In our last article, we talked about the most common defects and their classifications. Quality issues happen a lot in manufacturing, even if you are an experienced buyer and have a reliable factory. What to do with the defective goods and how to improve the quality of your next order are important questions to ask yourself if you want to have a good quality product. Let’s start from the very beginning. If you want to improve your supplier, first you need to pick a supplier who is willing to improve. Sounds easy, but picking the right manufacturer is a hard job.
A factory audit is the first step of any successful supply chain. The best way to get an idea of a supplier’s ability to manufacture your product is to go to the factory or hire a professional third-party company to perform an audit. Factory audits are generally conducted based on internationally accepted ISO 9001 quality management standards and reveal all information on your future manufacturer, including:
Does the factory have the necessary legal licenses and certifications?
Does it have the right equipment to produce your product?
Do they use suitable raw materials and components?
Does the manufacturer have proper facilities and enough staff?
Do they have a proper quality management system in place (IQC, IPQC, OQC)
And the most important for this topic, will the factory take responsibility for defective products and improve production if necessary?
Factory audits can also be performed for existing suppliers to find weak points and improve supplier performance.
Even after finding the right factory, don’t forget that defects are an unavoidable part of mass production. If epidemic product defects are found during Du-Pro or Pre-Shipment Inspection, one of the most common actions importers take is to ask the supplier to rework or repair all the defective goods. This also counts for minor defects. Some dirt or glue marks can be cleaned, small scratches polished, barcodes reapplied and threads can be cut. Major defects or safety relevant aspects need proper rework and re-assembly of the unit. Product rework is most suitable for defects that factory workers can easily fix in a short amount of time before shipping your order, trying to send defective goods back to your supplier will cost you time and money, not to mention it is hardly possible to do.
One of the smart things to do is to have a written agreement or better contract with your factory which will include a re-inspection policy and chargebacks for defective products. If the first quality inspection revealed many defective products that needed rework, you might want to include this in your new contract with the factory. Re-inspections are often needed after either your first inspection failed or there were numerous products that required rework. You might consider adding the following points to your contract:
The supplier will be responsible for re-inspection costs, including third-party quality control inspections.
The supplier will pay a penalty for shipping defective products if the amount of those exceeds the regulations written in your contract.
The supplier will replace any defective units found during an inspection if the amount of those exceeds the regulations written in your contract.
These three pieces of advice will help with your supplier development and improve the quality of your product. It’s up to you to take action to address quality issues and prevent their recurrence.
