Manufacturing and Quality Control blog

As a buyer half a world away, there is nothing more frustrating than your supplier’s factory manager giving you a hard time with production. This situation may happen more often than you’d like. But before you decide to play hardball and threaten to take your business elsewhere, take a deep breath and relax. With this in mind, here are three tips to help you deal with a difficult factory manager.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

How is one supposed to go about finding suppliers in China? In this article, we break down the process of finding a supplier into 5 easy steps.

Topics: Sourcing

Meeting your supplier for the first time is a very important part of the sourcing process, especially in China. However, if you’re not prepared for your visit, you could miss out on making the most of your trip. Here are five tips to help you fully prepare and get the most out of your China business trip.

Topics: Travel Tips & Advice

As a buyer of goods manufactured overseas, have you considered the true cost of product inspections and factory audits? Working with a contract manufacturer is a tricky business – especially if the factory is located on the other side of the world. In this article, we provide the findings and figures to answer these questions.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

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

Have you ever received a shipment only to discover that your goods have been damaged due to improper packaging? That is why verifying packaging during product inspection is just as important as verifying the product inside. In this article we’ll tell you about the five most common packaging tests vital for product inspection to ensure you get the best protection possible for your product.

Topics: Special Inspection Tests

How can you be confident about working with a new supplier without carrying out an audit or, at the very least, visiting the factory? Unlike a social compliance audit, which focuses heavily on working conditions, a supplier review mainly evaluates a supplier’s quality management system and relies on ISO 9001 standards. Here are five key findings that a buyer can expect from a professionally-conducted supplier review.

Topics: Manufacturing Tips & Advice

Social compliance means that the factory meets its social obligation concerning working conditions, worker’s health insurance and labor practices. A social compliance audits investigate factories to make sure they are consistently within the ethical framework of standards. In this article, we discuss a few of the benefits to importers that conduct a social compliance audit, aside from helping to protect factory workers from unsafe working conditions.

Topics: Social Compliance

How can you be sure the quality inspectors tasked with verifying your products are qualified? Have you wondered about how QC companies hire their QC staff? In this article, we highlight the recruitment process for quality inspectors.

Topics: Quality Q&A

As a buyer that has hired or considered hiring third-party QC for inspections or a factory audit, have you ever wondered how your instructions and requirements reach the person that carries out the service? In this article, we break down the structure of a typical QC company into the four key positions directly involved in making sure your products are inspected efficiently.

Topics: QC Processes and Terminology