China Product Quality

A sourcing agent working out of Shenzhen recently asked me for some advice. He just moved to China and he is going to do his first QC inspections for one of his clients.

This post is about re-inspections following a rejection for quality issues. Not about second inspections that are booked because the first inspection was impossible to carry out (e.g. because a last-minute problem delayed all production, and nothing could be checked).

Some importers have been buying from China for many years, and yet they have never done quality control in a professional manner. The science behind inspection protocols seems complex–nearly intimidating. Buyers don’t know where to start, and they don’t know how their suppliers will react.

I exhibited at a few trade shows and I talked to hundreds of importers. I noticed that many of them don’t have their products inspected at all. Another thing I noticed is that they have not really thought about it. It sounds like they can choose a supplier, arrange the payment and the freight, pay for import duties, and “the job is done”.

These days I am exhibiting on a trade show (China Sourcing Fair in Hong Kong).

This week my company had a booth on a China Sourcing Fair. I noticed that some questions/remarks came back regularly. A few days ago I wrote about importers who ask us the contacts of good factories. Another hot topic was how easily a supplier bribes an inspector.

Some importers can afford to conduct business in a friendly way with their Chinese suppliers. I am thinking of buyers who give regular orders to a few stable vendors, who don’t work under intense timing pressure, and who enjoy a large degree of flexibility (for example, they keep a safety stock in their warehouse).

Foreign buyers coming to China should worry of three types of risks when it comes to the actions of their suppliers:

• Some Chinese suppliers are guilty of wishful misconduct such as scams, for example to get a buyer's deposit or hide the identity of the manufacturer. These situations are listed in How to tell if a Factory is Cheating you, on the Quality Wars blog.

Small importers tend to have the feeling that buying from a large factory is more expensive but more reassuring. There is some truth regarding the higher prices, but risks are not necessarily lower. Buyers should be aware of the different dynamics at play here.

As all sourcing professionals will admit, finding the right supplier is the most important step for successful China production. But how can buyers evaluate the probability that a given factory will deliver acceptable products without delay? They should perform factory audits to approve each manufacturing facility.

Most Chinese manufacturers are not aware of the quality requirements of foreign consumers. I think anybody who has spent some time here in factories to fix production issues has come to this conclusion.

Some inexperienced buyers learn about letters of guarantee, and they think it is the best thing since sliced bread. It costs nothing and it puts pressure on the supplier to deliver acceptable quality!

A couple of Chinese "executives" were recently found guilty in Seattle Federal Court of having imported and distributed adulterated (well it at least sounds like adulterer) and mislabeled honey into the United States.

At InTouch, we inspect and verify hundreds of shipments and factories every month. From our experience as the liaison between overseas buyers and Chinese suppliers, we know one thing well: whoever holds the money holds the power.

Here is a perfect example of why you need to inspect your goods before they leave the China border.