My name is Mohammed. I’m a mechanical engineer who joined Get To Sleep Easy and Centered Around You earlier this year, and recently, I was given an opportunity to travel Xiamen, China for multiple meetings with the manufacturers and suppliers of our Smart Inclining Bed (learn more about out device that converts any bed into a hospital bed alternative by clicking here!). As a company, we’d done our due diligence and knew they’d been around for 15 years, supply numerous companies internationally, with high regard, and meet many international manufacturing and design standards. But I’ve never actually been there. All contact was over email and Skype up to this stage, so it was a great opportunity to get deeper insight into various products, outlining pros and cons, and to brainstorm different methods to ensure the best quality is delivered.
And we were impressed. Quality assurance is indeed a priority of ours. We’re creating devices that keep people safe, and comfortable at home. How could it not be? During each phase of the manufacturing or assembly cycle, manufacturing meetings and inspections aim to produce the greatest quality product. Most of these quality controls require visual and mechanical confirmation to guarantee that the components have the right shape, colour or texture, and are free of any defects such as scratches, pinholes, foreign particles, etc.
Inspecting products on site before leaving the manufacturer allows us to verify the quality at different stages of the production process. It is an effective way of avoiding quality and supply chain disruptions further down the line, ultimately leading to a quality product.
Us early in design, working on an initial prototype of the Smart Inclining Bed. See it in action and it’s current state now by clicking here!
However, automating these types of visual quality checks can be challenging because of the volume of inspections, the variety of products and the possibility that defects can occur anywhere on the product and can be of any size. Hence how important it is to have a manufacturing partner you can trust, and a quality management system in place to assure every product that leaves us is a quality one.
This factory visit and inspection confirmed what we already suspected. We have a highly reputable, reliable manufacturer who will be ready to manufacture our bed within the next 6 months. Besides this, it was an amazing opportunity for me, personally, to immerse myself in the manufacturing and quality assurance processes of a manufacturing company.
Four days later I was sent to Kunming, China to represent Get To Sleep Easy in a business conference hosted by OTEC. We’d won entry into this competition and were representing Australia at the event! Getting the opportunity to travel and experience stepping on stage and pitching for the first time. That allowed me to meet potential mentors, investors, partners and other key stakeholders in our field from all around the globe.
Me pitching on behalf of Get to Sleep Easy to some of the most sophisticated investors in China.
Hearing some of the feedback from judges, fellow entrepreneurs and audience members added a great value to our knowledge and experience. I have also got the chance to meet many talented individuals, make connections, share information and learn new skills.
There are many educational benefits that cannot be accessed unless you’re in a live, face-to-face environment. These non-verbal elements can help learn and absorb the information being presented, which can add a new level of learning that is not easily accessed via online events. It was a great learning experience, and an amazing opportunity to grow overall. Thanks for reading on! If you’d like to follow along and learn more about Get to Sleep Easy – do sign up to our email list. If you’d like to learn more about supplying our products, do send us an email at info (at) gettosleepeasy.org.
It really was a team effort, and supportive environment with startps helping each other to succeed, and a great feeling. Any amazing conference and experience to be a part of, to be sure!