As I am writing this, in mid-2022, we're living in pretty unprecedented times. The Covid pandemic is ongoing, tensions between major world powers are at a high, previously solid supply chains and business practices are crumbling, inflation … [Read more...]
Sea freight costs falling in summer ‘22. Too early to celebrate?
Two years ago in June 2020 international sea freight costs started their slow climb to unprecedented levels. No importers with supply chains abroad were safe from ballooning costs. Shipping from any manufacturing hub was affected, … [Read more...]
Planning for Quality & Compliance at the Product Design Stage: 3 Topics You MUST Focus On
A reader asked what he should pay attention to when he starts to work on a new product in order to avoid a very large “dumb tax” in the future. This is a good question, as there are many activities to undertake that will help your … [Read more...]
Basics of Supplier Quality Management: A Good Training & Book
From time to time, I skim through a book or training that covers a topic to see if there is a new angle that we might benefit from. This time, I picked the training entitled Seven Essentials in Supplier Quality Management by Evelyn Tan, … [Read more...]
How To Verify that a Component’s FCC or CE Certificate is Legitimate?
If you are developing a new product, you need to pick standard off-the-shelf components and modules as much as possible and you need to consider compliance at this stage. If your product will include electronic components and will need … [Read more...]
Is It Possible To Get Credit from a Chinese Supplier?
We sometimes get this question from clients who don't have a long experience of working with Chinese suppliers: We have been customers for a long time but they still refuse to give us credit. Is that typical/normal? And the short answer … [Read more...]
Going from 1 Prototype to Mass Production directly is Dangerous
"Can we go directly from 1 prototype to mass production? After all, if they can make 1 good piece, surely they can make 10,000 good pieces?" Well, not really. When it comes to 3D printed parts or a product that comes entirely out of a … [Read more...]
Inspecting Productions with Very Few Defects: Dump the AQL
The topic of "do we really need to send inspectors to check productions" and "does that whole AQL concept even make sense" are frequently raised. In this article, I want to write about what it takes to get to a very low rate of defective … [Read more...]
QMS Implementation Consultant vs. Certifying Body
I realized that many people are confused about the companies that typically get involved when a factory wants to get its quality management system (QMS) certified to ISO 9001 or ISO 13485. Let's break it down into the logical steps to … [Read more...]
Nonconforming Products or Materials: What Are the Options?
I wrote extensively about quality inspections, the way the AQL limits lead to a pass/fail result, how to set up corrective actions in order to prevent the same issues from coming back, how to set up a QC plan to prevent issues and detect … [Read more...]
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