If you purchase products from Chinese factories, I guess you have used acceptance sampling based on the concept of AQL. In simple terms, an inspector draws samples from the whole batch, checks them, and the batch is either accepted or … [Read more...]
Archives for April 2017
China Supplier Vetting Part 8: Factory Testing Facilities
If you have conducted inspections at your suppliers' facilities in China, you have probably found that many of the testing equipment necessary to check your product's quality is not available on site. The question, of course, is 'how can … [Read more...]
China Supplier Vetting Part 7: Factory Process & System Audit
In a previous article I described why and how a factory’s quality system can be audited. However, if you want to confirm a factory's reliability with high certainly, you might have to dig deeper. A quality audit will only focus on the … [Read more...]
Using Statistics To Improve Production Quality in China
I have covered at length how to use statistics to accept/refuse a batch of product based on a random sample. Those statistics are usually the only ones the typical production manager has ever come in contact with! I have visited hundreds … [Read more...]
How To Cooperate With Your Chinese Supplier, Part 12: Are You in Contact with Your Supplier’s Quality Mgr. or Sales Rep?
More and more Chinese suppliers put their customers directly in contact with a quality manager, an assistant quality manager, or something of the sort. However, most of the time, you are not communicating with whom you think… It usually … [Read more...]
Are Shenzhen Manufacturers Innovators or Copycats?
A friend shared an interesting article from The Economist with me. It is entitled Shenzhen is a hothouse of innovation. What really allowed Shenzhen to become so economically successful? Because of the open policy that started there? … [Read more...]
China Supplier Vetting, Part 6: On-Site Social Compliance Audits
This is another article in our "supplier vetting" series. So you vetted a potential supplier through background checks and a factory quality audit. Great. You might also have to check their social & environmental policies if you are … [Read more...]