Chinese New Year is often treated as a simple factory-closure period. In practice the risk starts earlier. Workers leave at different times, subcontractors close on their own schedules, raw-material deliveries get less predictable, and factories try to finish too many orders at once. A production slot confirmed on paper may still be competing with several urgent orders.
These are the checks we would run on any order that has to be produced around the holiday.
- Work out the real deadline. It is not the official holiday date. It is the last date by which the order can still be produced, inspected and corrected without relying on anyone making an exceptional effort. That date usually comes much sooner.
- Close every open decision. Artwork, colour, packaging, component specifications and approval samples should not still be open while production is being scheduled. Every open detail gives the factory a reason to wait, or to make an assumption. The safest orders are not always the ones placed earliest, but the ones where these decisions were closed early.
- Confirm materials and subcontractors. Ask when raw materials are due and when each subcontractor closes, since their schedules may not match the factory's.
- Protect the inspection date. Inspection dates get harder to hold in the run-up to the break, so book early and leave room for a second visit.
- Allow time for corrections. A corrective action that would normally take two days can slip past the holiday and turn into a delay of several weeks.
- Plan the restart as well as the closure. Capacity does not come back in one morning. Teams return gradually, and factories may need time to confirm which workers and subcontractors are actually back. Build that restart period in rather than counting on full output from the first working day.