From Deposit to Dispatch: Monitoring Your Order During Production

Small orders get forgotten. Not maliciously — but when a factory juggles a 50,000-unit order for a European chain and your 800 units, guess whose production slot slips when a machine breaks down. The importers who get their goods on time are, almost boringly, the ones who check in every week. Here's what happens between paying your deposit and seeing a container leave the port — and how to stay on top of every stage.

The ~90-day reality

From placing an order to goods in your NZ warehouse, plan on roughly 90 days:

• Order placement and admin clarification: ~5 days. Confirming final artwork, labels, carton markings.
• Raw material purchase: 20–30 days. The factory orders components and materials — often the longest and least visible phase.
• Production arrangement: ~10 days. Your order waits for a line slot.
• Production through to shipment readiness: 5–10 days. The part everyone imagines is "the whole process."
• Sea transit: ~20–23 days China to Auckland or Tauranga.
• Customs clearance and delivery: 5–10 days.

Figure: The ~90-day journey from deposit to warehouse, showing each production and shipping phase and where your check-ins and inspection land.

Notice the actual manufacturing is a small slice. Most of the calendar is materials, queuing and water — which is why "it only takes a week to make" and "it'll arrive in three months" are both true.

Before the deposit: set the trap lines

Good monitoring starts before production does. Book vessel space with your forwarder before placing the factory order, so the shipment date is anchored — critical in the pre-Chinese New Year rush when sailings sell out. Brief your inspection company. Make sure your PO carries the shipment date, the notice that an inspection will happen, and delay-penalty terms. A supplier who knows the date is contractual and the inspection is booked treats your order differently from day one.

The weekly rhythm

Set a recurring reminder and run a short check-in with your supplier every week. Not a vague "how's it going?" — ask stage-specific questions:

• Weeks 1–2: Are all materials ordered? Which components have the longest lead time? Any artwork or labelling files still needed from you? (Shipping marks and packaging files are normally finalised after order placement — have yours ready so you're never the bottleneck.)
• Weeks 3–5: Have materials arrived? Has incoming-material QC checked them? When exactly does your production slot start?
• Production weeks: Ask for photos of the line and of first-off units. Photos are hard to fake and easy to send; a supplier who suddenly can't produce one is telling you something.
• The 80% question: Ask when 80% of goods will be finished, and book your pre-shipment inspection for that date. The report arrives the next day; you release the balance payment and shipment, or demand rework while there's still time.

Keep every answer in your order follow-up file. When "production starts Monday" turns into "next Monday" twice, the written trail is what turns a shrug into a claim under your delay terms.

Reading the warning signs

Certain answers should raise your pulse: replies that stall for days when they used to come overnight; the same milestone reported as "almost done" two weeks running; requests to move the inspection date later without moving the shipment date; or sudden pressure to pay the balance before the inspection. Each has innocent explanations — and each is exactly how late orders and quality failures announce themselves. Escalate politely but immediately: a video call solves in ten minutes what a fortnight of emails won't. Chinese suppliers live on WeChat, and a message there often gets answers email never will.

Dispatch week

When the inspection report is clean: release the 70% balance, confirm the booking with your forwarder, and make sure documents are flowing — commercial invoice, packing list, bill of lading, and the Certificate of Origin that gets Chinese-origin goods into NZ at 0% duty under the China FTA. Confirm your customs broker has what they need for the TSW entry before the vessel arrives, not after. Then track the sailing and warn your warehouse or 3PL of the arrival window.

Ninety days is a long time to stay attentive. It's also exactly the discipline that separates importers whose stock arrives when the marketing campaign starts from those explaining another delay to their customers.

Key takeaways

• Budget ~90 days order-to-warehouse; manufacturing itself is the smallest slice of it.
• Book vessel space and the inspection before you order — dates in writing change supplier behaviour.
• Check in weekly with stage-specific questions and keep every answer on file.
• Inspect at 80% complete, release the balance only on a clean report, and have the Certificate of Origin ready for 0% duty.

Related: Pro-Forma Invoices and Purchase Orders: Paperwork That Protects You, Third-Party Inspections and AQL: Quality Control Before Goods Ship

Chinese New Year: The Production Calendar That Catches Importers Out

Every year, a wave of importers discovers the hard way that "7 days of official holiday" in China actually means their goods are a month late. Chinese New Year is the single biggest scheduling event in global manufacturing, and if you're importing to New Zealand you need to plan around it from months out — not react to it when your supplier goes quiet in late January.

What actually happens at CNY

Chinese New Year falls between 21 January and 20 February, depending on the lunar calendar. The official public holiday is about a week — but factories close for up to three to four weeks. For most workers this is the only annual leave they take, and many travel days to reach home provinces, so factories wind down early and restart slowly.

Then comes the part that catches even experienced importers: in some factories, up to half the workers simply don't return after the holiday. They take jobs closer to home or move to a rival plant. The factory spends weeks recruiting and retraining, quality wobbles, and the production queue that built up before the holiday now collides with post-holiday chaos. Factories fight back with bonuses, dormitories, free meals and training programmes — but from your side of the ocean, the effect is the same: February and March are slow, congested and risky.

Figure: The Chinese production year at a glance — CNY shutdown window, other factory holidays, and the order deadlines that matter for NZ importers.

The knock-on effects you pay for

• Orders queue on both sides of the holiday. Place an order in December and it may not ship until March.
• Vessels sell out pre-CNY. Everyone races to ship before the shutdown, so bookings fill and freight rates spike in the rush. Reserve vessel space early — ideally before you even place the factory order.
• Suppliers go dark. During the holiday your contact is at a family table in a distant province, not at a desk. Ask every factory for its specific closure dates — they vary, and "we close on the 15th" is information you want in writing in November, not January.

The rest of the calendar

CNY is the big one, but China's production year has more speed bumps. Factories are mostly closed for: New Year's Day (1 January), Qingming Festival (early April), Labour Day (1–3 May), Dragon Boat Festival (fifth day of the fifth lunar month), Mid-Autumn Festival (15th day of the eighth lunar month), and National Day Golden Week (1–7 October) — a full week that surprises importers who only planned for CNY. Check the holiday calendar both when timing orders and when planning any China trip.

What this means for a Kiwi importer's diary

Work backwards from the roughly 90-day cycle from order to your warehouse (production plus ~20–23 days' sea transit to Auckland or Tauranga, plus clearance). Overlay the holidays and the rules write themselves:

• Christmas stock: your orders need to be placed by winter — June or July — and shipped well before the pre-CNY rush even begins. Leave it until spring and you're gambling.
• Ship before CNY, always. If production finishes anywhere near January, push hard to get goods on the water before the shutdown. Goods that miss the window sit for a month or more.
• Order early for autumn. Stock you want in March or April should be ordered around October–November, before the pre-CNY queue forms — and remember Golden Week eats the first week of October.
• Buffer your reorders. If your stock countdown says you'll need replenishment in February or March, order extra in the pre-CNY batch. Running lean across CNY is how you end up with a "sold out" listing for six weeks while competitors take your customers.

One more nuance: the first production runs after CNY carry elevated quality risk, because lines are full of new hires. If your goods must be made in the post-CNY window, this is exactly when a during-production or pre-shipment inspection earns its ~US$300 several times over.

CNY's dates shift every year — it lands in early February in 2027 — so put the specific dates in your planning calendar each year and ask suppliers for their closure windows before you commit to any Q1 delivery.

Key takeaways

• Factories close for up to 3–4 weeks around CNY (21 Jan–20 Feb window), and up to 50% of workers may not return.
• Ship before CNY; book vessel space early because pre-holiday sailings sell out and rates spike.
• Don't forget the other closures — especially Golden Week, 1–7 October.
• Plan Christmas and Q1 stock months ahead using the ~90-day order-to-warehouse cycle, and inspect post-CNY production runs.

Related: From Deposit to Dispatch: Monitoring Your Order During Production, Re-Orders Done Right: Locking In Price and Quality the Second Time