How do you reconcile product specificities of different countries?

[Ka Pilo]

If there are no global standards for product characteristics, companies from different countries possibly see the same product differently. I understand that ISO 9001 do not give specific requirements for specific products so my question would be on the processes that influence product quality and customer satisfaction.

Let’s take for example, your product is shoes and you have customers from US and Japan. Sizes vary dramatically from country to country. Note that US size 7 could be different from Japan's size 7 because Americans are generally bigger than Japanese. The result of that extra cost passed on to customers, and therefore possibly affects customer satisfaction. Since you have customers from two different countries, my questions are
1) How do you reconcile the two?
2) How do you pay attention to customer specificities by region?

What’s your take on this?

 

[Jim Wynne]

If there are no global standards for product characteristics, companies from different countries possibly see the same product differently. I understand that ISO 9001 do not give specific requirements for specific products so my question would be on the processes that influence product quality and customer satisfaction.

Let’s take for example, your product is shoes and you have customers from US and Japan. Sizes vary dramatically from country to country. Note that US size 7 could be different from Japan's size 7 because Americans are generally bigger than Japanese. The result of that extra cost passed on to customers, and therefore possibly affects customer satisfaction. Since you have customers from two different countries, my questions are
1) How do you reconcile the two?
2) How do you pay attention to customer specificities by region?

What’s your take on this?

In your shoe example, one country's size 7 won't be different from another's size 7 because of the relative sizes of people in the two countries; it's because different scales are used. Companies that make shoes know this.

If you're not sure about what a customer is asking for, you need to ask the customer for clarification, keep asking until you're sure and then document the requirements.

 

[Ka Pilo]

In your shoe example, one country's size 7 won't be different from another's size 7 because of the relative sizes of people in the two countries; it's because different scales are used. Companies that make shoes know this.

Yes, that's what I mean.

If you're not sure about what a customer is asking for, you need to ask the customer for clarification, keep asking until you're sure and then document the requirements.

Ideally, yes. Perhaps companies need to specify the right size reference on purchase orders, invoices and delivery slips.

 

[Jim Wynne]

Ideally, yes. Perhaps companies need to specify the right size reference on purchase orders, invoices and delivery slips.

Companies need to specify what they want and be cognizant of potentially conflicting standards and units of measure. Caveat emptor. At the same time, sellers should be aware of potential conflicts and confirm what's being asked for if necessary.

 

[Marc]

If a company is making shoes it's surely going to make a range of sizes and will, as Jim points out, know the standard(s) for the countries it is manufacturing the shoes for.

As for cost, which cost? What a consumer pays or cost to the company to make the shoes?

Shoe_size

I don't see how product quality and customer satisfaction would come into play. The company either makes good shoes or not (product quality and customer satisfaction), has good customer service or not (and customer satisfaction), etc.

Price the customer pays is sorta a wide open space to discuss which gets into many factors such as where it is sold (e.g.: Walmart vs. a Beverly Hills shoe store) and the markup each level sets. In the US, for example, if I buy shoes at a cheap shoe store (does Walmart sell shoes?), I *may* get a highly prized brand name shoe for less than in a high end shoe store.

When you talk about a company passing on costs (in this case because of different standard sizes in different countries), companies make deals with different distributors. They will pass on any cost they can to a point. There is a point where the cost to make an item + required markup % is such that distributors won't buy.

As an example of how disparate the price for an item can be is often looked at with respect to women's clothes. Quite often the same item for a man (e.g.: jeans) is less than the same item for a woman even though women are typically smaller and thus the item takes less material to make. I know quite a few gals who buy mens jeans because they're cheaper.