Third Party Inspection
Third party inspection or TPI is common terms heard by suppliers and buyers. TPI is responsible for making sure that supplier is capable enough to deliver the order mentioned by the buyer on time and in good condition. There could be many reasons that can cause the late and defected order delivery. It is the duty of the buyer to be sure that the demanded order will be available on time and in required acceptable quality.
This surety is assured by taking the aid of TPI so that the team of qualified inspectors visit the supplier, observe his production unit, make sure products are being made under required features and will be delivered on time. TPI is then responsible for any miss-commitment.
Benefits of TPI for Importers
Third party inspection provides importers with the following benefits.
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Unbiased Inspection
Since third party itself is not a supplier or a buyer, it is just an outsider who is providing services to the hiring party. Therefore it generates neutral reports after inspecting production units and product quality at manufacturing plants. It highlights the areas of improvements and suggests how to minimize the present errors if found any. In this way, buyers know the uncertainties pre-hand and suppliers have time to amend the mistakes.
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Pre Shipment Inspection
Defected pieces when shipped to buyers are returned to the suppliers at a great cost. Pre-shipment inspection can help in this case and can mitigate the loss of time and money. Wastage of time and money can be as; The waiting time of arriving goods, after shipment inspection of goods, repacking defected pieces, returning goods time, waiting time of arriving fresh shipment and then the waiting time from the consumer. All adds up to create a panic situation for the buyers and pre-shipment inspection can help in increasing the efficiency. This all is quite hectic especially if it involves cost and repute of buyer as well. Moreover, the final consumer can cancel the order as well. Therefore to save this uncertainty, third-party quality inspection can aid by checking the shipment before reaching the dock or airport.
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During Process Inspection (DPI)
Any defect passed onto the end product can result in overheads and loss. An inspection during the process of production is referred to as During Process Inspection or DPI. The production process at the shop floor is analyzed at each step. Starting from the raw material and covering the entire process until it reaches the end product. DPI can identify the weakness of the company at any point in the process and inform the buyers regarding the strength and the weakness of the supplier. So, during production inspection can save a lot of time and enhance the productivity.
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Proper Identification of Production Issues and Cost Cutting
The in-house team of buyers cannot identify detailed issues in the products and production process. The experienced team already know the product technical details and process flow, therefore, TPI does not go for deviation and remains to the point while identifying errors. If the buyer sends their own team to have a quality check on supplier then it can make buyer bear training cost, travel cost, residential cost and hiring new staff cost that can work in absence of current staff. Also, this involves much time as the in-house team often does not know details of supplier set up before visiting the place so it takes much time in introductory sessions. Therefore TPI is suitable for such scenarios.
Also, read about Quality Inspection in Textile Industry
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Value-added Communication with Suppliers
Often the TPI team is local and knows the language of suppliers, therefore in case of foreign trade, the TPI supports a lot while disclosing actual demand of buyer to the supplier. This minimizes the communication gaps and present right views and right feedbacks. This is how buyers and suppliers develop strong, smooth and long-lasting relationships for later trade as well.
Conclusion
The overall third-party inspection is the transparent process and it helps the importer in many ways by making him to avoid inspection burden by himself. It saves time, cost and human resource for the buyer. It also helps to present actual scenarios to the buyers and suppliers like what buyer wants and what supplier can provide.
Third party companies have qualified and experienced inspectors who can dig in detail the issues and error prior their occurrence so that the finished goods do not have those errors. This helps buyers to trust a supplier for bulk orders especially if suppliers are located outside the country.
The buyers can look up a whole progress report online from their own premises by trusting on the third-party company’s so this saves their visits and travel costs. Therefore, these inspection companies are considered important while going for international orders.