QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

Basics of Supplier Quality Management: A Good Training & Book

From time to time, I skim through a book or training that covers a topic to see if there is a new angle that we might benefit from. This time, I picked the training entitled Seven Essentials in Supplier Quality Management by Evelyn Tan, who has 30 years of experience in consumer electronics, food, and aerospace products. She worked at Dell for 17 years as a supplier quality manager, and for other companies such as Honeywell. She has a lot of hands-on experience. Obviously, a lot of what we … [Read more...]

Is It Possible To Get Credit from a Chinese Supplier?

We sometimes get this question from clients who don't have a long experience of working with Chinese suppliers: We have been customers for a long time but they still refuse to give us credit. Is that typical/normal? And the short answer is, yes, it's typical unless you are a large and well-known company. Unfortunately, it isn't common for Chinese suppliers to give credit. Many long-time customers still pay 100% of their orders before they are shipped. And that's part of the "hidden … [Read more...]

Best Practices for Leaving your Chinese Supplier for a New One [Podcast]

In this episode… One listener asked us: What checklist of activities does an importer need to perform when ending business relationships with a Chinese contract manufacturer?  So, in this episode, Renaud explains what the process of leaving your current Chinese supplier looks like, including plenty of best practices to follow to make sure that your transition goes as smoothly as possible.   Just hit the play button to start listening..! Listen to the episode right here … [Read more...]

Supplier Quality Management: KPIs and Improvement Tools

If you purchase goods from outside companies, and if you need to ensure that your products are of high quality, reliability, and safety, you need to focus on supplier quality management. This takes different forms for different companies, of course. Let's take two examples: Companies like Apple spend a lot of resources to qualify the right manufacturers, to ensure new products are developed with a low risk of issues, to monitor productions, etc. In contrast, a buyer of gift & … [Read more...]

How To Push a Chinese or Vietnamese Supplier for Supply Chain Transparency

As I have noted multiple times in the past, supply chain transparency, or at least the growing requirement for transparency, is a megatrend. More and more, buyers will need to know who makes the critical components, where those factories are located, and collect some additional data about those sub-suppliers. However, in the vast majority of cases, Chinese suppliers (and, to a lesser extent, those in Vietnam, too) do NOT want to disclose that supply chain information, mainly for 2 … [Read more...]

What Supplier Development Process Makes Sense For Your Company?

If you purchase large amounts of products from supplier companies, you can have an influence on those companies. If you can get them to improve their performance using a supplier development process, for example, improve their quality or cut their costs, you will benefit greatly. The process of getting suppliers to improve is usually called supplier development. And most large companies have set up their own supplier development process, at least for their key relationships.  The question is, … [Read more...]

Sourcing from China (Part 3): Project management & checking quality early in production. [Podcast]

In this episode… We continue to explore what importers who're new to outsourcing manufacturing to suppliers in China need to be able to handle themselves when sourcing, developing products, and manufacturing there. In part 2 of the series (episode 75), we went through the terms you need to negotiate with your chosen supplier, how to keep leverage over them, and how and why to clearly describe what you actually want from them at the pre-production stage. As pre-production is done, we're … [Read more...]

How To Improve Supplier Performance? [Podcast]

In this episode... Renaud talks you through a common query that we get on a regular basis when customers ask us: "How do I get my suppliers to improve?" A recent survey of importers found that 70% said that their biggest challenge was working with suppliers to improve performance. So, with this in mind, Renaud goes through the topic based on training that he gave for European Chamber of Commerce in China members on improving suppliers with a focus on product quality, delivery times, price, … [Read more...]

Strategies For Reducing Lead Times From Suppliers In China [Podcast]

In This Episode… We discuss reducing lead times from suppliers in China or other countries in Asia like Vietnam. Lead times are the time you can expect the process of getting your order from a supplier to take, from placing the purchase order, for the supplier to obtain and check materials, manufacture the goods, and then ship them to you. There are many separate elements involved here on the supply chain and manufacturing sides and so plenty of opportunities to make improvements and reduce … [Read more...]

Why Is A PP Sample So Important? [Podcast]

In This Episode… Renaud and Adrian are discussing why a PP sample (pre-production) is so important for obtaining your desired results once your products go into mass production. What are PP samples? How do they evolve over time until they're a final 'golden' pre-production sample? What problems do they help avoid? How to specify your exact requirements? Who pays for them? These questions and more are answered in this episode!   Just hit the play button to start listening..! Listen … [Read more...]