QualityInspection.org

Quality Assurance, Product Development, and Purchasing Strategies in China

Importer’s ‘Supply Chain Spring Clean’ Checklist To Find Risks & Opportunities [Podcast]

Got some time on your hands during Chinese New Year while your suppliers are on holiday? In this bumper 43 minute Chinese New Year episode to keep you entertained during the holiday, Renaud & Adrian discuss tasks importers can perform to spring clean their supply chains during the CNY holiday when you might have a little extra time on your hands. The point of this episode is to provoke some thought and help you to face some of the more difficult questions and tasks that often get put … [Read more...]

The 4 Main Types of Insurance for Manufacturers in China, Vietnam, & India

When you work with a manufacturer in China, Vietnam, or India, do you wonder about the risks they run and whether they have insurance for manufacturers to protect against them? If they are hit badly, and you depend on them for continuity of supply to your customers, both you and your customers may be hit badly too. (See an example in this article where Ford Motor Company evaluated the time to recover, and the financial impact if each of their suppliers' operations is disrupted.) Here are … [Read more...]

How To Plan for Transferring Production To a New Factory: 45 Point Checklist

Many productions have been transferred to China over the past 25 years. Some are getting transferred out of China to places like Vietnam or Thailand these days. And, of course, not all Chinese factories are doing a great job, so there is a great deal of switching from one to the next. The problem is, some transfers are quite complex. There is the supplier management aspect (which I will cover in an upcoming article), and there are all the technical details to get right. I have put together … [Read more...]

7 Tips to Manage the Transfer of Production To Another Chinese Factory

There are cases where importers really need to leave a current supplier. Some situations are unlikely to improve over time, and they are even likely to get worse. I wrote about this in 7 Reasons to Switch to a New Chinese Manufacturer last week. But the next logical question is, 'How to transfer production from the current factory to the next?' and that's what I am covering here. I will also cover the right timing to break the news to the current manufacturer. It is a very sensitive … [Read more...]

7 Reasons To Switch To A New Chinese Manufacturer

Many times, importers ask me "how to control production better?", and they proceed to give me examples of the recent issues they have had with their current Chinese supplier. And I often tell them "switch to a better supplier". Now, making a switch is not always easy. It takes preparation. On the one hand, a new factory has to be identified and vetted. They need to be onboarded and trained to your requirements. They probably need to find sources, they may need to adapt their internal … [Read more...]

How To Validate Your Supplier’s Factory’s Production Capacity (From Abroad) [Podcast]

You can't visit suppliers in China due to coronavirus. How can you validate their production capacity without going on-site? As we head into 2021 travelling to see suppliers in Asia, in particular China, remains difficult for most buyers due to coronavirus restrictions. Even if you can travel, you face the risk of transit and a long mandatory quarantine period in a hotel before you're even able to conduct your business, so most buyers are staying at home for now. However, before placing an … [Read more...]

How To Cooperate With Your Chinese Supplier, Part 10: Jewelry & Gold Plating Problems: Exploring the process and controlling quality

By Fabien Gaussorgues We have worked with multiple jewelry manufacturers in Europe, the US, and Australia. In this time, I realized that their knowledge is often far below what one would expect from industry experts which leads to many failures like overpricing, and gold plating problems such as plating peeling, wearing out, green effect, rust, and more. Why is this happening? … [Read more...]

The Impact Of Chinese New Year On Importers & Tips To Prepare For CNY 2021 [Podcast]

The Phenomenon of Chinese New Year Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, is an amazing time of year in China and several other Asian countries who also place a lot of importance on the lunar calendar (such as Vietnam, Taiwan, Japan, and others). In China, it is the greatest human migration with more than a billion people travelling around the country to visit family and friends and have a well-deserved break this February coming. China's fairly unique reliance on migrant labour, where … [Read more...]

Exploring Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) [Podcast]

Time to pay attention to good manufacturing practices! Importers with suppliers over in Asia may benefit from adopting GMPs (Good Manufacturing Practices). What are they? How are they useful for managing and improving the performance of suppliers in countries like China? How do they fit in with quality audits, social compliance audits, and process audits? The basics are always a good starting point for any supplier management and development plan and GMPs represent the basic activities … [Read more...]

3 Vertical Integration Benefits: Transparency, Control, Speed

Last year I wrote about a very common problem in China Supply Chain Transparency and Monitoring: Not Getting Easier… and this year we are still lamenting that same problem: Further down the supply chain, unauthorized subcontracting is still very, very common. We noticed this is particularly true of metal surface treatment processes that are done outside of the “main factory” (which would typically do casting and CNC lathe/milling). A few examples: Plating Polishing Painting, … [Read more...]