Inspection means examining the products and processes in detail to find out any pertaining defects and flaws respectively. MIL-STD 105 E has a derivative standard as ISO 2859 which describes inspection as an action that measures, analyzes and tests the feature(s) of the product or service and derives results, these results are then compared with standard features provided before placing the order, this is done to justify if product/service has prescribed feature(s) in it or not. The inspection is done via inspection officers, who have checklists with them and are responsible for the comparison of activities being committed by the suppliers and actions they are obliged to commit to the quality standards.
In Asia, quality inspection services deal with all types of inspection in order to meet the quality compliance standards like ISO 9001 etc. where the inspection includes Product Inspection in the form of preproduction, during production and post-production inspection; Factory Audit in the form of performance, patents and legal documentation, production plan capacity and labor force capabilities; and Product Testing in the form of feedbacks and improvements asked by the customers. A glance of quality inspection in Asia is given below.
Product Inspection
Product Inspection is done in order to save the money that is often wasted due to defective and low quality production causing manufacturer a huge financial and reputational loss. The product inspection is done to make sure final product meets all quality standards and is according to the specifications mentioned by the buyer. The raw material, plant capacity, during production defects, final product features, labor force making the product and environment of the production plant – all are analyzed deeply in order to make sure the production is safe and efficient. The product inspection is majorly carried out in the form of preproduction inspection, during production inspection or DUPRO, after production inspection, overall production monitoring and control, pre-shipment inspection and truck loading inspection.
Factory Audit Programs
Factory Audit is conducted in order to verify whether a chosen supplier is a right choice or not. After the advent of social media and globalization, putting online/physical orders is easy but tracking orders and reading profiles of suppliers is not easy. The suppliers can take advantage of this thing and can run fake business units with no existence resulting in a big loss for the customer. Therefore Factory Audit programs are executed, to make sure the supplier is not a fraud, the business activity is not a scam and the production capacity meets the order level. The supplier is certified after the complete social audit and the production performance is evaluated. There is no potential risk of working with chosen supplier due to the supplied orders record.
The factory audits are done both with the help of the internal team and third-party company. The factory audits usually include the social compliance audits, security audits and quality audits where the manufacturing is audited. Ethical considerations for workers and buyers are double checked, the structure of factory is validated and the environment is observed if it has suitable working conditions for the workers and product can be produced there safely and efficiently.
Product Testing
The product testing is done to find out if the product is not meeting customer demands or the quality standards. The quality standards observed here may include domestic rules only and if the product has to enter the international market then international regulations are also examined keenly. The product testing is usually done in labs in the premises of business concern and it is also analyzed the product is user-friendly and is safe to be used by the customer. Product testing also educates the suppliers about product categories like which products are exportable and what are their rules and regulations that must be followed while producing and shipping the product. The certified laboratory experts test the product in the laboratory and after the testing, reports are generated in order to verify the quality and durability of the product.