Our engineer goes on-site to your supplier’s factory around the time they say they’re almost ready to start mass production and checks if they are truly ready to start production with the minimum of risks.

Ideally, it takes place during a pilot run, on the same production lines, with the same people and the same equipment as mass production. If the manufacturer is not planning to do a pilot run, it takes place just before the first batch starts, and depending on the situation and the risks to cover it may last for a few days.

When it comes to most assembly operations we’ll generally check the following points for you:

• Training – Have operators been trained and do they have clear and simple work instructions and an understanding of your quality standard?
  Are the process engineers clear and confident on all processes (any not obvious, not easy, tiring…) and have they already made some prototypes before?
  Do testers and inspectors have a clear quality standard and have been trained to it?
  Testing jigs are ready and have been tested on good and bad products with clear and obvious results?
• Assembly line setup – Is there enough capacity for your planned order size and its schedule?
  Has the work been broken down into several operations to be done on a line which is more productive than it remaining in one place with different people bringing materials to it?
  Will the materials flow one piece at a time?
  Are operators likely to keep semi-finished products together at their stations which risks getting them mixed up?
  Will all assembly, testing, packing, and inspection jobs be done on the same line (or connected lines), or will they have to be transported across the factory?
  Are nonconforming materials segregated from the rest of them, for example in red containers?
• Materials delivery to the line – Are the production materials and packaging available on site? If not, is this being followed up on and are there issues to be concerned about?
  Will materials need to be prepared (e.g. kitted) before delivery from the warehouse to save on space at the lines?
  Are production operators replenished by logistics staff so they don’t have to pause working to obtain more materials?
• Management – Has the production control planner done their plan based on standard times that were set up for this product?
  Will scrap and rework be accounted for?
  Is the line leader trained, with a good understanding of the operations and the quality standard?

These points give you a fairly good idea of what we examine during a production readiness check in order for you to be confident to give the green light to your supplier.

However, what we check depends on the situation we find. Typically, the manufacturer cannot give a very precise timing estimate, since those validation runs are meant to uncover issues… which can block manufacturing and take time to address & fix.

It means we have to be flexible and check what can be observed and analyzed on our visit.

Here are a few examples.

• The factory may have already started assembling, testing, and maybe even packing the final product, and we can review all those processes. We can estimate capacity at that point in time, as well as the first pass yield. We point to the critical & major issues that need to be addressed.
• In many cases, production gets suspended or cannot even start because of a blocking issue at one process. We can go over the main issues and discuss them with factory representatives. We can review the factory’s incoming, in-process, and outgoing inspection approaches, including measuring instruments calibration, etc.
• In some cases, the factory is quite behind schedule, and we are left to check some of the critical components that have already arrived. We review the factory’s incoming QC approach. And we draw a list of the most common defects in the components.

We work with you and with the manufacturer to adjust the schedule so that our presence in the factory brings you the most benefits.