QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

Why Excessive Stock is a Big Problem in a Factory

Most Chinese factory managers have never completed advanced education. But they are generally very savvy at certain aspects of their job. There is one thing they can't wrap their head around, though: the fact that the rules of physics and mathematics apply in their factory's operations. And that's a problem. If they accepted that fact, they could accept counter-intuitive conclusions much faster. I am going to walk you though a few such conclusions below, based on Little's law. As Pascal … [Read more...]

How to SUSTAIN Improvements in a Chinese Factory?

When a Chinese factory is in crisis and its boss is open to new ideas, it is possible to make a lot of changes quickly. These improvements are usually driven by consultants or by a strong and experienced manager. And the problem is, once they are gone, the whole organization goes bad to old habits very quickly. What Chinese companies really lack is the discipline to keep moving in the right direction, day in and day out, after the initial excitement is gone. To be fair, this is not a … [Read more...]

7 Mistakes Chinese Factories Make in Production Planning

Anybody who has imported products from China can attest that the planning process of most manufacturers is not exactly under control. The sad reality is, buyers are often happy when a shipment is "only" 10 days behind the promised date. But where does this lack of precision come from? Is it the result of over-enthusiastic salespeople? Not only. In this article I listed the 7 most serious issues I have noticed in many Chinese factories. 1. Lack of stability There are always urgencies -- … [Read more...]

Auditing Cut & Sew Processes for Garment Manufacturing

This is one more article focusing on a certain type of process, this type garment production. It is basically the process of converting fabric into finished garments. In China, a factory normally produces garments in bulk quantity of a style or design at a time. So our cutting & sewing checklist was designed with this environment in mind. Taking the process step by step we have drawn up a set of checkpoints that reviews in detail each element from receiving the raw material through to … [Read more...]

Auditing Wood Machining Processes in a Furniture Factory in China

We work on more and more furniture-related projects, so we thought setting up a checklist specific to these processes was necessary. The difficulty we encountered was the many types of wooden furniture that we see in Chinese factories. We were forced to make certain assumptions in order to limit the range and make the physical audit manageable: All wooden furniture starts off as raw material All wooden furniture has some sort of shaping process in order to get the wood looking like … [Read more...]

Auditing the Processes of a Rubber Molding Factory in China

Today we are focusing on the way to audit a rubber molding process. It is quite common in tire factories, but also in many other productions. What are the Rubber Molding Processes? Processing rubber to produce final products for end use really depends on what the shape and product is. The main processes for shaping rubber are Extrusion, Compression Molding, Transfer Molding, and Injection Molding. Tires are the principal product of the rubber industry; tires are about 75% of total rubber … [Read more...]

7 Common Mistakes Revealed by Factory Org Charts

One of the first things we look at, during factory audits, is the organization chart. And it often points to serious operational dysfunctions. The ISO 9001 standard does not require an org chart to be prepared (it only asks for the definition and communication of authority lines). It is a very common document, though, and many Chinese manufacturers fall into the same pitfalls. Mistake 1: not having a quality department Most small workshops don't have personnel dedicated to checking quality … [Read more...]

Quality System Audits vs. Process-Specific Audits

When it comes to estimating how reliable a potential supplier is, most importers choose to send a quality auditor. There are advantages to this approach, but experience has taught me that it is not always the best option. In this article I want to contrast conventional "quality management system audits" based on ISO 9001 and what I call "process-specific audits". 1. Quality System Audits The checklist is generic and is designed to be relevant to any process. Advantages The auditor … [Read more...]

What to Do When A Supplier Can’t Provide Product Certifications?

As I wrote in How to Check Lab Test Certificates/Reports?, I guess that  10-30% of the product certifications given by Chinese suppliers to their customers are fake. A "fake" certification is often a real certificate that was issued regularly by an accredited testing laboratory and that was later "photoshopped" to show another product and/or supplier name. Another popular method is that of obtaining a "real" certificate that doesn't correspond to actual tests (in other words, the result is … [Read more...]

7 Signs of a Poorly Managed Chinese Factory

Before you can evaluate a Chinese manufacturer's quality level or engineering capabilities, one thing should jump at you: are they well managed? I made a list of 7 signs that you should observe when touring a plant. Let's start at the top... 1. The boss keeps sipping tea with friends in his office I know that being a good host is important in China. I know that personal relationships are important. But how can the boss stay on top of what happens if he spends 3-5 hours a day chatting and having … [Read more...]