(Don’t miss the extended manufacturing podcast interview with Steve that covers this topic!)
Although an inspection company may be able to arrange services with less than even 24 hours of notice, there are three important advantages to getting them involved earlier in the process. You might even find that you are missing out on a very valuable part of their service!
This is the most important reason to get your inspection company involved early. Scheduling an inspection is not as simple as just showing up at the factory and walking into the warehouse. The following are some key points that need to be addressed before an inspection takes place:
If you think you are really on top of the status of your orders at each supplier…think again! It is widely understood between those in the QC industry that importers generally do not receive accurate information from their suppliers. It is usually very optimistic. This is because factories generally operate with the mindset that there is always “time to catch up” until the order is actually delayed, at which point the factory has to come clean.
This is easily avoided by getting your inspection company involved earlier. If you consider your supplier to be forgetful, but overall very honest, then maybe a few calls leading up to the inspection will serve as sufficient reminder of your order’s importance.
But you may have chronic issues with on-time delivery and generally don’t trust your supplier. In this case, you are much better off scheduling an extra inspection during production or just a regular visit to tour the factory and see what is going on. With clear instructions from you to your supplier, a 3rd-party inspection company can absolutely provide you with this kind of support. Compared to flying across the ocean to visit the factory yourself, imagine how much easier and more cost-effective it would be to send someone to the factory that can speak English and Chinese and provide seamless translation in real time.
Understandably, importers want to share information on an as-needed basis. However, this often means having inspections quoted and approved only at the very last minute once they are 100 percent sure they want to go ahead with the service. If confidentiality is a real concern, then have your inspection partner sign an NDA. The benefits to providing your inspection partner with more information about your order volume include:
Importers that rely extensively on their inspection company for support will see the most benefit by copying them when issuing purchase orders to suppliers. Seeing the PO go through provides an immediate alert to your service provider that there will be inspection in the future and that regular follow up will be required to ensure that happens. For importers that have fairly stable and reliable supplier relationships, at least 2 full weeks of notice prior to the expected inspection/shipment date is recommended.
You can help make sure that your products are inspected when you need them most by providing your inspection company with a list of upcoming open orders. In this way, you benefit by having your QC partner:
Send your inspection company a list of open orders and copy them when issuing POs to your supplier. Staying on top of quality starts with getting your QC people involved early!