When developing promotional items to create brand awareness, quality is everything. In fact, poor quality promotional items can actually do more harm than good - and this is where quality control in manufacturing comes into focus.
Maybe your brand colors don't match, or the logo you spent hours perfecting looks a little “off” on the promotional t-shirts. Sometimes even the font doesn't come out right.
Quality control services can stop small defects like these from reaching potential customers and protect the image of your brand. This post will help you elevate the quality of your brand’s promotional merchandise.
Quality Control Tips for Brand Image
Gaining control of your brand image is not as difficult as might seem. By following the tips below, you can remove many of the challenges you face and be on your way to elevating your brand’s presentation.
- Create a quality control checklist for any merchandise your company is producing. It should specify the material requirements, weight and dimensions, color codes, labeling, and anything else that is important to your brand image.
- Consolidate manufacturers as much as possible. If you have multiple factories producing merchandise for your brand, there is bound to be some discrepancy. Working with a single vendor makes for better quality control.
- Perform a supplier audit. Are you working with factories that have the same quality standards as your company? Performing a preliminary audit of any manufacturing partners will help you weed out low-quality service providers.
3 Quality Control Inspections for Branded Promotional Products
Pre-production inspection (PPI)
The main aim of a pre-production inspection is to limit any potential delays or quality concerns. First, verify your supplier is ready for production and can deliver the agreed standard on time. This means going out and physically inspecting the supplier's factory, equipment, and raw materials beforehand. A pre-production inspection will help you answer the following questions:
- Did the supplier understand your product specification?
- What is the condition of the materials?
- Does the supplier have all materials ready for production to start soon?
- Are the machinery and factory facilities capable and ready to start production?
During Production Inspection (DUPRO)
Also known as an Inline Product Inspection (IPI), a DUPRO is conducted when 10 to 60 percent of your product has already been manufactured, and packaging has begun. This inspection provides an opportunity to address any defective issues or requirements that were not met at an earlier stage. The ISO 2859-1 (ANSI/ASQC Z1.4-2003) sampling procedure randomly selects a sample of the finished products. Here are a few things that are checked during an IPI inspection:
- Are there any critical defects that would make the product unusable?
- Does the manufactured product meet all the requirements specified?
- What is the current production status?
- Will the supplier be able to deliver on time?
Pre-shipment Inspection (PSI)
This is the last inspection phase of quality control. As the name suggests, it is done to verify that the finished goods meet quality standards before being shipped out. Usually, the inspectors will use a standard checklist combined with your specific requirements, confirming whether the products have checked all the boxes. Here are the things that are checked during a PSI inspection:
- Do the products pass all function and safety tests?
- Is the total order quantity ready for shipment: finished and packed?
- Does the manufactured product meet all the requirements specified?
Don’t Let Quality Control Issues Hurt Your Brand!
At Asia Quality Focus, our goal is to provide our clients with the tools and guidance they need to manage quality control. If you are looking to invest in promotional products like branded t-shirts, mugs, pens, etc, feel free to contact us today.
