FAQ

Setting up your own Far East office is extremely expensive in time, money, and opportunity cost. Working with Dragon Innovation provides the following advantages:

• Active wide range of experience across many customers, products and factories.
• Real-Time Response. Close the loop locally for greater efficiency.
• In-depth understanding and experience with the factory.
• Ability to prevent quality disasters through onsite supervision.
• Follow-the-Sun problem solving leveraging the time advantages of USA and Far East offices.
• Native language and culture.
• Access and relationship with factory Senior Management.
• Reduced travel costs and inefficiencies. Allows USA team to focus on growing the business and to focus on Research and Innovation.
• Opportunity to utilize a larger time-sliced team (engineering, quality, manufacturing, logistics, etc) for a similar cost to one in-house expert.
• Possible volume leverage (if client selects a factory that other clients are using).

Many consulting firms position themselves as “middle‐men” between the client and the factory. Our goal at Dragon Innovation is very different - we serve as an integrated extension of our clients’ team and conduct ourselves in a fully transparent manner. We will never conceal cost or contact information from clients or accept remuneration from the factories. We always put our clients’ interests first.

Every client is different, and we tailor our approach to fit your needs. Below is a typical progression:

• Dragon Innovation can work with clients early in the development process to create a robust manufacturing strategy as part of their business plan so that the conversation with investors focuses on how to sell the product versus how to build it.
• Using our extensive experience in DFMA, Dragon Innovation can work closely with clients to complete their prototypes for factory handover.
• When approximately 80% of the product development is complete, we will initiate the Request for Quote (RFQ) process during which we work together to create a RFQ package, select a short list of capable Contract Manufacturers, and conduct an in‐country visit and assessment. The result is a detailed cost of goods quote, pre‐production schedule, and understanding of the CM. Based on our network and relationships, we can often help clients access exclusive CMs that would otherwise be unreachable.
• After a CM is selected, the project moves into the technology transfer and pre‐production phase. A Dragon Innovation PRC‐based project manager will be selected and become an extension of your core team, serving as your “feet on the ground” in China.
• After production starts, Dragon Innovation can help you with new product introductions and sustaining engineering (cost down, quality up).

Dragon Innovation works for our clients, and only our clients. As such, we provide unbiased, trustworthy opinions and recommendations. With offices in both the USA and China, there is always a Dragon Innovation team member available for our clients to speak with at any time. Regardless of what factory a company works with, it is always to their advantage to have a team based in the Far East. Dragon Innovation provides this capability at a fraction of the cost that it would take for a company to set-up their own Far East team.

By having Dragon Innovation design your mechanical system, you are guaranteed a seamless transition to manufacturing.

Dragon Innovation can review your existing schematic and component selection and recommend improvements to make your design more robust from an engineering and supply chain standpoint. At this time, we do not offer Electrical or Software engineering design services.

We typically bill on a fixed monthly retainer basis which includes overland travel expenses for the Far East team.

The typical contract is for a six-month period. Our goal is to develop long term client relationships that last many years. We find that our clients are typically very creative and entrepreneurial people. As a result, they are constantly innovating and developing new products. Our goal is to be their long-term manufacturing partner.

We believe in using the best tools available to improve communications and provide the most technically advanced design capability:

• As part of our services, we provide a cloud‐based file sharing solution to enable all parties to securely exchange files and take advantage of the built‐in version control capability to avoid confusion.
• To provide all parties (Client, Dragon USA, Dragon Far East, and the Factory) with visibility to the schedule, tasks and current status in a Gantt chart format, Dragon Innovation uses cloud‐based Project Management software which is updated weekly.
• Mechanical Design: Pro/E and SolidWorks
• Design: Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver