Product Sourcing / Brief to Production

Product Sourcing

Turning a product brief into a manufacturable sourcing path: what the brief has to settle, how suppliers are matched to the product and the destination market, how the sample is reviewed, and how production is coordinated — with the approvals and the record that keep it verifiable.

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01 / The brief

What a product brief has to settle.

Six things decide whether a product can be sourced, quoted and made the way you intend. They are recorded with you before supplier search starts, so the factory is briefed on a settled requirement rather than a direction.

Product requirements

What we need from you: What the product is, what it is used for, and the product type it belongs to.
What it settles: Confirms which suppliers can be considered. The range we source covers cosmetics, pet products, daily essentials and consumer electronics, and each type has its own supplier pool.

Material

What we need from you: The material the product is made from, the colour it should be made in, and any finish that matters to the way it reads or wears.
What it settles: Decides which factories and material routes can meet the product, and gives the sample and the finished goods one material to be checked against.

Dimensions

What we need from you: The size of the finished product, including the parts that have to fit together, into a retail unit, or into a master carton.
What it settles: Gives the factory a measurable target, and gives inspection something to measure the finished goods against before dispatch.

Target quantity

What we need from you: The number of units you intend to order, and the quantity of any customised version of the product.
What it settles: Feeds supplier screening together with packaging, price and the destination market. No minimum order figure is published here; the workable quantity is confirmed for the product and the factory in question.

Packaging

What we need from you: The retail unit, the master carton, and the labelling the destination market needs — including whether the packaging carries your brand.
What it settles: Packaging is one of the screens a supplier has to pass and one of the four things confirmed on the sample, and it is checked again on the packed goods before dispatch.

Customization

What we need from you: Logo, brand presentation, and the parts of the product or its packaging that should differ from the supplier standard item.
What it settles: Sets how much of the product is yours rather than the factory standard, which narrows the supplier list and sets what the sample has to prove.

Fixed in the same conversation

Target market: The country the product will be sold in. Supplier screening takes the destination country into account, and packaging, labelling and product information are confirmed for that market rather than assumed.
Target price: The price you need to land at, so factory quotations can be read against a real target instead of a general range.
Brand positioning: Where the product sits in your range, so the specification, the material and the packaging are read against the brand rather than in isolation.
Required date: When you need the goods, and any launch, promotion or season sitting behind that date. No lead time is stated on this page: the date is confirmed against the factory and the order.

02 / From brief to order

How the brief becomes a sourcing path.

Three steps carry the settled brief into production: suppliers are matched and screened against it, the sample proves it, and production is followed and inspected against it. The service scope behind this is set out on Sourcing Services, and the sampling sequence is on Sample Development.

01

Supplier matching

The brief becomes a search: sources and suppliers able to meet the requirement are identified first, then screened against the product type, the destination country, the customisation quantity, packaging, price and brand premium. Where the order calls for it, the factory is audited and the result is reported.

Output A screened supplier shortlist matched to the product and to the market it will be sold in.
02

Sample review

Before bulk production starts, the supplier makes a sample and you confirm material, size, colour and packaging against what was briefed and quoted. The approved sample is the reference the mass production is read against, not a formality.

Output A confirmed sample with written approval, and photography of what was approved.
03

Production coordination

Production is followed with the factory from the pre-production material check onwards. When a lead time, a specification change or a quality question appears, it is raised with you and the order continues only once there is agreement. Before dispatch, QC inspects the goods against industry standards and your requirements, with photographs, video and a report.

Output Written follow-up through production, then an inspection report with photographs and video.

03 / Approval & record

What you approve, and what stays on record.

Three approvals hold a project in place: the sample specification, the inspection result before dispatch, and the written release that follows it. Everything agreed along the way is written down, so an order can be read back at any point rather than reconstructed from memory.

Approvals

01 Sample specification Material, size, colour and packaging, confirmed on the sample in writing before bulk production starts.
02 Inspection result The pre-shipment inspection report — or the bulk sample, where the order calls for one — covering the finished goods and their packaging.
03 Written release Your written approval to ship, together with the balance settlement that goes with it, before dispatch is arranged.

Records

Requirement brief: The written requirement, including the specification, the packaging and the destination market, that suppliers were matched against.
PI: The signed order confirmation between you and Huntersourcing.
Sample approval: The approval notes and the photography behind the confirmed sample.
Inspection report: The report with photographs and video, the packaging check on the packed goods, and the factory audit report where the order calls for one.
Shipping documents: The documents prepared for dispatch under the trade terms agreed for the order.

04 / Product detail

What the brief and the record look like.

Photography carries material, finish and packaging detail that a description does not. Each figure below is a placeholder labelled with the size it should be replaced at.

Product and material detail checked against the written specification sheet — Fig. 01 Product detail read against the written specification. 1200 × 800

Material swatches and finish samples from candidate suppliers beside the screening notes — Fig. 02 Supplier matching: material swatches and screening notes. 1200 × 800

Production follow-up sheet beside packed retail units and cartons on the line — Fig. 03 Production coordination: follow-up sheet beside packed goods. 1200 × 800

Start here

Send the product brief and the constraints around it.

The product, its material, dimensions, target quantity, packaging and customisation, with the destination market and the price you need to land at. That is enough for us to start matching suppliers and confirm what the sample has to prove.

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