In my last post I explained why inspecting quality earlier is better. The idea was: you should have your production checked before/during production if possible, and you should definitely not let your supplier ship some goods that were never inspected by a professional.

Unfortunately, most small-and-medium-sized importers don’t have QC inspections performed regularly on their shipments. They save a little time and a few hundred dollars. But, in case these goods go through their own warehouse, they will have a quick look at them. And what happens if major issues are found at this point? Defective products can’t be sent back to certain countries, including China So, what to do?

I just found out about a US company named Darn It! that built its business around this type of situation. Their slogan: “Your problem is OUR business”. They mostly deal with garments, and they managed to grow up rapidly to USD4 million in turnover.
What services do they offer?

• 100% defect sorting
• Workmanship repairing
• Cleaning
• Re-labeling
• Re-packaging, etc.

The irony is that the founder’s father used to manufacture garments in the US, but had to close down because of the competition of low-cost countries. Now they are thriving again, thanks to the poor quality of some shipments from oversea countries. I really wish they gave statistics about the countries of origin of the products they fix, just to have an idea of how China compares to Central America.

They have some direct competitors, of course. But I guess the alternative solution for importers who find out major issues at the last moment is… throwing the goods away. Poor quality is an enormous source of waste and inefficiency.