OEM & ODM Custom Wood Products Process

What 'custom' means here, in four levels

Four tiers of customisation, from a colour change in 12 days to a wholly new product with tooling in 45. Most buyers start at Level 2 and never need Level 4.

Customisation levels and what each one costs
Level	What changes	Tooling cost	Sample	First order
L1 — Stock + brand	Our shape, your finish, colour, engraving, carton	No tooling	3–5 days	50–100 pcs
L2. Size & spec	Your dimensions, thickness, hardware, liner, glazing	None (CNC program)	5–7 days	100–500 pcs
L3. New profile / jig	New moulder knife, jig or die for a distinctive shape	Quoted at RFQ	10–14 days	500–1,000 pcs
L4. Full ODM	We design with you: CAD, structure, packaging, compliance file	Quoted per project	15–25 days	1,000+ pcs

The six checkpoints, with durations

01Brief

Drawing, photo, or a mailed physical sample. Tell us the target retail or landed price. That single number changes the spec we propose.

24–48 h

02Engineered counter-proposal

We return a spec sheet: species, moisture, thickness, joint, finish, hardware, packing, CBM, tiered FOB and the certificate list for your market.

1–2 days

03Sample

Built on the production machines, not a prototype shop. Photographed on every face before shipping.

5–7 days (10–25 for L3/L4)

04Contract & deposit

Proforma invoice with tiered price, packing data, tolerance rules and the tooling credit schedule. 30% T/T releases production.

2 days

05Production & in-process QC

Batch records per job number; moisture readings, first-article photo at the spray line, mid-run randoms.

30–45 days

06Inspection & loading

AQL 2.5 in-house report, or your SGS/BV team. Photographed load plan, then BL, packing list, invoice, CO/Form E and certificates.

3–7 days

What you send us, and what we send back

Send a drawing, a photo, a mailed sample or just a target landed cost — we return an engineered spec sheet with tiered FOB, CBM and the certificate list for your market. We need your commercial answer more than your engineer's.

Bring any one of these and we can quote. Level 4 development work aside, you do not need a drawing office — a hand sketch with three dimensions is enough to start.

Inputs we can work from
You send	We return	Turnaround
A drawing or dimension list	Spec sheet + tiered FOB + CBM + per-container count	24 h
A physical sample (mailed to our mill)	Reverse-engineered spec, material determination, sample of our build	10–14 days
A target retail or landed price	A build that hits it, plus the two or three components we would drop first	24–48 h
Artwork (vector AI/SVG/PDF, or 300 dpi raster)	Proof engraved or printed on the real material, photographed	3 days
A competitor listing URL	Cost-down or upgrade options, and an honest note on what we will not claim	24 h
Your market and channel	Certificate list, HS classification note, duty exposure caveat, label requirements	48 h

Design-for-manufacture: the five changes that cut cost fastest

Thickness, not material. Moving 20 mm → 18 mm on a planter side, or 40 mm → 35 mm on a frame face, usually saves 6–11 % and buyers cannot see it, whereas switching species changes the story you are selling.
Carton arithmetic. Re-sizing so 12 pieces fit a carton instead of 10 has beaten every timber negotiation we have ever run. We send three carton options with every quote.
Knock-down versus assembled. KD cuts freight up to 22 % on panels and beds. Trade buyers refuse it; online sellers should take it.
Hardware standardisation. One screw across six SKUs is cheaper than six screws at one SKU, and it removes the wrong-bag returns.
Finish count. Three colours across nine SKUs is a scheduling nightmare; two colours is a run. We will show you the cost of each extra colour change in days, not adjectives.

Tooling, IP and exclusivity

Tooling is charged once and credited. Moulder knives, assembly jigs, foil dies and carton dies are each quoted on the proforma. Credit thresholds are printed alongside, typically refunded at 3,000–5,000 pcs.
Your profile stays yours. If you fund a bespoke knife or die, we will sign a written exclusivity for the shape in your market and store the drawing under your job number.
NDA on request before you send artwork or a concept; we normally sign ours first so you are not waiting.
We do not retail. We will not list your design on our site, our Alibaba store or anyone else's shelf unless you publish it first and ask us to reference it.
Moulds and dies stay in the building and are available to you for collection if the relationship ends.

Mixed containers, reorders and stock programmes

A mixed 20'GP of 6 to 14 SKUs is our normal first order, and a 30-day price hold applies across the mix. Reorders on held blanks ship in 12–18 days.

We hold eight gift-box formats, four lid types, six frame profiles and three bed sizes as stocked semi-finished blanks. That inventory is what lets a promotional agency hit a hard event date, or a garden centre replace a sold-out size inside a month. If your programme needs a bonded or local stock arrangement, we do that too, quoted on consumption rather than storage.

Five ways orders actually arrive
Order shape	What it looks like	Typical timing
First order	1,000–8,000 pcs, 3–8 SKUs, one 20'GP or LCL if small	30–45 days
Reorder	Same SKUs, held blanks, colour change allowed	12–18 days
Programme	Annual contract, 2–4 container drops, price held 90 days per drop	Scheduled
Sample/prototype run	5–20 pcs, L3/L4 development, CAD review included	10–25 days
Dropship	Your order file, name-matched packing, plain outer cartons	12–20 days

OEM and ODM: the process, the tooling, the fine print