Finding a Vietnamese factory that says it can make your product is the easy part. Directories, trade fairs and sourcing platforms will give you a list within a week. What decides whether the project works is everything that happens after the list: what you send the factory, what kind of contract you sign, who owns the tooling, and how a sample turns into a production lot that matches it.
This guide walks through that sequence in the order it actually happens, and points to the deeper articles where one step needs a page of its own.
💬 Have a product in mind but no clear brief yet? Tell us what you want made and we will help you work out what the factory will need from you before anyone quotes.
Which kind of project is this, before anything else?
Decide first whether you are buying a part made to your drawing or a finished product made under your brand, because the two run on different documents, different factories and a different division of responsibility.
Most enquiries fall into one of two shapes, and mixing them up is the first source of confusion with a factory.
| Parts made to your drawing | Finished product under your brand (OEM / private label) | |
|---|---|---|
| What you send | A drawing with tolerances, material and finish | A formulation, recipe, specification or reference product |
| What the factory owns | The process — machining, moulding, stamping, casting | The process and often the formulation or design work |
| Typical tooling | Moulds, dies, fixtures, gauges | Moulds for packaging, printing plates, sometimes none |
| What decides acceptance | Dimensions, material certificate, cosmetic limits | Sensory, composition, label text, packaging |
| Regulatory paperwork | Usually limited to material and origin documents | Often product declarations, label rules and health certificates |
| Where the risk usually sits | An ambiguous tolerance or an unstated material grade | An unchecked label claim or an ingredient the market restricts |
A brand owner who wants coffee, frozen food or a cosmetic made in Vietnam is running an OEM project. An engineering buyer who wants a die-cast housing or a machined bracket is running a made-to-drawing project. Many real projects contain both — a branded product with a moulded part inside it — and each part should then be specified on its own terms.
What goes into the brief the factory will quote from?
A brief is complete when two factories reading it would quote for the same product; anything left blank is filled in by each factory’s own assumption, and the quotations stop being comparable.
For a made-to-drawing part the brief is the drawing plus everything the drawing does not say: the actual material grade, the surface treatment and its specification, which faces are cosmetic, the inspection method, the packing, and the annual volume split into first order and repeat orders. For an OEM product it is the formulation or target specification, the packaging format, the label language, the destination market and the certificates that market will ask for.
Three things make a Vietnamese brief work better than a generic one:
- It survives translation. The factory will read it in Vietnamese. “Standard finish” or “food-grade packing” carries a meaning inside your company and none on a factory floor. State the standard, the grade or the reference sample instead.
- It names what may be substituted. If a specified resin, steel grade or ingredient is not available locally at the time of production, a factory without instructions will choose a substitute itself. Say whether substitution is allowed and who approves it.
- It separates the first order from the programme. A factory prices tooling, set-up and material differently for a single trial lot and for a repeating order. Give both figures, clearly labelled.
How to put two quotations side by side once they arrive is covered line by line in comparing Vietnamese supplier quotations.
Processing contract or purchase contract?
Vietnamese law treats “processing” — where you supply some or all of the materials and pay for the work — differently from an ordinary purchase of finished goods, and the choice changes who owns the material, the tooling and the leftovers.
Article 178 of the Commercial Law 2005 (Law No. 36/2005/QH11) defines commercial processing (gia công trong thương mại) as an arrangement in which the processor uses some or all of the materials supplied by the ordering party to carry out one or more production stages, in return for a fee. Article 179 requires the processing contract to be made in writing or in another form of equivalent legal value. Article 181(2) gives the ordering party the right to receive back the processed products, leased or lent machinery and equipment, materials and scrap when the contract is liquidated, unless the parties agree otherwise.
In practice this means:
- If you buy finished parts at a unit price and the factory sources everything, you are buying goods. Title passes as your purchase contract and Incoterm say.
- If you supply the resin, the fabric, the steel, a component or the mould, you are at least partly in a processing arrangement. Who owns the supplied material at each stage, and what happens to the surplus and the scrap, should be in the contract rather than inferred.
- Processing for a foreign party also has its own customs treatment in Vietnam, governed by the Law on Foreign Trade Management and its implementing decree. Decree 69/2018/ND-CP has been replaced by Decree 292/2026/ND-CP from 5 September 2026; confirm the current article numbers before you rely on them.
Checked against published texts and official summaries on 17 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice for a specific contract.
💬 Not sure whether your order is a purchase or a processing arrangement? Send us the outline and we will tell you which questions to settle with the factory before the contract is drafted.
How do you find and narrow the factories?
Search by process first and by product second, then cut the list down with a registry check, a document request and a visit — in that order, so the expensive step comes last.
A factory that makes “plastic products” may run injection moulding, blow moulding or extrusion, and only one of those makes your part. Ask each candidate which processes run in its own building and which go to another workshop; plating, painting and heat treatment are commonly subcontracted, which is normal as long as it is disclosed.
The narrowing sequence that wastes the least time:
- Registry check. Match the company name, enterprise code and address against the national business registration portal. See how to verify a Vietnamese supplier without visiting.
- Document request. Ask for the documents your market will actually require — a quality-management certificate, a food-safety certificate, a material declaration — and check certificates with the issuing body, not only with the factory.
- Visit or video walk. Check that the line you will use exists and that the capacity quoted matches the machines on the floor. The list of what to look at is in what to check on a first visit to a Vietnamese factory.
The detailed routes for finding parts suppliers — directories, industrial-zone tenant lists, trade fairs, referrals — are set out in finding parts suppliers in Vietnam.
Who owns the tooling, and where is that written?
Moulds, dies and fixtures paid for by the buyer should be owned by the buyer in writing, marked as such on the tool, and covered by a clause on maintenance, storage and return before the first tool is cut.
Tooling is usually the largest single cost before production starts, and it is the one most often left out of the contract. A factory holding a mould you paid for is also the factory you would need to move away from if the relationship fails. Ownership, a marked asset number, the number of shots or the lifetime the price assumes, who pays for repair, and the conditions for releasing the tool all belong in the contract. The full clause set is in tooling and mould ownership in Vietnam.
How does a sample become a production lot?
Through a chain of approvals, each written down against a physical sample, ending with a pre-production sample that the first production lot is inspected against.
The stages — prototype, fit, pre-production and shipping sample — and how to record each approval are covered in sample approval stages before a Vietnamese production run. Two points are specific to contract manufacturing:
- Approve the process, not only the part. For moulded, cast or machined parts, ask for the process record behind the approved sample — the moulding conditions, the casting parameters, the machining programme revision. If the person who set the process leaves, the record is what lets someone else reproduce it.
- Approve the material lot. Write the material grade and lot number into the approval. A later lot that looks identical but uses a different grade is a different product.
What do you check before the goods leave?
Agree the inspection standard and the defect list in the purchase order, then inspect the finished lot against the approved sample before the balance payment is released.
A pre-shipment inspection is only enforceable if the order said in advance what would be inspected, how many units would be drawn and which defects count. That set-up is in pre-shipment inspection and AQL from Vietnam, and tying the balance payment to the inspection result is covered in payment terms with a Vietnamese supplier.
Plan the calendar too. The Lunar New Year holiday (Tết) moves the factory’s material purchasing, staffing and shipping cut-offs every year; see planning production around Tết.
The sequence on one page
Every contract manufacturing project in Vietnam passes through the same eight gates; skipping one does not save time, it moves the problem to a more expensive stage.
| Gate | Decision you make | Document that records it |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Project type | Made-to-drawing part, OEM product, or both | Internal brief |
| 2. Brief | Material, finish, volumes, market, substitution rule | Request for quotation pack |
| 3. Shortlist | Which factories run the process in-house | Registry check, document file |
| 4. Contract type | Purchase of goods or processing arrangement | Purchase contract or processing contract |
| 5. Tooling | Who owns, maintains and can remove it | Tooling clause and asset list |
| 6. Samples | Which sample production must match | Written approval with sample reference |
| 7. Inspection | What is checked, how many units, which defects | Purchase order and inspection report |
| 8. Shipment | Incoterm, export documents, proof of origin | Commercial invoice, packing list, certificate of origin |
For shipping-side documents see the export shipping documents checklist from Vietnam, and for origin questions proof of origin by destination.
💬 Sunsho Trade works as a trading company: for each project we find, vet and manage the Vietnamese manufacturer that fits the product, and follow production through to shipment. See our OEM and private-label service or, for parts made to your drawing, sourcing from Vietnam.
Frequently asked questions
1. Should I start with a trading company or go straight to a factory?
Either can work. Going direct suits a buyer who can visit, read the factory’s documents and manage the sample rounds themselves. A trading company earns its place when the specification has to be carried into Vietnamese, several factories have to be compared on the same terms, or production has to be followed on the ground. Whichever you choose, ask who signs the contract with the factory and who carries responsibility if the goods are wrong.
2. Can a Vietnamese factory work from a reference product instead of a drawing?
Often, yes, particularly for OEM products. But a reference product leaves many decisions implicit — material grade, finish, tolerances, packaging — and the factory will fill them in itself. Turn the reference into a written specification after the first sample, so the next lot is made to a document rather than to someone’s memory of the reference.
3. Do I need to visit the factory before ordering?
A visit is the most reliable check that the line, the machines and the people you were told about exist. If you cannot travel, a registry check, a document file and a live video walk of the specific line cover a good part of it, and a third party can visit on your behalf.
4. Who should own the moulds and dies?
Whoever paid for them, stated in writing. The contract should name the owner, require the tool to be marked, set out maintenance and storage, and describe how and when the tool is released if you move production.
5. How early should I tell the factory where the product will be sold?
In the first brief. The destination decides material declarations, labelling, certificates and the proof of origin you will need, and some of those choices — an ingredient, a fabric origin, a resin grade — are fixed at the specification stage and cannot be corrected at shipment.
Sources: Commercial Law No. 36/2005/QH11, Articles 178, 179 and 181(2); Decree 292/2026/ND-CP replacing Decree 69/2018/ND-CP from 5 September 2026 (as reported in official and professional summaries). Checked on 17 October 2026 — confirm the current text before you rely on it.