The supplier switch plan, with overlap math
By Mohamad Sinno, Charcoal Expert · Last updated
Ask AI for an importer brief:
The short answer
From first contact to a container leaving Indonesia is about 8 weeks against us, plus your own sea transit. That figure is derived, not quoted: it adds up the lead times this site already publishes — the sample dispatch window, the packaging lane, and production at 15 working days (20 ft) · 20 working days (40 ft) — and it moves if any of them does. It is illustrative rather than a promise, and it says nothing about vessel schedules, which are the part neither of us controls.
The plan below never asks you to stop buying from your current supplier. The overlap is the whole mechanism, and the arithmetic for how much stock it needs is in the second section.
The plan, week by week
| Weeks | Phase | What happens | Where the duration comes from |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sample and specification | Request the sample and send the specification you buy against today. The batch certificate travels with the parcel. | P34: dispatched within 2 working days, then courier time on your lane |
| 2 | Score it, and seal a counter-sample | Run the scorecard, keep unburnt pieces sealed and labelled, and compare what you measured against what the certificate says. | Yours, not ours — a slower evaluation lengthens the calendar |
| 3 | Terms and packaging lane | Agree the specification exhibit, the acceptance test and the payment triggers; decide house box or your own artwork. | A house design adds no print step; your own runs 2 weeks new or 10 working days existing (P33 / P38) |
| 4–7 | Production and the weathering hold | The order is pressed, then held in the open air before it can be packed at all — a dangerous-goods requirement, not a courtesy. | F05 production, plus the 14-day post-production hold before stuffing |
| 8 | Packing, documents and loading | Packing-day temperature recorded, batch certificate issued, dangerous-goods documents raised, container stuffed and sealed. | SP 978 packing-day check; the batch COA; carrier acceptance |
Two of those durations depend on a choice you make early. A house design is in stock and adds no print step at all — always in stock — no print lead time — while your own artwork runs to 2 weeks for a new design and 10 working days for one already on file. Choosing the house box for the first container and moving to your own on the second is a legitimate way to shorten the transition without shortening the checks.
Bridge stock, worked through
The formula is one line, and it is deliberately written out rather than hidden behind a calculator — this site runs no client-side scripts, so there is nothing here to click and nothing to break:
Bridge stock = your weekly draw × (weeks to the new container landing + a safety margin)
Everything in it except our lead times is yours. Here it is with numbers, as an example only — replace all three assumptions with your own:
| Your weekly draw (assumption) | 120 master cartons a week |
|---|---|
| Our side, derived | 8 weeks from first contact to the container leaving |
| Your sea transit (assumption) | 5 weeks — read your own lane off the dated transit table, which also says which lanes take dangerous goods |
| Bridge stock needed | 1,560 master cartons — that is (8 + 5) × 120 |
| For scale | A 20 ft container of cube 25 or 26 mm holds 2,000 master cartons, which covers about 16 weeks at that draw. |
The safety margin is the part worth arguing about, and the honest answer is that it belongs to your own risk rather than to our schedule. A packaging supplier writing about transitions states the rule plainly: never let incumbent stock reach zero before the new supplier has delivered a complete order on the date promised (anitaplastics.com, packaging supplier, 28 August 2026). A sourcing agent puts a number on the same instinct from the other end — do not cancel incumbent backup orders until the new supplier has delivered three consecutive clean bulk shipments (leelinesports.com, sourcing agent, 12 March 2026). Both are conventions from other industries, dated, and neither is a promise of ours.
Go / no-go gates, and rollback
A gate is only a gate if failing it stops something. Each row below has a fail action, and the fail action is always the same shape: keep the incumbent running.
| Gate | Passes when | If it fails |
|---|---|---|
| Sample gate | The scored sample agrees with the batch certificate it arrived with, and the certificate names a method beside every value. | Do not place the trial order. A sample that disagrees with its own paperwork is the cheapest possible warning. |
| Specification gate | Shape, size, packing count and tolerance (±0.3 mm per side) are written into the contract, with one acceptance test and its criterion. | Do not place the trial order. Without this the first container is judged against a memory. |
| Loading gate | The batch certificate for the batch that actually shipped is issued, and a vanning survey is taken if you asked for one. | Hold the balance. This is the last moment at which holding it costs nothing. |
| Arrival gate | The delivered goods match the sealed counter-sample on the measurable fields, checked against the printed batch code. | Raise it inside the window — within 7 days of receipt; after that the goods are deemed accepted — and keep the incumbent running. |
| Cutover gate | A second container has landed and been sold through without a complaint from your own customers. | Keep the overlap. One good container is a sample of one. |
Rollback is not a plan you write, it is a position you hold. As long as the incumbent is still shipping and the bridge stock above has not been eaten, rolling back costs a conversation. Once either of those is gone, rollback costs a stockout — which is why the gates sit before the cutover rather than after it.
Two of the gates rest on things we record rather than on impressions. A COA is issued for every production batch, and the batch number on it is the number printed on your cartons. The acceptance test is written down: the piece is heated until glowing red, held five minutes after heating, then dropped five times from 1.2 m onto a hard tiled surface. It must not break.
What this plan does not claim
The week count is derived, not measured. It is the sum of published lead times, not the record of a switch that happened. No source in this subject publishes a switch calendar either — the nearest are "weeks, not months" for packaging and "a few" for machining, neither for a container of dangerous goods. If your transition runs longer, the likely reason is a vessel schedule or a gate you should not skip.
The trial order is a full container. 1 × FCL (20 ft or 40 ft), with minimum 2 tonnes per shape, size and packaging variant. There is no half-container qualification step, which is why the sample stage carries so much weight here: free, 1–10 kg, dispatched within 2 working days, and a batch coa accompanies every sample.
No transit time of ours. Sea transit belongs to your lane and your carrier, and it changes; the dated bands and their DG-acceptance status live on one page so there is one copy to maintain rather than a stale one here.
Starting the clock
Week one is a sample request and the specification you buy against today. Send both to export@coconutcharcoal.org or WhatsApp +62 821 3924 038. How to score what arrives is on the scorecard method, and the phases in narrative form are on switching charcoal suppliers without a supply gap.