Private Label Bearings — Your Brand, Our Supply Chain

1. Product selection. Which sizes, which quality tier, which brand of origin if it is not our own production. Be explicit: a private-label 6205 can be a premium Japanese-made part or an economy part, and the brand promise differs.
2. Artwork and packaging. Box design, dieline, print proof, label content, barcodes, warning text and the language set. This is where most programmes lose two weeks.
3. Sample approval. A pilot batch, inspected and approved before production. Approved samples are held as the reference for subsequent lots.
4. Production and inspection. Scheduled against your forecast, inspected to the agreed plan, documented per lot.
5. Release and replenishment. Shipment with the certificate in your name, then a rolling forecast so the next lot is in production before the stock runs out.

The commercial risk in private label is not manufacturing — it is the gap between the brand promise and the actual product. A customer who buys “your” bearing and finds a mismatched box, a missing certificate or a part that does not match the sample does not blame the factory; they blame the brand. That is why the inspection plan, the approved sample and the lot documentation matter more in private label than in catalogue sales.

• Hold an approved sample per size, sealed and dated, as the reference for every later lot.
• Agree the inspection plan in writing: AQL, dimensions checked, and what happens on a rejected lot.
• Keep the certificate of conformity in your name, issued per lot with the quantity and the date.
• Do not let artwork approval and product approval happen in parallel — approve the product first.