Preparing for Chinese New Year:
Everything you need to Know about CNY
What is Chinese New Year?
Chinese New Year (CNY), or “Spring Festival” is considered the Thanksgiving or Diwali of China only on a much larger scale. To give you an idea of the scale: the largest migration in the world occurs during CNY month, an estimated 2.98 Billion trips taken in 2017. The time of the year when gifts & “Red Envelopes” containing money are exchanged within families. Especially important among factory workers, this is the only time of the year factory workers can see their families.
Chinese New Year Dates & Length
Chinese New Year is based on the Lunar Calendar, the exact date changes every year, but normally falls between January 22nd and February 19th. This inconsistency ads to confusion and planning complexities.
CNY 2020: January 25th - 30th
Chinese New Year 2020 starts on Saturday 25th, however many factories will cease operation before that date. Chinese offices and factories typically close for about three working weeks, allowing workers time to travel back home to spend the holiday with their families.
Since China is an economic giant in global exporting industry, effects of CNY can ripple around the world, especially industries involved in manufacturing.
Below is a list of future CNY dates for the coming 5 years.
2021: February 12
2022: February 1
2023: January 22
2024: February 10
2025: January 29
Why does Chinese New Year affect global manufacturing so much?
- Length of Factory Closure
- Payment Request before CNY
- Production Length & Quality issues after CNY
How to minimise your impact of Chinese new year on your business?
1. Work with Trusted Manufacturing Partners
If you just started doing business with your supplier during this time of year, it would be difficult to get any attention especially for low-volume production. If you’re the newest account in the factory, chances are, you are not going to get priority when it comes to completing production. If you’re working with a manufacturing partner, ensure that they have experience in handling the CNY rush. One of the advantages of working with a manufacturing partner is that they have years of experience building a trustworthy network of manufacturing suppliers that can help you navigate during this stressful time of year. Ask your manufacturing partner what processes they have in place to help their customers plan for CNY.
2. Plan Inventory
Planning for CNY starts between September – October. Well organised factories will send their largest customers a note asking to place large orders that need to be shipped before CNY. It is important to accurately forecast high-volume parts you require before CNY.
3. Stay on top of production
Stay on top of production so that you are aware of the status of your parts and at what stage they are. Highlight and work aggressively to keep them on schedule, in our experience, often the customers who insist get their parts delivered on time.
4. Have a Quality Control Plan
We have many times heard of nightmares like receiving orders of goods essentially defective or of poor quality right before CNY and they needed to wait until after CNY to have anything done about it. This is when working with a trusted supplier or manufacturer will avoid this terrible situation. We strongly urge clients to thoroughly inspect their parts and inform our production team in a timely manner as to reduce the risk of delays caused by quality problems.
5. Plan ahead of shipment
We would like to remind you that Chinese New Year (CNY) is from Jan 25th – 30th! In order for us to deliver your parts manufactured and delivered on time without having to worry about delays, login and place your orders by Jan 15 to avoid any delays.
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Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Geomiq. Examples of analysis performed within this article are only examples. They should not be utilized in real-world analytic products as they are based only on very limited and dated open source information. Assumptions made within the analysis are not reflective of the position of any Geomiq Employee.
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