China Supplier Vetting Part 11: Wrapping It Up

This article is a wrap-up of the series of articles that we have published over the past few months, on the topic of the verification & qualification of Chinese suppliers.

Here is the list of articles:

1. Background Checks
2. Questions to Ask Before a Visit
3. Evaluating Engineering Capability
4. On-site, subjective evaluations
5. On-Site Factory Quality Audits
6. On-Site Social Compliance Audits
7. Factory Process & System Audit
8. Factory Testing Facilities
9. In-Depth Due Diligence
10. China Supplier Vetting Part 10: Pricing, Negotiation, Contracts

It is not exhaustive. I could have included many other red flags, for instance during the RFQ process, during the prototyping process, and so on.

I also wanted to point out some older articles that compliment this series nicely:

• Don’t qualify only 1 supplier. Keep a backup in case things don’t go well.
• It is quite common for Chinese suppliers to raise their prices unexpectedly. Be prepared for it.
• You’ve have a bad experience? Don’t place a re-order. Go to your backup instead.
• Make sure to adapt your quality control strategy to the reliability of each supplier.
• It might make a lot of sense to develop your key suppliers over time.
• As you start to work with a supplier, keep track of key indicators and give them feedback.

I hope it’s helpful!