Direct factory contact while keeping your agent
Agree a written communication plan with your agent and factory before introductions. Allow direct technical questions, keep correspondence shared, and route changes to price, specification, payment or shipment through named approvers and your agreed commercial contact. Agree this arrangement with Cambridge China Bridge.
Agree the arrangement before introductions
Ask your agent to arrange an introduction identifying the factory business, sales contact and technical contact, alongside your buyer, engineer and agent contact. Ask everyone to acknowledge the communication plan before discussions start. State which products and orders it covers, what work the agent retains, and how repeat orders will be handled.
Record who issues quotations, receives orders and invoices you. Direct access should not leave the buying arrangement ambiguous. Use agent or seller: who you contract with to clarify that arrangement; whether you need a sourcing agent explains the wider role.
Keep correspondence visible and usable
Use a shared email thread or project group containing the buyer, agent and relevant factory contacts. Agree where drawings, sample photographs and decisions are stored. Identify the product, order and drawing revision in each discussion so the factory can distinguish an exploratory question from an instruction for current production.
After a private call, meeting or chat, circulate a written summary covering the question, answer, unresolved points and proposed action. Ask the factory and agent to confirm their understanding. Agree who translates technical wording and which approved document production should follow.
Separate technical discussion from approval
Permit direct questions about dimensions, assembly, test methods, drawing details and explanations of defects. Agree that engineers may explore options but should submit proposed changes for approval before the factory implements them. Even an apparently technical choice can affect materials, tooling, performance, price or delivery.
For example, ask whether a different material would solve a fit problem, but request its implications before approving its use. Put the proposal through the factory material substitution process, then circulate the approved revision to everyone.
Give commercial instructions a clear route
Name the buyer authorised to approve commercial decisions and the agent contact who coordinates them. Route proposed changes to price, quantity, specification, tooling, delivery, payment and shipment through that contact. Ask for a written summary of the effect, buyer approval and factory acknowledgement before action. Where the agent sells you the goods, direct factory discussion should feed back into the seller's order process.
Suggested wording to agree: “Direct factory discussions are for clarification and proposals. Please send requests affecting the order to our named agent contact, who will coordinate written approval from our authorised buyer and confirm the instruction with the factory. Please query unclear messages before acting.” Record inspection acceptance, shipment release and payment approval separately; see inspection, shipment and payment approvals.
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Resolve conflicting messages before work continues
Agree that the factory should flag conflicting messages to the buyer and agent and hold the affected work pending clarification. Give urgent quality concerns an escalation route, including who can request a temporary hold and who confirms the restart. Keep urgency separate from permission to change the order.
If someone has already sent an instruction outside the agreed route, collect the exact message and ask what the factory has done. Have the authorised buyer and agent confirm whether to retain, reverse or revise it, including any cost or delivery effect. Update the shared record and contact list when responsibilities change.
Frequently asked questions
Can I speak directly to the factory and keep my agent?
Propose it before introductions. Agree the permitted discussions, shared correspondence, retained agent work and approval route, then ask the factory to acknowledge the arrangement.
Should my sourcing agent be copied on factory emails?
Agree to include the agent in project correspondence. Circulate summaries of private calls and chats so technical answers and proposed changes reach everyone managing the order.
Can my engineer approve changes directly with the factory?
Define the engineer's authority in advance. Route proposals affecting the approved specification, cost or delivery through the agreed approval process before implementation.
What if the factory asks me to approve a price change?
Forward the request to the agreed commercial contact. Ask for the reason and order impact, then have the authorised buyer approve or decline it in writing through the agreed route.