Many new or inexperienced importers who are outsourcing their production to suppliers in China (or wider Asia such as Vietnam) for the first time go into the process almost blind. They're later hit with crippling issues that can make the process a costly nightmare. Why? Because they were not aware of how to implement strong quality assurance in China/Vietnam and fell into some fairly common traps that can catch out 'green' importers. It doesn't need to be this way though. Read on to get … [Read more...]
Understanding Product QC Inspections: What Is in a Man-Day?
A conversation earlier today made me realize that some buyers who haven’t spent much time in Chinese factories have some common misconceptions. For example, “Chinese production operators are forced to work 12 hours a day, in a case of modern slavery”, “all metal factories do all the steps from casting/forging to surface treatments and all the way to assembly and packing”, and so on. Another misconception is that a good inspector will spend 8-10 hours working at the factory. This is what I … [Read more...]
The Different Types Of Sampling Plans For QC Inspections
1. What is a sampling plan? A sampling plan allows an auditor or a researcher to study a group (e.g. a batch of products, a segment of the population) by observing only a part of that group, and to reach conclusions with a pre-defined level of certainty. In this article I cover these cases in depth (hit the links below to skip to the relevant section): The buyer wants to follow the most common plan to inspect a supplier's batch of products The manufacturer implements a continuous … [Read more...]
Transitioning to Supplier Self Inspections: Go Stage by Stage
It seems nearly every major retailer has given some thought to letting their suppliers check quality themselves. I wrote about it in Why Supplier Self-Inspections Are Getting More Popular in China. The obvious benefit is cutting costs. No need to send someone to the factory before every shipment. Another benefit is, when this works well, to stop "baby-sitting" suppliers and to force them to take responsibility for important matters such as product quality... And, hopefully, incentivize … [Read more...]
Why Amazon FBA Prep Services Should Be Done in China (not USA)
Michael Michelini wrote about Amazon packaging, and he mentioned the FBA prep services. I discovered a whole industry popped up and is probably growing fast. What do they do? In Mike's words: Basically, a third-party prep service does everything on your behalf, including: Inspect your items to ensure there is no damage, especially if you’re selling “new” products. Carefully remove any stickers from the products, if there are any. Prepare the inventory according to … [Read more...]
When AQL Sampling Plans Can’t Find Defective Products
A reader sent me this interesting question: I would like to better understand AQL usage and more precisely whether inspections based on AQL are effective in situations where the distribution of defects is not homogeneous within the lot. Let's say the lot is 25,920 pieces split in 36 boxes. From previous observations, most of the pieces in the lot are OK, but a few pieces (200-500) are not OK and they are physically located in a focused part of one or 2 boxes. Is an AQL inspection the … [Read more...]
What Simple Checklist for More Reliable Quality Inspections?
A simple checklist to follow day in, day out, is a highly undervalued tool. Here are a couple of examples where the value of checklists has been recognized: In aviation, checklists have been used for more than 70 years and have undoubtedly avoided many accidents. In healthcare, a study showed that following standard checklists saved 40% of lives. What is another activity where someone might forget something important? A quality inspection in a supplier's facility! People ask you … [Read more...]
What is the “AQL” (Acceptance Quality Limit) in simple terms?
What Does AQL Mean? 'AQL' stands for 'Acceptance Quality Limit', and is defined as the "quality level that is the worst tolerable" in ISO 2859-1. It represents the maximum number of defective units, beyond which a batch is rejected. Importers usually set different AQLs for critical, major, and minor defects. Most Asian exporters are familiar with this type of setting. For example: "AQL is 1.5%" means "I want no more than 1.5% defective items in the whole order quantity, on average over … [Read more...]
Buying Food Ingredients from China? Can You Trust that Info?
The 'China Aquatic Products Processing and Marketing Alliance' just decided that 6 types of fish can now be classified as "salmon" when sold within China. Amazing but true. According to the BBC, here is the background: New rules introduced in China mean rainbow trout can now be labelled and sold domestically as salmon. Why? Because a media report earlier this year caused a splash by revealing that rainbow trout had for years been labelled as the similar-looking fish. Authorities … [Read more...]
Evaluating a Battery Manufacturer in China for Consistent Quality
Over the past 3 months, we have heard of more problems with batteries than with any other electrical component. Our team over at Sofeast in Shenzhen has been busy evaluating battery manufacturers, recently. And the average level of those manufacturers is much lower than I expected. A bad battery means the entire product doesn’t function (and, worse, it might explode or catch fire). And yet, few buyers have focused their efforts on working with a good supplier. What to evaluate? A battery … [Read more...]
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