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Andy Church insights on Product Inspections Services
- There are product inspections at some stage in the process
- Some Sellers skip inspections all together and just go with samples at pre-order – which Danny says is Nuts
Three Types of Product Inspections
- Top of Production
- At the beginning of a production run
- If issues are found the factory has a chance to fix them before the main production run
- i.e. A coffee mug handle is not the right size to what you specify
- Done at first 10-205 production (500 units produced a day, inspection done at start of the first day’s run)
- Due-pro
- A during production inspection
- Pre-Shipment (or Final Random inspection)
- AQL – the Inspector will select a sampling of the order to inspect
- Not practical to inspect 100% of the order so use an AQL sample inspection
- Most people are do this inspection – it is the most common
- For ecommerce quantity runs a top or due-pro may not be that feasible
- You want to make sure that before shipping, what you receive is as good as the first sample
- Danny advises to get a few samples up front to check quality
Factory Pre-Inspection
- Doing a pre-inspection at the factory
- Get 3-4 pre-samples and keep two, send one back to the factory as an inspection reference and send the 4th to your inspection factory
- Don’t go less than two approval factories
- Beware a ‘golden sample’ where they make a special sample for you that is not representative of the production run
- You want to make sure you get more than one to confirm that the factory can reproduce the high quality that you want in more than one sample
- Make sure the factory is who they say they are and it’s not someone else making this for you and not them – they are a go-between
- Make your vetting good and low risk level
- Ensure sure they are licensed
Psychological Pressure
- If there is an inspection coming it makes the factory take more care
- Quality spend is important
High Risk – Educate yourself
- New products with regulatory requirements
- If you know and trust the supplier and it’s a re-order item
- You may change your risk profile
- Spend your money to maximise your quality and minimise your exposure to risk
- A buyer buying a product they don’t know everything about – what are the common defects/complaints, ask the factory and read the reviews
- An inspection service provider is a resource for items to look at for the factory visit but they won’t know the product inside and out
- It’s a combination of the inspection provider, factory and Buyer that will put a quality inspection ‘checklist’ together to cover everything
- Rely on the factory for common defects when making this product
- Nobody has a crystal ball
- Plastic Moulded products has ‘gate marks’ – a common error to watch for on plastics
- Product specific defects that only the factory is aware of
Negotiating
- Notify the factory that you will be having an inspection
- How do you keep friendly in the negotiation but make it clear the inspections needs to be done
- Setting the tone that products will pass with no problems
- Quality begins with the buy
- Reserve the right to have the goods inspected before your goods are shipped / paid for
- Hold them to the quality of the goods you buy
- Important that up-front the factory knows you’re getting an inspection
- Whether you actually do the inspection or not
What is a defect?
- Work with the factory up-front to agree what a defect is up-front
- Most people pay 30% and then 70% at Port
- Some people pay 5% and the rest when landed in LA, etc
- Working with a new factory risk should be managed
Part 2 coming soon…
