QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

  • Home
  • Articles
    • An Importer’s Guide to New Product Manufacturing in China
  • Best Of
  • About Us
  • Contact us
X

Don't miss a post

It's easy to subscribe to our newsletter where you'll receive weekly updates for professional importers and manufacturers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

What is YOUR opinion about these products?

November 13, 2009

QC inspections often fail. Actually, most of the time there is at least a discrepancy and/or too many defects. When my Chinese inspectors announce that the inspection is failed, the supplier usually focuses on the points that triggered the failure. But when I am the inspector, or the lead inspector, some clever suppliers ask me this question: Okay, if you follow the procedure it is failed. But what is YOUR opinion about the products? Do you think they can be sold? You know the export market, … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Quality Control Tips

When suppliers contact each other

November 10, 2009

Most Chinese suppliers are fighting to get a share of the export business. Their margins are often quite slim because of intense pressure on prices. However, the situation is not always as simple as one may imagine. The exporters of a given product often know each other... and the names of each other's customers. How is customer information spread around? Sometimes buyers put their suppliers in contact, for example to reduce forwarder fees when consolidating shipments. But this source of … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supplier Management

How to deal with laboratory tests?

November 7, 2009

I received a message from a potential client who is starting to import garments into the US. I broke it up in different parts, and I inserted my responses below. It might be helpful to other importers wondering how to comply with their country’s regulations. I have run into manufacturers who ask me if I have a quality manual for testing and are negotiating who is responsible for the testing of the swimwear (manufacturer or my company). There are 2 ways to deal with this: -1- The safe … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Quality Control Tips

Internal quality control in Chinese factories

November 6, 2009

Many Chinese suppliers tell 'white lies' to their customers. They think it is the safest and easiest option. They also think foreign buyers don't suspect it, simply because they are far away and "they don't know how production works". I want to write about something else here. In some cases the supplier says something that is true, but the buyer ends up making the wrong conclusion because of erroneous assumptions. Here is an example that happens frequently. The manufacturer says "we do 100% … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Quality Control Tips

Traveling to factories in China

November 2, 2009

I spend about half of my time traveling, most of the time to industrial areas in China. These days I am a city I had never heard of, in Guangxi province. There was no airport close to my destination point, so I came with a night bus and I am staying in a local hotel (it is quite okay, for rmb100/night). While most foreign business travelers don't make such choices for their transportation in China, many of them wonder how to save a few hundred dollars every time they come. So I thought I … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supplier Management

Using penalties effectively

October 28, 2009

Some importers can afford to conduct business in a friendly way with their Chinese suppliers. I am thinking of buyers who give regular orders to a few stable vendors, who don't work under intense timing pressure, and who enjoy a large degree of flexibility (for example, they keep a safety stock in their warehouse). But this is not the case of most importers, who absolutely have to find ways to minimize delays and non-conformities. They need to create a system of incentives that aligns the … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supplier Management

Corruption of quality inspectors

October 24, 2009

This week my company had a booth on a China Sourcing Fair. I noticed that some questions/remarks came back regularly. A few days ago I wrote about importers who ask us the contacts of good factories. Another hot topic was how easily a supplier bribes an inspector. I had in-depth conversations with maybe 15 prospects, and more than half evoked this issue. Here are just two examples: A Mexican importer told me how, two years ago, one of the largest QC firms produced a report that suggested … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Quality Control Tips

Contacts of “good factories”

October 22, 2009

These days I am exhibiting on a trade show (China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong). Every time I attend a fair to find new clients, I am amazed by the number of buyers who say “Oh, so you visit factories all over China… You must know some good factories… Can you give me a list?” I can understand them. They see salespeople (who can say whatever they want) and samples (which might come from many different factories). There is no way of making sure what production will look like, whether there … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Sourcing New Suppliers

Managing urgent shipments in China

October 16, 2009

Managing urgent shipments in China

For some importers, everything (i.e. development, production, and shipments) is always done under intense timing pressure. Nothing can be done about it--it is imposed by their market. So, how can they ensure quick production in China? How to speed up production Some buyers have gone a long way to make their supply chain more responsive. Here are a few examples: Buying raw materials in advance and storing them Organizing the whole production in the same general area, to reduce … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Supplier Management Tagged With: fast production, managing suppliers, urgent shipments

Four simple steps for starting to do quality control

October 14, 2009

Some importers have been buying from China for many years, and yet they have never done quality control in a professional manner. The science behind inspection protocols seems complex--nearly intimidating. Buyers don't know where to start, and they don't know how their suppliers will react. On the other hand, quality control is a necessity for most shipments. The constant search for cheaper suppliers, the bad habit of subcontracting to lower-grade factories, and the high risk of communication … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Quality Control Tips

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • …
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • …
  • 139
  • Next Page »


Weekly updates for professional importers on better understanding, controlling, and improving manufacturing & supply chain in China.

This is the official blog of Sofeast.com.

This blog is written by Renaud Anjoran, an ASQ Certified Quality Engineer who has been involved in chinese manufacturing since 2005.

Hit the button below to get in touch:

Contact Us!

Subscribe to our email newsletter

Connect with us

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
sofeast
sofeast
sofeast

Latest Articles

  • Do THIS Before You Start Mass Production! [Podcast]
  • Sea freight costs falling in summer ‘22. Too early to celebrate?
  • What Does A Good QA Program For New Electronic Products Include? [Podcast]
  • Planning for Quality & Compliance at the Product Design Stage: 3 Topics You MUST Focus On
  • EU importer? Get ready for the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation! [Podcast]

Categories

  • Quality Control Tips
  • Sourcing New Suppliers
  • Supplier Management
  • New Product Development
  • Process Improvement
  • Ethical Sourcing

Archives

© 2022 QualityInspection.org