What would YOU do if lockdowns in China over Chinese New Year threatened your supply chain..? As cases climb in Northern China there's a very real threat that tightening restrictions could affect supply chains in China. In this … [Read more...]
Brands and Retailers: Please Stop Doing Social Compliance Audits in Asia
Finbarr Bermingham and Cissy Zhou wrote an interesting article in the South China Morning Post, entitled Bribes, fake factories and forged documents: the buccaneering consultants pervading China’s factory audits. An interesting Linkedin … [Read more...]
How To Validate Your Supplier’s Factory’s Production Capacity (From Abroad) [Podcast]
You can't visit suppliers in China due to coronavirus. How can you validate their production capacity without going on-site? As we head into 2021 travelling to see suppliers in Asia, in particular China, remains difficult for most … [Read more...]
QualityInspection.org’s Top Blog Posts & Videos Of 2020
What a year 2020 has been. Little did we know when we published the top posts and videos of 2019 that we'd soon be headed into almost completely unprecedented times in living memory with the global coronavirus pandemic raging and the … [Read more...]
Manufacture in China, Vietnam, India, or Elsewhere in 2021? [Podcast]
Manufacturers continue to plan the move of some or all of their supply chains out of China? But where next? Perhaps the word 'exodus' is a little over-dramatic, but there has certainly been a marked rise in companies trying to diversify … [Read more...]
The Impact Of Chinese New Year On Importers & Tips To Prepare For CNY 2021 [Podcast]
The Phenomenon of Chinese New Year Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is an amazing time of year in China and several other Asian countries who also place a lot of importance on the lunar calendar (such as Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, and … [Read more...]
How To Perform In-Depth Due Diligence On Your Supplier [Podcast]
Do your new or current suppliers pose a risk to your business? Sometimes the only way to find out if a supplier poses a risk is to perform some deep due diligence on them in order to assess their business health and if they're able to be a … [Read more...]
The End Of Just In Time Manufacturing? [Podcast]
A number of blog posts, such as this one, have been popping up lately casting doubts on whether just in time manufacturing can survive post-coronavirus. They share some pretty strong words: Recent trade tensions between the US and … [Read more...]
Vetting Suppliers In China [Podcast Series]
Vetting suppliers is important. After all, these suppliers are responsible for your company's reputation. Hopefully, everyone by now will understand the dangers of checking Alibaba or Global Sources and 'choosing' a supplier who 'looks' … [Read more...]
Supply Chain Risk Management, Part 4: How Much Inventory Do You Need?
If you make sure to sit on 6 months of inventory for every one of your major products, you will run much lower risks of being unable to supply your customers with what they need. You might even be able to cut a current manufacturer off and … [Read more...]