Why do we look at the factory testing facilities when vetting a Chinese supplier?

A great question here is: “How can my supplier know that the product they’re manufacturing is good if they’re unable to test that they reach my specifications, quality, and safety requirements?”

If they have no way of testing or are skipping important tests this is probably a major red flag (unless you’re certain that they’re sending samples out to a lab to be tested all of the time) as it shows that the supplier is not very concerned or knowledgeable about product quality and safety. If purchasing from them, you run the risk of having products being found non-compliant for your market or even litigation if things do go wrong where you’ll be found liable and negligent. Would your business survive this?

So you can see why looking into how seriously your supplier takes product testing and what factory testing facilities they have is an essential step when vetting Chinese suppliers.

Here’s what we’ll be discussing…

You’ll get an introduction to what to look for and a bunch of great examples from Renaud’s experience of what kinds of testing and equipment he’s seen in real Chinese factories. He’ll also take you through testing best practices, as it doesn’t end with simply getting a test report from your supplier’s in-house testing.

Listen to the episode right here 👇👇👇

🎧 Factory Testing Facilities | Vetting Chinese Suppliers (Part 8) 🎧

Here’s a summary of what’s in the episode:

✅ What sort of testing does (or doesn’t!) get done in the factory, and why.

✅ Why checking the factory’s testing equipment is a really quick and simple way to assess supplier competency.

✅ Reporting best practices – the benefits of supplier inspection reports for assuring supplier ability and providing proof of your intention to import safe goods and how the gold standard is conducting your own tests in a 3rd party lab.

✅ Several product tests and real examples – including garments, electronics, LEDs, and more.

✅ Do all products require in-house testing facilities? This can depend on how often testing is needed. If it’s irregular, the cost of in-house factory testing facilities could be prohibitive.

✅ The risks of buying cheap stuff from China. Many buyers are going in without understanding the ramifications of product compliance and what could happen if you don’t test product safety. The PPE ‘Wild West’ given as an example here.

✅ Examples of common testing equipment you may encounter for different products.

Keep reading about testing

All of the following links are relevant to the topics we discussed in this episode:

• This episode used this blog post as its basis: Factory Testing Facilities
• Read more about lab testing in this blog post, too: The five types of product TESTING laboratories in China

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Do your Chinese suppliers have their own factory testing facilities? How trustworthy have you found their results, and do you follow up with your own tests, too?

Please share your thoughts in the comments.

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