Most OEM questions arrive as one sentence: “can you make ours?” The answer depends less on the machines than on what you send. A logo on an existing kit, a new colour, a printed box and a redesigned product are four different projects with four different timelines, and they are priced separately for a reason.
First, name the change
Before a quotation can mean anything, decide which of these you are asking for — they are not interchangeable, and one inquiry that mixes them usually comes back as questions:
- Logo — printed, embossed or on a label; on the product, the packing, or both.
- Colour — a different material colour, or a different print colour on packaging.
- Packing — OPP bag, colour box, window, card, insert, label position.
- Combination — the contents of a set change: three pieces become five, a different tool goes in.
- Other changes — size, material, mechanism, a part that does not exist yet.
The first three are usually a conversation about artwork and packing. The last two are a conversation about tooling and sampling, and they are the ones that need the most lead time. Saying which one you mean at the start saves an entire round of email.
The four things a customised quotation depends on
- Target quantity — not a range you hope to grow into, but the number you would order if the price works.
- The artwork — for the product, the packing, or both, in a file we can actually use.
- The packing format — bag, box, card, insert, and where the label or barcode goes.
- Destination and date — the country, and when it has to land, because that decides the shipping mode and sometimes the production plan.
Without the first two, “can you do it” can only be answered with “probably” — which is not a useful answer for either side.
Artwork that can be used
We would rather tell you what a file needs to do than what extension it needs to have, because the requirement changes with the item and the printing method:
- Text should be text — selectable, not a picture of text. A screenshot of a logo is not a logo.
- The barcode must be your original file — a barcode redrawn from a picture, or generated from a number someone read aloud, is the single most expensive small mistake in this trade. Send the file; we check the characters and the dimensions against it rather than re-drawing them.
- Boxes need a dieline — an unfolded shape showing where the folds and the print go. If you do not have one, we can start from the box we already make for that item, and the dieline for it becomes the reference.
- Colours need a reference — a Pantone number or a physical sample beats “the green in our logo” every time, because print cannot match a screen.
- Say where the label sits — on the front, on the base, on a transparent bag. A label in the wrong position is a rejected inbound shipment, not a cosmetic issue.
What we will not do is publish one universal file specification, because “we need AI, two colours, with bleed” would be wrong for the next item. We confirm the requirement for your item in writing, before artwork is finalised.
How a version gets locked
Samples go through revisions, and revisions are where custom projects quietly go wrong. The mechanism that prevents it is boring and it works:
- Your artwork and the target quantity go to the factory for a feasibility check.
- A sample is made and sent with its version number — V1, then V2, V3 — and the date.
- You approve one specific version in writing, referencing that number and date.
- Only the approved version goes to the workshop. An older file with a newer email around it is still an older file.
- Any change after approval is re-signed, even a small one — a colour code, a label position, a piece swapped in the set.
Where custom work usually goes wrong
Four failure points, in the order they tend to appear: the barcode is redrawn instead of supplied; the label is applied in a position the warehouse will not accept; the carton quantity and the shipping marks do not match what the buyer’s inbound system expects; and the first article is never formally signed, so the batch and the sample disagree by the time anyone compares them. None of these are manufacturing defects, and all four are cheaper to prevent than to fix.
What we will not promise
We will not confirm feasibility before we have your artwork and a quantity, because “yes we can” without those is a guess. We will not quote a tooling or plate cost until the change is defined, since the same word covers a new label and a new mould. And we do not attach certifications to a product or a material that we have not verified for it — if there is a certificate, you will be shown it; if there is not, we will say so rather than imply one.
Send the change, the quantity and whatever artwork you already have — even if it is rough. The first reply will tell you what is feasible, what it depends on, and what we still need.