YEAR END
December is the busiest month for order collection and the quietest for new tooling. Q4 output, holiday cover and January orders fit together in a pattern.
What Q4 looks like on the floor
From October the mix shifts towards orders that were quoted in the summer and confirmed after a sample was approved. Lines run on models that are already in production, because nobody starts a new housing in November for a December delivery. That makes Q4 predictable for the factory and unforgiving for a buyer who is still choosing a model in November.
Holiday cover
◆ Email and quotations continue through the Western holidays; the factory does not close for them.
◆ The Spring Festival, not Christmas, is the break that stops the line.
◆ Freight cut-offs are earlier than usual in the last two weeks of December.
Ordering in December
A December order has two possible outcomes. If the model is in production and the panel is in stock, it ships in January, which is why a pos system manufacturer sourcing terminals for a spring rollout orders in November. If it needs a housing change, the drawing review happens in December and the build happens after the Spring Festival, which puts delivery in March or April. Both outcomes are fine; the mistake is expecting the second to behave like the first.
The team part
We close the year with the Q4 birthdays and a shared table, which is a small thing and also the reason people stay. A line that keeps its people keeps its dates, and that is the version of capacity that means anything to a buyer.
Check the range
The models discussed here are listed in our collections, from industrial panel PCs and kiosk hardware to retail pos hardware, with port maps and panel sizes on each product page.
◆ industrial panel PCs
◆ POS terminals
◆ embedded box PCs
If you need a drawing or a port list for a specific model, send the requirement and we will reply with the document rather than a brochure.
