The trend of outsourcing production to another country is increasing day by day. Countries in Asia, particularly China, have seen immense growth in their industry as a result of importers from countries like the United States setting up their manufacturing units in these countries to significantly cut down costs.
However, the focus for consumers still remains on the quality of the products, regardless of where they are produced. For new or inexperienced importers, the process of quality control still remains a mystery- a complex process that intimidates most importers.
They do not know where to start in the process, or how to go about in most steps. But keeping in mind how important the process of quality control is, the following guide breaks down the very basics of quality control in 4 very simple steps.
Make sure you are Clear about what Results you want
If you want to hire an inspection team to inspect your items before shipment, it is essential to first know clearly what quality standards you expect your supplier to meet.
This is especially important for made-to-order items that are manufactured specifically according to your requirements, as opposed to standard items that you might pick off of the shelf to inspect and decide upon whether or not you want to purchase it. In such a case, your decision of whether or not to purchase the item depends upon a number of factors, including the price or other aesthetic features.
But if you wish to maintain quality in your made-to-order products, then you must provide your quality inspectors with a clear manual to go about their inspection. To make inspection even easier for your quality inspection team, it is highly recommended to have a ‘golden sample’ of the products so that there is a standard benchmark of quality against which all the other pieces are compared.
Do not Focus Entirely on Final Inspections
Final inspections may seem like a good idea to you to make sure the final touches are in order before the products are shipped; these are particularly helpful to make sure of the packaging used, the quantity as well as a final word on the quality of the products.
However, relying on final inspection alone as a tool to make sure your products are in-line with the specifications that you have ordered is a rather dangerous idea. Why? Well, think of it this way. If your inspection team finds some smalls errors with the final products, say for example that each carton has the wrong number of items in it, then this can be quickly corrected by the staff.
However, if the problem found is a much more serious one, such as an underlying flaw in the initial stages of the production process, then the task of correcting this problem is a much more complex one. Not only will it take more time to fix this, which might result in missing any deadlines that you have set to ship the products, but will also be much more costly.
In contrast, had you sent your inspection team to regularly inspect the production process in different stages, any defective process can be identified earlier on in the process and corrected immediately without incurring additional losses.
Think Carefully about how you want to Carry out your Inspections
When signing the initial contract with your supplier, you may be presented with an array of options regarding quality inspections and how you wish to go about them. You may be given an option to skip inspection on some shipments, as well as to choose what timing would be appropriate to carry out these inspections. This is the time to carefully decide upon your approach.
It is also very important to not see quality inspection as an option that you might or might not go with; in fact, successful importers see their quality inspection team as an extension of themselves. The following are some of the standard points that thousands of importers around the globe follow as a standard practice:
- You should write “Quality inspection required prior to shipment” on your P/Os.
- When you develop new products, ask extra samples for the inspector’s use.
- Keep track of the final inspection date and the shipment date, not just the shipment date
Try to Help the Supplier- not Intimidate them
An importer can be cooperative and helpful, or tough and intimidating. To be a successful business, you need to find and strike the right balance in order to make sure that your quality concerns are fulfilled while keeping up cordial relations with your supplier.
The tough way: a complete focus on final inspections being carried out strictly
The buyer keeps a very rigid attitude towards the buyer; he either gets his say or there is no deal. There is a system in place that charges penalties to the supplier if there are any delays or defects regarding the quantity produced. This approach is suitable for relatively large buyers who have adequate power to negotiate and charge penalties.
The easy way: a focus on in-line inspections
It comes as no surprise that inspections carried out during the production process causes much less adversarial tension, and do not cause the suppliers major timing pressure as well.
This can only be possible when there are cordial relationships between the buyer and the supplier, so that the final inspection process may be a bit less formal and pressuring. So there you have it, the first four things that you should keep in mind when planning to carry out quality control.