Drawing samples is a critical step during a quality inspection. Some inspectors were never trained properly to do it, and most others take shortcuts. I guess poor sampling is responsible for 30-40% of the complaints that inspection firms … [Read more...]
Are China QC inspectors getting lazy?
I had an interesting conversation about the job of quality inspectors. I was talking to the manager of the local office of a large importer. That person is in factories several times a week, for the unique purpose of auditing the job of … [Read more...]
Bundling different products in one inspection: danger!
According to the ISO 2859 standard, one inspection should be performed on "items of a single type, grade, class, size and composition, manufactured under uniform conditions at essentially the same time". In clear, if you are going to … [Read more...]
How to misuse the ISO 2859 standard: sets vs. pieces
It is quite easy to misuse the ISO 2859-1 standard (or its American equivalent, the ANSI/ASQC Z1.4 standard). A common mistake is probably to base the calculation on the number of sets, rather than the number of pieces. Why should it be … [Read more...]
QA vs. QC – what importers need to know
I often have to explain what the difference between quality assurance (QA) and quality control (QC) is. The best is for me to write an article about it, and I'll point people to it in the future. Here is a short version: QA = all the … [Read more...]
How to prepare your QC inspection report template
A few months back, we drew an infographic to show how a random inspection works, but we didn't get into all the specifics. I regularly get questions from readers who ask me how to report the results. There are many ways to prepare a QC … [Read more...]
How to reduce the number of man-days for a QC inspection
In my last article, I described the difficulty of explaining to certain clients that it is impossible to inspect all shipments in 1 man-day only. This time, I am going to give advice to importers who need to reduce the number of … [Read more...]
We cannot inspect everything in one man-day, sorry
Third-party inspection firms calculate their quotations on the basis of the number of man-days. If 1 inspector is needed for 1 day, it amounts to 1 man-day; 2 inspectors for 1 day (or 1 inspector for 2 days) means 2 man-days, etc. For … [Read more...]
How much does a Chinese inspector cost?
Some importers wonder how much a Chinese inspector costs to hire full time. The short answer is: More than you might think. It's more than just their salary, so in this post, I'll explore the 5 types of people you might hire as an … [Read more...]
How many samples to inspect? It depends…
Let's say you want to follow the general procedure for quality inspections. How many samples should you draw for inspection? Let's also say you want to follow the ISO 2859-1 standard, under normal severity, and in level II. (If you are … [Read more...]
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