Manufacturing and Quality Control blog

A lot of buyers express frustration in getting accurate information from their supplier. Supplier miscommunication can lead to shipping delays, quality problems and a host of other issues. Communication by phone, email or even through a face-to-face meeting at the factory can leave a lot of room for interpretation. Maybe your supplier is unwittingly sending you the wrong message.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

Many importers worry about meeting commitments they’ve made to their customers. What’s the solution? Product inspection helps importers meet deadlines.

Topics: Product Inspection

One of the most common reasons for quality control inspections to FAIL is surprisingly simple and has nothing to do with the actual item you are buying from a factory. “Poor”, “damaged” or “inadequate” packaging are all possible culprits for failed inspection. Packaging is also the most common bit of production that will be subcontracted out to other companies, since most buyers choose suppliers based on their ability to make the actual item they want to sell instead of their capacity to make paper or plastic packaging.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

How can you be sure you are getting the quality materials you want in your product? The substitution of original quality materials for cheaper, lower quality ones is an unfortunate but very recurring problem in products made in China and elsewhere. So let’s look more closely at leather for the sake of breaking down product inspection and lab testing for quality of materials .

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice, Lab Testing

It is no secret that China has been one of the world’s largest sources of knockoff products for years. As a buyer how can you be sure that you are not getting what is essentially a knockoff of your own product? Here is how supplier verification can help you keep up with your product’s quality and avoid any low quality materials from sneaking onto the assembly floor.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

There are many different frameworks you can use to conduct a social compliance audit. The questions these frameworks use and the areas they focus on also differ. In this article, we'll tell you about four common areas where we typically find social compliance infractions.

Topics: Social Compliance

Have you considered some of the issues that can arise when a cookware item fails during use? Enamel can chip off. Handles on a skillet can come apart. Appliance can short circuit or catch fire. In this article, you'll learn about some of the common types of product testing commonly performed for cookware.

Topics: Special Inspection Tests

Have you ever received an inspection report from your China QC team and not been clear about the severity of a particular quality defect found in your order? If you’re like most buyers, you’ve probably had trouble being sure about a defect just by looking at a photograph in a report. You might have wished you could actually look at the defective product in person to be sure about whether or not it’s serious. Having samples of defects sealed on-site during inspections can be an invaluable resource to you as the buyer.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

How affective is product inspection in China really? How far does quality inspection go in making sure the products you receive meet your requirements? In this article, we’re going to be frank about the true value that quality control inspections deliver to your products. .

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

Booking a product inspection at one of your suppliers, particularly in China and other East Asian countries, is rarely so easy. And assuming that inspection will be booked smoothly the moment your 3rd-party QC company and supplier have been introduced is one of the most common mistakes made by buyers. In this article you’ll learn about three factors that affect scheduling a product inspection and ways you can minimize their influence.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice