Which type of manufacturer should you pick for your project?

Contract manufacturing is a great solution for companies who do not have a full-service manufacturing and development team. It allows them to outsource their manufacturing operations to a producer that is well equipped to handle it. Having the right supplier with the right capabilities and the correct partnership model is crucial when starting a new project.Lamps Plus Giclee lighting helps customers craft a unique look for any space, with hundreds of shade patterns based on original designer artwork available on more than 7,800 lamps and fixtures. Get more news about metal table lamp odm oem,you can vist our website!

When choosing a contract manufacturing supplier for your product, you may have come across acronyms such as OEM, ODM, and CM. These three acronyms each stand for a type of outsourced manufacturing business model – and the differences between the different models (primarily related to product design responsibilities) can significantly impact your choice of a full-service contract manufacturer. Each of them— OEM, ODM, or CM — lets you exert a different level of agency over manufacturing, and each has its strengths and weaknesses. Some manufacturers may be operating using a combination of two (or more) manufacturing models simultaneously.
Original Design Manufacturer (ODM)– the product design is owned by the supplier, and the customer may just be tweaking the design slightly, or buying straight off the shelf and labelling the product with their logo/brand. The design, tooling and other IP belongs to the supplier. For example, a company might look to buy an existing kitchen appliance from a supplier specializing in that category (e.g. kitchen blenders) and then look to customize that slightly with their own color scheme, logo or small modifications to the overall design. This would be an ODM project (“What Is an OEM, ODM, and JDM?”).

Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)– a new product is developed by the factory based on a design from the buyer but using the supplier’s existing category expertise, supply chain, etc. The IP belongs to the buyer, in most of the cases, usually as long as they are paying for the development, tooling and their contracts are in order (“China Manufacturing Contracts: Not So Simple”). To continue with the example above, in case the customer wanted to create an entirely new design of kitchen blender (shape, function, technical specs), they would pay a supplier with a background in kitchen appliances with experience in manufacturing blenders, to open new tooling and develop a new model owned by themselves. This would be an OEM project (“What is an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)?”).

Contract Manufacturer (CM)– in contract manufacturing, the customer has full ownership of the design and BOM, and the manufacturer is solely responsible for manufacturing to the customer’s drawings and requirements, not for the product design or development. Pure contract manufacturers do not have their own product range or specific, narrow product specialities – rather than having their own products they market, they focus on providing a service – manufacturing, and providing products to customers in a wide range of categories. In this case, the IP clearly belongs to the customer, as they are the ones conducting product design, development, and evaluation. As an example, here, Foxconn manufacturing phones for iPhone is acting as a contract manufacturer, as it is responsible solely for the manufacturing side of the business – design and development is coming from Apple (hence the infamous “Designed in California” label on many of Apple’s products). Foxconn is not adapting an existing smartphone design or architecture to produce these products, they are not selling Apple a product, they are providing a service – electrical manufacturing – based on their expertise in that field (“Implementing Manufacturing and Supply Chain Materials Management”).