is a mannerly exchange different opinions are the spice of any discussion.

I can only talk from my own experience (this year 40 years in engineering), of having lived and worked for 24 years in Germany and now for 30 year in Ireland (running my own engineering business) and having dealt for over 10 years with China (4 of which my company has an office there).
The list is endless of people/companies I know who have burned themselves badly by trying to do business over the internet (without any on the ground control).
If you like to play Vabanque or Russian Roulette than go ahead and do business without on the ground representation and control and let luck decide if you where the lucky one who did find a company who will be able to do the work (and that consistently).
Also consider that I have jet to find a company in China who has refused business after looking at the drawing/model and realizing that this is way beyond their league (capability). You hear permanently "no problem" (没问题) and its shortly afterwards when the trouble starts.
It is that simple are you the happy go lucky gambler or more the sound and study engineering type.
I for my part decided that for my company I wanted representation on the ground and a have build up number of different suppliers for different jobs.

The reason why many Chinese manufacturers don't like trading companies is simply that these companies do take a cut and the manufacturer likes to get this for himself.
For the same reasons many customers don't like trading companies as they (naturally) have to charge for their service to survive.

But let's face it, the fact is that a properly run trading company (I prefer the term engineering or tooling management service provider) with proper tool management and engineering capabilities can save both the tool manufacturer and the customer money.
We need to get away from taking only tooling (purchase or manufacturing) costs in to consideration. We need to look at over all costs (including, management, transport, delay, QC related, rework etc) and then make a judgement.
There are many "cowboys" operating in this area, but a properly run tooling management service provider is worth every penny.

As we learned this the hard way my company (G&G Engineering) actually started to manage the building of different tooling (moulds press tooling, special purpose machinery etc) for us in Ireland and for some customers ourselves on site in Southern China.