QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

Limits of Statistical Process Control in China

I am always interested in tools that prove useful in improving a factory's operations. But I always wondered, how useful is Statistical Process Control (SPC)? The fact is, I have never seen a Chinese factory make good use of SPC tools. I asked Brad Pritts, an experienced quality consultant specializing in the auto industry, for his opinion. Some classic SPC tools are listed in the "core quality tools" of the North American car industry. So it would make sense to have lots of factories apply … [Read more...]

Videos about Factory Improvement in China

A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with David Collins (consulting director of China Manufacturing Consultants, a company I am involved in) and we shot a few videos on topics related to factory improvement in the Chinese context. We have already uploaded some of them. They are very instructive, and about 2 minutes long. They are on Youtube and soon will also be on Youku. Quality Improvement Here are two concepts that 99.9% of Chinese factories don't apply. Hence the heavy reliance on final … [Read more...]

Injection Molding Tool: What Design Mistakes to Avoid

Designing a mold tool is all about designing it to produce the part required as efficiently as possible with maximum output and minimal tool down time. Unfortunately, few mold makers in China apply best practices, and few importers are knowledgeable enough to catch design issues. A few common errors to avoid are shown below. They can be categorized in two groups: tooling design and construction, and part design. 1. Tooling Design Points 1.1 Incorrect material selection – The coefficient of … [Read more...]

Why Does Making a Mold In China Take a Month?

Last week I wrote about the cost of making a mold. This week I am addressing another common question from clients: why does it generally take about one month? The length of time it takes to produce a mold tool depends on a number of factors. Primarily, the more complex the part, the longer it takes to manufacture the mold. Other factors to take into account are the size of the part to be molding, and the number of cavities within the tool. The basic parts of a mold tool are: Bolster or … [Read more...]

What Determines the Cost of a Plastic Injection Mold in China?

Many clients have asked me "what determines the cost of a mold?" or "how to get plastic injection molds made for low prices in China?" So I asked one of our engineers for an explanation. The short answer is, “it all depends”. Mold tools can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars and the main factors are the complexity of the part, size and the number of cavities required in the tool. If there are undercuts or screw sections that need molding, this … [Read more...]

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...]