On the subject of manufacturing in China, everyone seems to be saying the same thing, namely that you get exactly what you ask for, without any input or suggest

On the subject of manufacturing in China, everyone seems to be saying the same thing, namely that you get exactly what you ask for, without any input or suggestion from the manufacturer, even in the presence of obvious flaws in your original design. This hasn't been my experience. I manufacture small metal objects in China, that are not very complex (no electronics, etc.) but I get good inputs from manufacturers. For the packaging for example, we designed cases and envelopes with a manufacturer, and they came up with several ideas that we tested on prototypes -- some good, some bad, but the point is, they did have ideas and they did offer them for consideration. More importantly, it differs from manufacturer to manufacturer. Some factories will produce garbage and then try to explain to you that there is no other way (after the fact); other factories correct mistakes before they even show you the result, because they understand what you want and they iterate autonomously, in order to get there. What is true is that manufacturing is sloooow. The total duration quoted at the beginning of a project should be at least doubled. But this is probably not Chinese-specific.