Benefits of quality control inspections

Founded in 2005, Sunchine Inspection, a professional one-stop international inspection provider, with more than 30 technical advisors and around 120 qualified full-time inspectors in Asia& Europe, Sunchine inspection focus on providing more flexible and humanized inspection service to clients from all over the world.

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BY RENAUD ANJORAN
As I mentioned in a previous article, more and more importers are switching their focus from standard QC inspections to improving key suppliers.
The question is, are inspections useless? What are their benefits, if any?
My opinion is, there are benefits but they depend on the kind of inspection. Here is Shingo‘s typology:
#1. “Judgement inspection” (prevents shipment of defective batches)

• Quantify, and if possible sort out, defects.
• Takes place after production is finished.
• Prevents defective lots from reaching the customer. But does not decrease the defect rate.

#2. “Informative inspection” (allows for implementation of corrective actions)

• Investigate sources of defects.
• Feed the information back to the processes.
• Implement corrective actions, in order to reduce the defect rate.

#3. “Source inspection” (prevents defects from appearing)

• Work on processes to prevent errors from happening, when possible.
• Work on processes to make sure errors are caught before they become defects.

What is realistic for importers?

For many importers sourcing from China, #1 is all the supplier will accept. And doing it during production, to catch problems early, is the best option when there is a high probability of problems.
The sad truth is, most manufacturers are just not interested in implementing corrective actions and improving their processes.
In some cases, though, the factory accepts to follow recommendations coming out of #2. And they might even try to put in place #3 (if given proper guidance).
I understand that most purchasers are not familiar with #3 (source inspection). An essential element of source inspection is mistake-proofing devices and systems (“poka-yoke” in Japanese).
[See the appendix below this article if you are not familiar with poka-yoke.]

Why do many people think quality inspections are useless?

One of Deming‘s 14 points is as follows:

Eliminate the dependence on inspection to achieve quality. Eliminate the need for inspection on a mass basis by building quality into the product in the first place.

This point is often misunderstood. What he called “inspection” was judgement inspection only. And what he called “building quality into the product” included source inspection as well as smarter design & engineering.

Is statistical quality control the best way to reduce the number of defects?

Again, it depends. If you read Deming or a Six Sigma manual, statistics are the name of the game. If you read Shingo or a book about Lean, the most important is to find ways to avoid human mistakes.
I like the way Michel Baudin puts these two approaches in perspective:

Our view is that the applicable tools for quality improvement depend on what the quality problems are. If they are primarily human error, then mistake-proofing will work. On the other hand, if they are due to insufficient process capabilities, then process characterization through statistical design of experiments will be much more help than mistake-proofing.

In the vast majority of factories I have visited, human mistakes are the main cause of defects. Most Chinese managers focus on discipline instead of mistake-proofing. Instead of asking “why did it happen?”, they ask “who did it?”.
As long as this doesn’t change, their factories will keep churning out products of inferior quality.
What do you think?
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APPENDIX: WHAT POKA YOKE IS

(The above carton comes from Poka-Yoke: Improving Product Quality by Preventing Defects).
http://www.sunchineinspection.com/benefits-of-quality-control-inspections/

Quality control: be more transparent and think long term

BY RENAUD ANJORAN

This is the third part of the presentation I gave a group of Chinese suppliers, in a Global Sources forum. Links to the previous parts are here: the initial sourcing phase, 6 ways suppliers can cheat buyers.
I emphasized the need for suppliers to take quality control more seriously by being more transparent and by thinking long term.

The danger of a short-term perspective

Many factories ship bad quality even when they know it is bad.
Or they play a game, which unfolds as follows. They know a shipment is urgent, but there is a quality problem. They don’t fix the problem, since they know the client will authorize shipment anyway.
This is not a long-term strategy!
Some customers have a very high “lifetime value”. Do not under-estimate it. Losing them means losing a LOT of future profit.
You should probably segment your customers this way, to see which customers you cannot afford to lose.

Calculation of the value of a good customer

A customer is good if LTV (lifetime value) > CA (cost of acquisition) + CK (cost of keeping the customer).
Calculation of the LTV (lifetime value)
Let’s assume:

• 1 good customer places orders for 3 years;
• Order value is 500,000 USD per year;
• Profit is 25,000 USD per year.

LTV = 75,000 USD per year (average).
Calculation of the CA (cost of acquisition)
Let’s assume:

• You pay 50,000 USD/year in marketing;
• You get 10 good customers a year.

CA = 5,000 USD per good customer (on average).
Calculation of the CK (cost of keeping a customer)
Let’s assume:

• Extra efforts in production (to avoid/fix problems) cost you 5,000 USD per year;
• Little discounts (to compensate for mistakes) cost you 5,000 USD per year.

CK = 10,000 USD per good customer per year (average) = 30,000 USD over 3 years.
Let’s put it together
LTV (75K) – CA (5K) – CK (30K) = 40K in profit over the lifetime of this customer’s relationship!
Let’s change the assumptions a little
If you keep the same customer for 6 years instead of 3 years:
LTV (150K) – CA (5K) – CK (60K) = 90K.
Conclusion
You make a lot more profit per customer if you keep them longer!

Four solutions to keep good customers for longer

1. Have a more professional QC service
It should be independent from the production department. When quality is bad, the QC staff stops the products!
It should produce real inspection reports. A form in Chinese and in English would be best, so that you can share it with your good customers every week.
Here are a couple of examples that I shared before in an article about factory inspector training). One can easily see the inspection date, what was checked, and whether there was a problem.

Once a week, copy and paste these data into a more comprehensive form, and emails it to the client:

2. You need to manage orders actively, not “hope for the best”
Just by showing that you manage the order and communicate at regular intervals, you will project a better image than 95% of your competition! I wrote about this before.
For example: send a status update, with revised ETD forecast, every Monday.
Many of you probably work in sales. Try to spend a little time on the factory floor, and understand what is going on. Take the customer’s perspective!
3. Managers need to walk on the shop floor every day, even if it is only for 5 minutes
Observe what happens. Find problems, or ideas for improvement.
If possible, update some simple statistics and show them on a wall: QC pass rate, on-time shipments… This way, you can see the problems immediately and implement corrective actions.
4. Train the workers, if possible on several operations

• Write standard work instructions for each operation;
• Fix the process when mistakes are made. Do not ask who is responsible;
• Make the work itself less repetitive/boring, to reduce staff turnover.

—
What do you think? Any other tips?
http://www.sunchineinspection.com/quality-control-be-more-transparent-and-think-long-term/

Article Source: qualityinspection

5 tips for testing China products against regulatory standards

Founded in 2005, Sunchine Inspection, a professional one-stop international inspection provider, with more than 30 technical advisors and around 120 qualified full-time inspectors in Asia& Europe, Sunchine inspection focus on providing more flexible and humanized inspection service to clients from all over the world.

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BY RENAUD ANJORAN
Yesterday I wrote about the danger of relying on Chinese manufacturers’ certificates. So, if you import products that are subject to regulatory standards in your country, what should you do?
First, you should look for a supplier that already works with other importers in your country. If possible, call a couple of reference customers (warning: it won’t be easy to get their contacts from your potential suppliers).
Second, you can contact a quality control firm to check what safety/regulatory standards are applicable to your importing project.
Third, you can ask your suppliers if they have certifications from a international lab. Then you can contact that lab, tell them the report number, and ask whether it is legitimate. It does not eliminate risks on your side, but it is better than nothing.
Fourth, you should tell your supplier from the beginning that you will run lab tests on their goods. Some of them will increase their prices, others will refuse your order. It is an easy screening method.
Fifth, you are strongly advised to take the process in your own hands and to follow these steps:

• Send an inspector to pick up some real production samples in a random manner, for on-site testing and/or for sending to a laboratory. It is important to use a testing lab of YOUR choice, that YOU will pay, and that sends all the results directly to YOU. Depending on the risks to avoid, this step can take place once the bulk materials/components are in the factory and/or when some totally finished products are off the lines.
• If the tests are failed, communicate with the lab to see if the goods are way beyond what can be tolerated, or if only an insignificant part of the test protocol triggered this general failure.
• If the tests are failed for a valid reason, your supplier should pay for re-picking random samples and for re-testing, and should follow the exact same procedure as the first testing round. This is a procedure that should be defined in advance, in a quality control plan.

Is this expensive? Yes it is, for small orders.
Is this too expensive for you to make enough margin? Then do not import directly.
Remember, if you import potentially unsafe products, you (as the importer) carry the same legal risks as if you were the manufacturer…

http://www.sunchineinspection.com/5-tips-for-testing-china-products-against-regulatory-standards/
Article Source:  qualityinspection

Services lead China's growth

Founded in 2005, Sunchine Inspection, a professional one-stop international inspection provider, with more than 30 technical advisors and around 120 qualified full-time inspectors in Asia& Europe, Sunchine inspection focus on providing more flexible and humanized inspection service to clients from all over the world.

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Source: Xinhua| 2018-02-16 15:38:06|Editor: Liangyu
BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- Services took a leading role in China's economic growth, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Value-added in the service sector grew 8.2 percent in 2017 year on year, outstripping growth rate of the overall economic output and the secondary industries for the fifth year in a row.
The production index of the service industry grew by 8.2 percent in 2017, 0.1 percentage points faster from the previous year.
Sectors such as information transmission, software and leasing posted double-digit growth or close to that level.
Xu Jianyi, head of the service industry department of the NBS, said businesses were optimistic about the service sector.
China has rebalanced the economy from investment and trade to service and consumption.
The economy ended 2017 with growth of 6.9 percent, higher 2016, the first increase in annual growth in seven years.

http://www.sunchineinspection.com/services-lead-chinas-growth/

What Can Quality Professionals Do When Most Suppliers Are Off (CNY)?

BY RENAUD ANJORAN
Do you find yourself with some time on your hands, when your Chinese suppliers are enjoying their New Year holiday?

Why not take advantage of it and do some work that will be important to your company’s success?

Here are 4 suggestions.

1. Data analyses for better decisions

If you can easily extract all the issues from QC reports (or if you can use an intern to do that work), this will be well worth your efforts.

Ideally, you would classify the past issues per product, per supplier (and per factory if possible), and per month.

Then you can plot them on a few graphs. Here are a few examples:

• A Pareto chart of the most common issues per product, per factory
• Evolution of the frequency of occurrence of the 3 most common issues, month by month, for each factory
• Compare your suppliers on a few KPIs such as % defectives, % of batches with serious issues, number of corrective action requests, average time to close a corrective action request

This information can help you put pressure on some suppliers, and ask them to improve in some very precise areas.

2. Building a supplier management system

Now that you have a few KPIs related to quality, why not work with your colleagues from purchasing… and help them do the same?

Here are some other KPIs your company could collect:

Now the purchasers are armed with a set of KPIs that go way beyond what they’d naturally tend to look at (the FOB price).

Another benefit is, the simple fact that a supplier knows you are tracking them will push them to take actions to improve. It is human nature. They might not take the right actions, or not apply them in the right proportions, but they will probably try something.

3. Improve your checklists and other work instructions

I bet you often need to repeat the same things over and over. For example, you are asked to validate QC reports that raise an issue but don’t a clear-cut “passed” or “failed” result simply because the checklist was not clear.

So, why not review the documents most often used and update them? You will certainly have many things come to your mind as you read them. Add examples (if possible, both good and bad), special cases, escalation procedures, etc.

4. Other suggestions

Many people in importing businesses feel the manufacturers and the testing/inspection houses should work on their internal quality systems. But in reality importers also need to get their house in order.

For example, are your approved samples well catalogued and in good condition? How about your testing/measuring equipments, are they well maintained and calibrated?

Do you talk regularly to your company’s customers, gather their feedback, and draw a few insights for top management?

Maybe the best you could do is familiarize yourself with the main production processes involved to make the products you buy. These days there are many good Youtube videos on the most common processes. As you watch them, ask yourself: ‘what are the key process controls that I should ask my suppliers to report on, to ensure they know what they are doing?’

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What do you think? Any other ideas?

 http://www.sunchineinspection.com/what-can-quality-professionals-do-when-most-suppliers-are-off-cny/
Article Source: qualityinspection

How your inspectors can fail to notice quality problems

Founded in 2005, Sunchine Inspection, a professional one-stop international inspection provider, with more than 30 technical advisors and around 120 qualified full-time inspectors in Asia& Europe, Sunchine inspection focus on providing more flexible and humanized inspection service to clients from all over the world.

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BY RENAUD ANJORAN
Performing a quality inspection prior to a shipment is like a filter. It won’t catch 100% of the problems 100% of the time. But it should catch the BIG problems over 90% of the time.
More and more importers are disillusioned about the value of QC inspections. Many of them think (and, depending on who they work with, they are not necessarily wrong) that way, way less than 90% of BIG problems are detected.
And they usually think that bribery is the main reason for this lack of effectiveness. I don’t agree.
I listed below the major reasons why Chinese inspectors sometimes fail to notice quality problems that are BIG in their clients’ eyes.

1. Laziness and lack of discipline

Most professional inspectors are guilty of this.
For example, they don’t pick cartons from every side and every height of the pile, to save time but also to avoid bothering the factory.
There are actually 2 separate issues here:
1.1 They take shortcuts to go faster
A very common example: during the visual check or the testing, they often don’t check as many samples as they should.
As a result, their report is based on their guesses after checking a sample size that is much smaller than their QC plan calls for. The statistical plan is not respected, and in the worst cases the report means nothing at all.
1.2 They are unwilling to bother the factory
Many of them are tired of fighting. They want to work in a relaxed atmosphere, have a nice lunch, and avoid justifying themselves after complaints from the supplier.
For instance, they let the factory check (and repair!) the samples by themselves during the unpacking process. They pretend not to see this little game. And, of course, many problems are corrected before inspection.

2. Lack of training

When they need to check garments, some quality control agencies see no problem in sending inspectors who have a very superficial knowledge of textile products. Some sophisticated clients can suspect it after reading the QC report, but it is difficult to prove.
These inspectors are very slow in taking measurements, so they ask the factory to measure… and they write what they are told. Oh, and there are many issues that their untrained eye just can’t notice.
This is just an example. The same thing happens with electronics, ceramics, furniture, etc.

3. Wrong calibration

Send an inspector who is used to checking cheap products for monitoring a production of goods to be sold in high-end boutiques, and what will he conclude? “Everything is fine”. The reason is, it is so much nicer to what he usually sees.
Unfortunately, the high-end buyer might see defects that are important to him and that were completely undetected during the inspection.
If you work with QC firms that work for cheap buyers (promotional goods, mass markets in South America…), don’t ask them to check high-quality products.

4. Poor timing of inspection

Many buyers don’t understand why ONLY a final inspection (after production is over) can confirm the average quality of a batch.
When everything is packed, the quantity can be counted, and products can be picked randomly. The factory can’t play games.
What often happens is that suppliers are late. The job gets done when only 20% of the goods are completed, and maybe 1 or 2 cartons are packed. It is easy for a factory to hide the defective products and claim they are not made yet.
What to do in this case? A re-inspection at the supplier’s charge. Naturally, most Chinese suppliers pretend not to understand why they should pay for a re-inspection in this case, since the job got done.
So you should think now about the instructions to your QC agency/staff: should they abort the mission in such cases?

5. Rushed job

When an inspector is under intense timing pressure, he is forced to take all the shortcuts he can. There are actually 3 separate issues:
5.1 The inspector’s manager decides on an unrealistic sampling plan
This happens when the client is allowed to choose the sampling size in an online booking system, or when the QC company does not dare to say no to a client. It happens often in peak periods, like before Chinese New Year.
I have seen sampling plans including 8 different product references to check for conformity, and a total of 315 pieces to check visually, in 1 man-day! The result is the same as in point 1.1: the job is not done fully, and the report means nothing.
5.2 The inspector himself compresses the time of the job
After a few rushed jobs (see point 5.1), inspectors know they can get done in 2 hours.
Some of them conclude that they can do one job in the morning (for their employer) and one in the afternoon (on a freelance basis). This is a highly dangerous habit!

6. Corruption

Yes, corruption happens. Especially in situations with the following characteristics:

• The sums at stake are quite large,
• The importer puts a lot of pressure on the supplier to ship in time,
• When there is a problem that is acceptable (according to the inspector’s judgment), but is not in conformity with the client’s specifications.

The point is, it is not as frequent as most people think.

7. Unclear or incomplete specifications

If you don’t communicate detailed requirements, and if you don’t ensure that the inspector has a reference sample in hand, you are asking for trouble.
This may seem obvious. But tens (hundreds?) of unprofessional importers commit this mistake. In the China sourcing game, letting another party guessing some information is never a good idea.
***
Oh, and how about factory interference? I am not including it in this list, because an inspector who doesn’t cut corners (see point 1.1 above) will avoid it. And, if it can’t be avoided, the job should be aborted.
What do you think? Am I forgetting an important element?


http://www.sunchineinspection.com/how-your-inspectors-can-fail-to-notice-quality-problems/
Article Source:  qualityinspection

Sourcing from China: The 5 Steps to Developing a Chinese Supplier

BY RENAUD ANJORAN
Many importers work in one or two product categories. They buy 80% of their volume from 1-4 manufacturers.
And many of them make the same mistake: they don’t try to improve their CURRENT suppliers. Instead, they spend time sourcing NEW factories and training them to their requirements, and consequently they are taking risks on the first order from a new supplier.
Is there an alternative? Sure.
A supplier development program follows 5 steps. And it starts at the sourcing phase!

1. Selecting suppliers with the right profile

This is all about finding suppliers that want to improve, however, if you work with companies that are NOT trying to improve, the upside will be quite limited.
A large customer can push a factory to make improvements, but it’s quite hard (sometimes impossible) if that factory’s boss doesn’t care about getting better. Many of these bosses are only interested in getting bigger, by using their current operations and practices.
How to spot potential suppliers that are motivated to get better? Here are a few examples.

• They re-invest profits in the facilities, the equipment, staff training, and so on;
• They want to develop new products/technologies, and are willing to go through a steep learning curve;
• They hire professional managers rather than members of the owner’s extended family.

2. Help during product development

This step is important if you purchase highly customized products.
The buyer needs to take the following actions:

• Explain the product’s specifications clearly;
• Translate what these specs mean, from a technical point of view (at the production process level);
• Train their QC staff to check the specs during production and on finished products, and help set testing stations (this critical step is often forgotten);
• Give detailed feedback on pre-production samples/prototypes.

For complex products, spending time in the factory and communicating directly (in Chinese) with the technicians is a big plus.

3. Ensure your quality standard is met

As your first orders move into production, the focus should be on quality. If production quality is not acceptable on your market, and if there is no improvement over time, there is no way to continue the relationship.
The question is; how do you get a supplier to improve its quality, without spending a fortune on inspection in order to catch all their mistakes?
You need to audit their quality system and their processes, and then evaluate what the priorities are. Here are a few examples:

• The managers never get out of their offices, and don’t monitor discipline on the shop floor.
• Incoming components & materials are not checked, or nobody knows when they should be rejected.
• There are no procedures or procedures are insufficient/unclear for in-process inspections.
• Work instructions for operators and inspectors are not accurate, poorly designed, or not respected.
• Nobody has collected data about the most frequent defects and wondered what their root causes are in a systematic way.

The best policy for those buyers who purchase large quantities from one supplier, is to send an engineer to the factory on a regular basis (once a month), to discuss and show the supplier potential opportunities for improvement and identify where processes could be made clearer or better (don’t call it “audits”), I detailed how it works in this article.
Once a manufacturer has a strong system in place and inspires enough confidence, they can be allowed to “self-inspect” and to report their findings to the buyer.

4. Pick the low-hanging fruits

To an experienced industrial engineer, the typical Chinese factory is full of opportunities for improvement. A lot of small changes can be made to cut costs, without investing in any new equipment or breaking any walls.
By applying a gentle mix of pulling and pushing, you can probably help some of your key suppliers grasp some of these obvious opportunities.
For example, some importers ask key suppliers for a roadmap to reduce their cost structure in the coming years (with details on how they intend to achieve these targets). This is an excellent exercise to push suppliers to think of how to work smarter, and to run some tests.
Some other buyers know production processes better than most manufacturers they work with, and help them reduce their “costs of poor quality” (scrapped material, defects to rework, chargebacks from customers…).
Good communication and frequent visits are key if you want this effort to be successful.

5. Re-organize production

Step No.4 focused on the “easy wins” that require little effort and bring obvious gains.
Once you have accumulated enough of these easy wins and the factory’s management starts to trust you, it is time to become more ambitious.
Here is the sequence I advise you to follow:

1. Select one priority — here are 3 examples: quality, cost, faster production cycle and smaller batches;
2. Select 2-4 KPIs, and track their improvement over time;
3. Pick targets for the KPIs, and envision the “future state” that needs to be achieved to meet these targets;
4. Discuss it with the factory and get their agreement and buy in;
5. Make changes to reach that future state, if possible by starting with a “quick win” that everybody can see;
6. Start over again with a new target, after the team got a sense of victory and has energy to take on another challenge.

In the next two parts in this series, I will explain how “Lean”, a set of principles and techniques inspired by the Toyota Production System, can help you drive impressive results in quality improvement and in cost reduction.

http://www.sunchineinspection.com/sourcing-from-china-the-5-steps-to-developing-a-chinese-supplier/
Article Source:  qualityinspection

Quality Control of Made-In-China Products in Different Industries

Founded in 2005, Sunchine Inspection, a professional one-stop international inspection provider, with more than 30 technical advisors and around 120 qualified full-time inspectors in Asia& Europe, Sunchine inspection focus on providing more flexible and humanized inspection service to clients from all over the world.

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BY RENAUD ANJORAN
Over the past few months, on the SynControl blog, I have written articles about what differs from one product category to the next.
I’ll list them below and summarize what is really specific about each industry vertical when it comes to quality inspections.

Mechanical products

There are typically many measurements to check. You should ask yourself:

• What is really CTQ (critical to quality), and what doesn’t need to be inspected?
• Is there typically variation within a given batch, or is it OK to check on just 1 piece, on each process?
• Do we need to record the exact values (for use in statistical analyses), or is a OK / Not OK result fine? Go/no-go gauges are great time savers.

Some statistical indices and graphs are commonly used, as shown in the article I linked to. However, it doesn’t mean much without a proper MSA (measurement system analysis) to confirm that measurement findings are somewhat relevant.
And finally, a visual check of the pieces, as well as an inspection of the labeling & packing elements, should not be overlooked. It’s not all about measurements!

Garments

I spent years working solely or predominantly in the garment industry, from 2005 to about 2010. I don’t dislike that industry at all. But I have to say, I haven’t met a more backward group of people. They tend to resist any new ways of thinking, any new methods and technologies. That’s why many inspectors still use pen and paper, and some can’t even take clear digital photos…
I found it is quite important for garment inspectors to be trained in following a careful procedure. Here are two examples where they should be very careful at the beginning of a QC job, rather than rushing to get the job done quickly:

• As they pull samples out of cartons, they look at them on a hanger, they place them flat on a table… Is there any issue, anything shocking?
• When playing with the first piece: what can go wrong here? What has the designer written based on the PP samples?

A never-ending frustration is the time to record measurements, often on Excel sheets pulled out of a ‘tech pack’…

Electrical home appliances

Buyers of home appliances generally buy a range of products — few of them are specialized in, say, toasters or microwave ovens.
Many details have to be checked on each product, and it is important to be quite organized. It makes sense to develop category-specific checklists, plus a few checkpoints to account for the differences from one model to the next within that product category.
The problem is often as follows. Checking one model in full takes time. And reporting on that inspection (including photos, recorded data…) takes nearly as much time! This is where specialized reporting software can help a lot.
If the suppliers are relatively large (and there is a number of large home appliance manufacturers in China), they can be requested to work through corrective actions. (Unfortunately, most small Chinese factories can’t be expected to do this on their own.) A good follow up of corrective actions is really helpful.

Home & decoration products

In many cases, inspectors look into the company’s catalogue to get the specs! That’s how marketing-driven many of these companies are.
There are often more than 10 SKUs to check — sometimes more than 50 SKUs. 20 pieces of that kind of willow basket, 60 pcs of that kind, and so on. That means two things:

• There is a time constraint — the overall value is not high, so inspectors often have to do the job in 1 day maximum. They can’t go in much depth.
• All these different products are not always made in the same facility. They might come from 10 different homes in the neighboring village! Tracking what comes from where can be impossible. Forget about quality improvement plans — if there are many issues, just switch to another supplier…

Furniture items

In furniture, even more than with garments, the buyer often wants to use his own QC team. There is little trust in the staff sent by third-party inspection companies.
It is not practical to send a file cabinet or a chair by courier. The approval of samples is often done at the factory. Batches are relatively small, and products take up a lot of space — sometimes too much for a tiny factory!
When it comes to quality control, it is important to make a distinction:

• Modern furniture is rather straightforward.
• Antique furniture often incorporates imperfections on purpose, so a good understanding of what is expected and what is “nice” is a must.

Loading supervisions are more frequent too, as the way the products are packed and stacked up has a strong impact on their quality on arrival.

Promo & gift products

This is quite a heterogeneous category! It is actually comprised of three sub-categories:

1. Give-away items on customer demand — they have to ‘look good’ only, and it’s all about speed and cost control.
2. A stable set of products that make up a catalog – it becomes easier to ensure quality when buying from the same set of suppliers.
3. Accessories and packaging for high-end brands — quality is a must, inspections are to be done very carefully (detailed checklist, 1 lot per SKU, full reporting…).

http://www.sunchineinspection.com/quality-control-of-made-in-china-products-in-different-industries/
Article Source: qualityinspection.

Initial sourcing phase: advice to Chinese suppliers

Founded in 2005, Sunchine Inspection, a professional one-stop international inspection provider, with more than 30 technical advisors and around 120 qualified full-time inspectors in Asia& Europe, Sunchine inspection focus on providing more flexible and humanized inspection service to clients from all over the world.

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BY RENAUD ANJORAN
Global Sources invited me to speak to a group of suppliers in Shantou last week. My speech was part of a forum on “export strategies”, designed to broaden the average exporter’s perspectives.
Here is the first part of what I had to tell Chinese suppliers. It addresses the initial sourcing phase.

The importance of the first impression

The initial impression you give to a potential customer is very important. Many buyers think, “If they can’t format their documents properly, what will my products look like?”.
Try to display these three qualities:

• Rigor
• Attention to details
• Quick response

It is not difficult!

Bad habits to avoid

• Using @163.com or @yahoo.com.cn email addresses: unprofessional, but also dangerous for buyers.
• Responding late to inquiries. Use email templates, presentations…
• Sending heavy attachments by email to potential customers.
• Writing quotations in an email. Follow a quotation template that includes specs, incoterm, payment terms…
• Accepting POs that contain terms that don’t match with your PI. Read the PO!
• Saying yes to everything, just to make a sale.
• Promising “we will do our best”: too vague, very easy to disappoint.
• Introducing yourself under one company, and issuing invoices under another company.
• Trying to make friends with the purchasers (except if they are from Sth Europe or Latin America).
• Buying luxury cars while production equipment is old and rusty.
• Five-star reception and showroom, dirty toilets for workers.

Strategy to follow if you are small

Some importers are looking for manufacturers that employ below 400 workers. Don’t try to pretend that you are huge!
Your sales arguments should be as below:

• The owner himself follows each order closely
• We are motivated, we will be responsive
• “Your orders are important to us, we will listen to you”
• Attractive pricing

Strategy to follow if you are big

If you are already a large structure, here are a few arguments that should win you some sales:

• Reference customers
• Organization, quality system (lower risks of quality issues)
• Number of engineers: ability to develop new products
• Familiarity with export market requirements (quality standard, regulations)
• Width of product range

If you are a trading company

If you represent a trading company and you decide to disclose that you don’t own a factory, I can see two strategies that you can follow.
1. You manage production and you report regular status updates
Benefit to the buyer: you reduce his work and his risks. Some importers are looking for this.
2. You get small orders and you place them in small workshops that can’t export directly
Benefit to the buyer: you bring what these workshops are lacking(communication, QC, export paperwork…).
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What do you think? Is there something more that Chinese suppliers should be aware of?

http://www.sunchineinspection.com/initial-sourcing-phase-advice-to-chinese-suppliers/
Article Source: qualityinspection