Product line 04

Custom OEM & Private Label

From a drawing, a competitor sample or a category idea to a tooled, certified, retail-ready product — with the tooling owned by you and every sample iteration documented.

25–45d

Tooling lead time

T1/T2

Sample rounds

100%

Tooling ownership

Quick answer

OEM means the factory builds to your design; ODM means you adapt a design the factory already owns. The distinction decides who holds the intellectual property and how much of the development cost you fund. CHINAISPP runs custom projects through four stages — design for manufacture, tooling, sample approval, mass production — with a written specification, a golden sample and a first article report at each gate. Tooling is paid for by you and owned by you, with the mould drawing and steel certificate handed over on completion.

What custom manufacturing in China actually costs

Two numbers decide whether a custom product is viable, and buyers usually ask for only one of them. The first is the tooling cost, which is paid once and is visible in the quotation. The second is the minimum production quantity the tooling implies, which is not visible anywhere and is what makes a project fail financially six months later. A mould that costs three thousand dollars and requires a five thousand piece run is not a three thousand dollar project.

Design for manufacture is where the money is saved and where it is most often skipped. A wall thickness that is 0.2 mm too thin, a draft angle that will not release, a snap fit that needs a slide the tool cannot accommodate: each of these is cheap to change on a drawing and expensive to change on a cut steel mould. We put the design in front of the toolmaker before the mould is cut, in writing, and give you the feedback as options with cost attached.

Tooling ownership is the clause that matters most in the contract and the one buyers most often leave unaddressed. The mould should be yours, it should be identifiable as yours, and the drawing plus steel certificate should be handed to you when the project closes. Otherwise the factory that holds the tool holds the relationship, and every future quotation for that product starts from a position you cannot negotiate.

Private label is a lighter version of the same work. Where the product already exists, the project is artwork, packaging, labelling and compliance rather than tooling, and the timeline is measured in weeks. It is the right starting point for a first order, because it tests the market without committing to a mould. What it does not give you is exclusivity: the same product is available to anyone else who asks.

What we develop in this category

Six development routes. The first four involve tooling and a longer timeline; the last two do not.

Injection moulding

Rigid plastic parts and enclosures, from a single cavity tool to a family mould, with DFM feedback before steel is cut.

Die casting & stamping

Aluminium and zinc castings, pressed metal parts and progressive dies for higher volumes.

Silicone & rubber

Compression and liquid silicone moulding for consumer, kitchen and personal care products.

Textile & sewn goods

Pattern making, grading and sampling for bags, apparel, pet products and home textile.

Private label & packaging

Existing product plus your brand: artwork, dieline, labels, inserts and retail or e-commerce cartons.

Prototype to production

3D printed or CNC prototypes for form and fit, then a production-intent sample before tooling is released.

Development stages, deliverables and timing

A typical custom consumer product runs through these five gates. Compressing them is possible; skipping them moves the problem to the production run.

Stage	What happens	Typical duration	What you receive
Specification	Requirements written into a document both sides accept: dimensions, materials, finish, function, packaging	3–7 days	Written specification and target cost
Design for manufacture	Toolmaker reviews wall thickness, draft, tolerances and assembly sequence	5–10 days	DFM report with costed change options
Tooling	Mould or die cut, steel grade recorded, trial shots produced	25–45 days	Mould drawing, steel certificate, trial report
Sample approval	T1 samples reviewed, revised to T2, then a golden sample signed off and retained	10–20 days	Sample units, measurement report, golden sample record
Mass production	Production run against the golden sample, first article checked, pre-shipment inspection	20–35 days	First article report, AQL 2.5 inspection report, packing photos

How a custom project is run

Each gate has a written output, and the next stage does not start until that output is approved. This is slower than verbal approval and much cheaper than discovering a problem in the container.

1

Brief and feasibility

We assess whether the product can be made at the target cost and volume, and say so if it cannot before you spend on tooling.
2

Factory matching by process

Not every factory that quotes can tool the part. We match on process capability and on whether the factory has made this product class before.
3

Tooling and first samples

Mould cut, trial shots produced, samples measured against the specification and reviewed with you before revision.
4

Golden sample and sign-off

The approved sample is retained by us and by the factory, and becomes the physical reference for the production run.
5

Production, first article, inspection

First article checked against the golden sample, then AQL 2.5 inspection, then packing and export.

Where this fits

This category is one of four we source. The other product lines, and the services that run around them, are below.

All Products Overview of the four product lines Electronics & Components Product line Industrial Machinery & Parts Product line Consumer & Household Goods Product line Supplier Sourcing & Verification Service Quality Inspection & Compliance Service

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between OEM and ODM?

In OEM the factory manufactures to your design and you own the intellectual property. In ODM you take a design the factory already developed and adapt it, usually with your branding, which is faster and cheaper but gives you less exclusivity and less control over the design itself. Most first products start as ODM and move to OEM once volume justifies the tooling.

Who owns the mould after the project?

You do, provided the contract says so and the tooling cost is invoiced separately rather than buried in the unit price. On completion we hand over the mould drawing and steel certificate, and the physical mould remains at the factory on your behalf or is transferred at your instruction. Without that clause, the tool is leverage in every future negotiation.

How many sample rounds should I budget for?

Two is normal: T1 to find out what is wrong, T2 to confirm the fix. Complex assemblies with several parts sometimes need three. Each round takes one to three weeks including freight, so the sample stage is usually the largest single delay in a custom project and the one most compressed by optimistic planning.

What does tooling actually cost?

For a simple single-cavity injection mould, a few thousand US dollars is typical; multi-cavity tools, die casting dies and progressive stamping dies run substantially higher. The number depends on cavity count, steel grade and part complexity rather than on product size. We quote tooling separately from unit price so you can see what you are paying for once.

Can you protect my design before I share it?

We work under an NDA and share drawings only with factories that have signed one. That reduces exposure but does not eliminate it, so the practical protections are registering your trademark and design where the product will be sold, and keeping the most sensitive part of the design — a formulation, a firmware image, a critical dimension — out of the documents that circulate.

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