How to find a contract manufacturer abroad

1. 1

   Prepare

   Step 1: Write a complete specification

   Put together drawings, the bill of materials, material and finish specifications, tolerances, test methods, packaging and labeling, and the standards the product must meet in each market where it will be sold. A precise specification is also what gives you the right to accept or reject a batch later¹.

   Decide at the same time what is confidential and what is not. A short outline of the product, its materials and its volumes lets a factory say whether it can make it; the drawings and the formula go out later, only to factories that have signed the agreement in the next step. WIPO’s guidance is to share only what a partner needs to know².

   What this step produces

   • A specification package
   • A target cost
   • A plan of what is shared, with whom and when

   Common mistake: A vague specification, which leaves the factory free to substitute materials.

   You do this step yourself

   The specification is yours, and Promote:Global does not write or check it. Each product you add holds its HS code, which you confirm, and the plan looks up its duty and origin steps from that code and the two countries.

2. 2

   Prepare

   Step 2: Put a confidentiality agreement in place before sharing the specification

   Know what protects what before anything leaves your hands. A patent protects an invention only in the country or region where it was granted, and trademarks are registered office by office, country by country, so ask counsel whether to file in the factory’s country as well as in your markets^11,12. Drawings, formulas and process know-how that you keep secret are protected by keeping them confidential: WIPO’s guidance for working with outside partners is a confidentiality clause in every contract, and a separate non-disclosure agreement signed before any information changes hands².

   For factories in China, practitioners recommend an NNN agreement, covering non-disclosure, non-use and non-circumvention: the factory may use your information only to make your product, may not make it for anyone else, and may not go around you to your customers. It should name the real factory that will hold your drawings and be written for the deal rather than translated from a template, with local counsel advising on how it is enforced³. Have it ready now, and have each factory sign before it receives the full specification.

   What this step produces

   • A confidentiality or NNN agreement, ready to sign
   • Patent or trademark filings, where counsel advises them

   Common mistake: Sending full drawings to every factory that answers an inquiry, before any has signed.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not register patents or trademarks, draft agreements or give legal advice. Find service providers lists legal and corporate firms that list themselves, where one is listed for the country.

3. 3

   Discover

   Step 3: Search for factories and shortlist them

   Sources include trade commissioners and export promotion agencies, industry associations, trade shows, sourcing agents and business-to-business marketplaces, and some trade commissioner services will run a background check on a potential partner¹⁰.

   Then shortlist from the desk. Find out whether you are dealing with the factory itself or with a trading company that resells another factory’s output, and who will actually make your product³. Confirm the legal entity and its registration, the owners, who owns the building and the machinery, the certifications, the customers and the references, and get at least two business or credit reports from different providers⁴.

   What this step produces

   • A long list of factories
   • A shortlist with ownership, references and credit reports

   Common mistake: Shortlisting a trading company without knowing which factory will make your product³.

   With Promote:Global

   On a contract manufacturing project, Search for possible partners looks on the open web for contract manufacturers and OEM factories, ranked by fit to your product and route, for 1 AI action. Each result says where it was found and is a lead to check before you make contact; save the factories you pursue to the project. The provider directory has no manufacturing category, so it does not list factories, and Promote:Global does not check any firm.

   Finding connections

4. 4

   Connect

   Step 4: Request quotations and samples

   Send the specification and your expected volumes to the shortlisted factories that have signed, and ask for the minimum order quantity, price breaks, lead times, tooling costs and payment terms. Order samples. Minimum orders and tooling costs vary widely by product and supplier, and the sources consulted give no reliable range, so compare like with like: the same materials and the same inclusions.

   Compare the landed cost, not the unit price. The factory’s country decides the duty into your market, and whether the goods can claim a trade-agreement rate depends on that agreement’s own origin rule; the Rules of Origin Facilitator shows the product rules for more than 350 agreements⁸. For marking and ordinary duty, origin is often the country where the goods were last substantially transformed, and simple assembly or repackaging may not count⁹.

   What this step produces

   • Comparable quotations
   • Samples, with your notes on each
   • A landed-cost comparison by factory

   Common mistake: Choosing on unit price, when the duty from each factory’s country changes what the goods cost you landed.

   With Promote:Global

   On the web, Export check lets you set the origin, so each factory’s country can be the origin and your market the destination. It gives the duty, standard and preferential, with its source and year, and the origin status; Estimate landed cost with this duty opens Landed cost with that duty, and the Origin qualifier walks the agreement’s origin rule one question at a time. All three are free, and all are guidance, not a customs ruling. Keep the quotes and your sample notes on the step, where Meridian reads them when you ask about the project.

   Export check, Origin qualifier and Landed cost

   

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5. 5

   Connect

   Step 5: Audit the finalists

   Visit the finalists, or commission an independent audit of the quality system, the capacity and the working conditions, and find out which processes go to subcontractors. The OECD’s due diligence guidance, written for companies of any size, sets out six steps: embed a policy, identify the risks, act on them, track the results, communicate, and provide remedy⁶.

   If you sell into the European Union, its ban on products made with forced labor applies from 14 December 2027, and goods you source now may still be on sale then, so build traceability into your supplier records from the start⁷.

   What this step produces

   • An audit report and a corrective action list
   • A list of subcontractors

   Common mistake: Relying on certificates or photographs without a visit or an independent audit.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not audit or check factories. Visit, or appoint an auditor yourself.

6. 6

   Prepare

   Step 6: Negotiate the manufacturing and quality agreements

   Cover the specification and approved materials; acceptance criteria and a period to reject; inspection rights during production and before shipment; pricing and any limits on price changes; minimum orders and forecasts; who owns tooling, molds and improvements; subcontracting only with your written consent; confidentiality that survives the end of the contract; remedies and liability; and notice and handover at the end, including the transfer of tooling and designs¹. A separate quality agreement, setting out the quality procedures and inspections, often sits alongside it.

   Set the purchase terms in the same round. Name an Incoterms rule and its place for the leg from the factory: the rule decides who arranges and pays for freight and insurance, who clears customs and where the risk passes, but not the price, the payment terms or when ownership passes¹³. Pay in stages, such as a deposit and then the balance against inspection or the shipping documents, since paying everything in advance puts the risk on you as the buyer⁵.

   Tooling or materials you supply to the factory free or at a reduced price, known as assists, can be added to the customs value of the goods you import under the WTO’s valuation rules, so ask a customs broker whether yours count¹⁴.

   What this step produces

   • A manufacturing agreement
   • A quality agreement
   • A tooling schedule and ownership record
   • Purchase terms: the Incoterm, its place and a payment schedule

   Common mistake: Leaving tooling ownership unwritten, so the factory can hold your molds as leverage when you try to switch¹.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not draft or review manufacturing or quality agreements and gives no legal advice. The terms and the tooling are for you and your lawyer, and the customs value for you and your customs broker.

7. 7

   Grow

   Step 7: Run a pilot production order

   When the tooling is made, place a small first order. Approve a golden sample that later batches must match, inspect during production, and record every change to the specification as a written revision both sides sign, since the specification is what you accept or reject a batch against¹.

   What this step produces

   • An approved golden sample
   • In-process inspection notes
   • Written revisions to the specification

   Common mistake: Skipping the golden sample, so later batches have nothing agreed to be judged against.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not inspect goods or monitor a factory. Record the golden sample’s approval and the pilot’s results as notes on the step, where Meridian reads them when you ask about the project.

8. 8

   Grow

   Step 8: Inspect before shipment, then scale

   Inspect the pilot before it ships, against the golden sample and the acceptance criteria in the agreement, and release the balance only when it passes¹.

   Then scale in steps, tracking defects and on-time delivery on each order and recording corrective actions. Each import entry declares the goods’ classification, origin and value, including any assists, so keep the records that support them¹⁴.

   What this step produces

   • Pre-shipment inspection reports
   • A supplier scorecard
   • Import entry records

   Common mistake: Scaling up before the pilot order has passed inspection.

   You do this step yourself

   Promote:Global does not inspect goods or monitor a factory. Find service providers has a certification and inspection category, where firms list themselves; whether one is listed for the factory’s country varies.

The duty, origin and certificate steps are looked up from your product’s HS code and the two countries, so their number depends on what you sell and where. A step with a condition in brackets appears only where it applies. In your own project, each step names your product and your countries. Building the plan uses no AI action.

On a project, Search for possible partners looks on the open web for contract manufacturers or OEM factories, or for whoever you describe, ranked by fit, for 1 AI action. A result is a lead to check before you contact anyone, not a confirmed partner.

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