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Quality Inspections Guide: Minimize Risk, Maximize Quality [Podcast]

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Welcome to the 263rd episode of China Manufacturing Decoded! This episode marks a special milestone—four full years of insightful discussions aimed at eliminating uncertainty in manufacturing, quality control, and other areas in China and Asia.

In this episode, we dive into the world of quality inspections. It doesn’t matter if you’re manufacturing products in China, India, or elsewhere in Asia; knowing when and how to inspect your products can save you from costly mistakes and quality issues down the line. We’ll break down the key types of inspections, when to use them, and how to make informed decisions that protect your business.

sofeast product quality inspection flowchart mar 25

 

Listen to the episode here

Listen: to the podcast episode

Watch: on YouTube

 

Episode sections

  • [00:00] – Introduction
  • [02:57] – Why Quality Inspections Matter
  • [05:59] – When and How to Conduct Quality Inspections if the factory has made the product before
  • [13:35] – What manufacturers of expensive products should focus on
  • [17:48] – When and How to Conduct Quality Inspections if the factory has NOT made the product before
  • [24:30] – How the risk analysis influences quality inspections
  • [28:00] – Wrapping Up

 

Related content…

 

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How To Reduce Product Inspection Costs?

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How To Reduce Product Inspection CostsOur customers sometimes ask what affects the cost of product inspections. If you’re getting products manufactured in Asia (or anywhere, in fact), you’ll almost certainly be doing some kind of inspection before they’re shipped (we hope) and there’s a cost involved. But if we know what affects the cost, it may be possible to tweak the way we work or do inspections to get the best result at the best cost without increasing quality risks. After all, any saving is better than none!

So, hit play below to listen to insights from Renaud about the factors that can drive up product inspection costs, and ways to improve production processes to reduce the need for as many inspections.

 

Listen here!

Listen: to the podcast episode

Watch: on Youtube

 

Episode sections

  • 01:19 – Today’s topic: QC inspections and how to reduce their cost.
  • 02:46 – Elements from your (the buyer’s) side that drive inspection costs – 1. the product type.
  • 06:33 – Inspecting a bicycle (example).
  • 07:59 – Elements from your (the buyer’s) side that drive inspection costs – 2. ordering patterns.
  • 09:52 – Elements from your (the buyer’s) side that drive inspection costs – 3. the choice of manufacturing facilities and how ‘good’ they are.
  • 10:42 – Inspection processes that drive costs – 1. 100% or random sampling inspection?
  • 12:14 – Inspection processes that drive costs – 2. Should you check every batch or use skip lot inspections?
  • 13:08 – Inspection processes that drive costs – 3. Should you inspect close to the source or when you receive products as an incoming inspection?
  • 15:31 – Approaches you can take to reduce the cost of random sampling inspections.
  • 19:17 – Process engineering for the inspection process can make it more efficient.
  • 24:20 – Quality: Pay me now or pay me later.

 

Related content…

 

Listen, rate, & subscribe to the ‘China Manufacturing Decoded’ podcast on your favorite provider

More episodes are coming, so remember to rate us and subscribe! You can find us on:

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to give us a 5* rating and share it with your network if you enjoy listening!

Using Real Data to Prove the Link between Factory Audits and Better Quality Products [Podcast]

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Using Real Data to Prove the Link between Factory Audits & Better Quality Products.
Sofeast’s CEO Renaud has an interesting guest on this episode: Prof. Neale O’Connor who is a China business and accounting expert and international keynote speaker!

Neale examined lots of Sofeast factory audit, product inspection, and manufacturing project data to determine the relationship between factory audits and good-quality products. He also checked thousands of complaints about Asia-wide suppliers from Global Sources data to work out if there were actions that importers could take to mitigate the chances of being scammed.

In this episode, you’ll hear some very insightful results from his research that can help you source and work with better suppliers, reduce your risks, and avoid scammers!

 

Listen here!

Listen: Factory Audits = Better Suppliers = Better Quality Products. Real Data Analysis! (Feat. Prof. Neale O’Connor FCPA)

Watch On YouTube:

 

Episode sections

  • 00:00 – Greetings, introducing the topic, and our guest, Neale.
  • 02:10 – Why Neale examined hundreds of our factory audits performed pre-covid to find the main patterns.
  • 06:05 -Why product inspections/audits are different?
  • 08:47 – What is the data saying about the incidents of pass/fail/hold aspects in product inspections?
  • 14:11 – What did the data tell us about factory audits?
  • 19:21 – How to reduce the number of factory audits you need to do if you only plan to work with one supplier?
  • 21:23 – What does the data tell us about complex products?
  • 23:47 – The takeaway from the Sofeast data analysis.
  • 24:48 – Four key ways to avoid being scammed by Asian suppliers.
  • 35:14 – Summary and wrapping up.

 

Related content…

 

Listen, rate, & subscribe to the ‘China Manufacturing Decoded’ podcast on your favorite provider

More episodes are coming, so remember to rate us and subscribe! You can find us on:

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to give us a 5* rating and share it with your network if you enjoy listening!

How To Fix Quality Issues After A Failed Inspection? [Podcast]

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How To Fix Quality Issues After A Failed Inspection
Sofeast’s CEO Renaud Anjoran and Adrian from the team are back and talking about something else you don’t want to experience but may if you’re unfortunate. A failed product inspection!

Renaud will explain the process you need to follow to put the problem/s right now, and the corrective and preventive actions you can take to stop them from coming back by finding and fixing the root causes, too. This is a must for importers who want to keep control of their product quality…is that you?

 

Listen here!

Listen: What to do when a product inspection fails?

Watch: Video on YouTube

 

Episode sections

  • 00:00 – Greetings & Topic: What happens if a product inspection is failed?
  • 01:56 – What kind of inspection has been failed?
  • 03:42 – Actions you need to take to fix the problem/s now if a final inspection has been failed.
  • 04:10 – 1. Insist that the manufacturer does NOT ship anything until the matter has been investigated and settled.
  • 05:57 – 2. Examine your quality standard, the situation found by the inspector, and what the cause of the gap between them is.
  • 17:56 – 3. Make the right people at the factory aware of the inspection report in a neutral manner to get their cooperation.
  • 20:43 – 4. Get the manufacturer to fix an issue.
  • 25:12 – 5. Order another inspection before shipment to remove doubt.
  • 26:14 – Preventing the same problem from occurring again in future.
  • 32:54 – In summary.

 

Related content…

 

Listen, rate, & subscribe to the ‘China Manufacturing Decoded’ podcast on your favorite provider

There are more episodes to come, so remember to rate us and subscribe! You can find us on:

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to give us a 5* rating and share it with your network if you enjoy listening!

How To Get Better Quality Products From Suppliers & Optimize QC Inspections? [Podcast]

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How To Get Better Quality Products From Suppliers & Optimize QC Inspections

Sofeast’s CEO Renaud Anjoran and Adrian from the team are back with a topic for importers placing large and valuable orders with their overseas manufacturers and performing many product inspections.

Your inspection budget is no doubt a reasonable size, but what if you could optimize your inspection schedule to reduce costs and get the same results without increasing risk (more than a minimal amount), or get even better results for the same budget by distributing resources differently? Renaud offers some inspection optimization strategies here.

Working with suppliers on making upstream improvements to product designs, factories, processes, etc, is also a great way to reduce quality risks and can help reduce your inspection budget over time as fewer inspections are potentially required. He’ll explain how to do that, too.

 

Listen here!

Listen: How To Optimize QC Inspections & Use Preventive Measures To Get Better Quality Results?

Watch: Video on YouTube

 

Episode sections

  • 00:00 – Greetings
  • 01:05 – Changes to Hong Kong Covid quarantine and news of Covid lockdowns in Yiwu (although not too severe).
  • 11:02 – Today’s topic: How to optimize QC inspections and get better results. Why would a business seek to do this?
  • 16:22 – Adjusting inspection type, severity, and regularity could be a helpful cost-saving exercise.
  • 18:26 – What does a business need to prepare before starting an optimization initiative like this?
  • 23:38 – What information should we gather from the supplier’s side?
  • 35:35 – Which kinds of importers this upstream product development and process optimization is more relevant to?
  • 37:03 – Delegating inspections to the supplier over time (without raising risks, hopefully).
  • 41:56 – Wrap-up.

 

Related content…

 

Listen, rate, & subscribe to the ‘China Manufacturing Decoded’ podcast on your favorite provider

There are more episodes to come, so remember to rate us and subscribe! You can find us on:

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to give us a 5* rating and share it with your network if you enjoy listening!

4 Quality Standard Levels You Should Implement To Reduce Risks [Podcast]

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4 Quality Standard Levels To Implement To Reduce RisksBefore you start working with a manufacturer are you 100% certain that they fully understand your quality expectations? Do they know whether a particular defect is minor or major? If there’s a slight variation, at what point does it become unacceptable?

Without quality standards, a lot of this is guesswork leading to higher costs, delayed shipments, and, ultimately, poor quality products and annoyed customers and suppliers!

Sofeast’s CEO, Renaud, and Adrian from the team discuss the levels of quality standards, from basic to more advanced. Used together, they keep everyone aligned!

 

Listen here!

Listen: Levels of Quality Standards (from Basic to Advanced)

Watch: on Youtube

 

Episode sections

  • 00:00 – Greetings & Introduction
  • 01:03 – What are quality standards?
  • 07:51 – Does every importer implement a clear standard?
  • 10:41 – 1. The golden sample.
  • 16:20 – 2. Specifications sheet.
  • 27:13 – 3. Defect board.
  • 29:23 – 4. Boundary samples.
  • 34:37 – How to handle and keep physical samples safe?
  • 38:19 – Avoiding different conclusions being drawn during inspections by confirming the measurement system to be used, etc.
  • 41:57 – Wrapping up. 

 

Related content…

We’ve created some great resources on this topic – read them here 🤓👇

 

Listen, rate, & subscribe to the ‘China Manufacturing Decoded’ podcast on your favorite provider

There are more episodes to come, so remember to rate us and subscribe! You can find us on:

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to give us a 5* rating and share it with your network if you enjoy listening!

How To set Up Your Receiving Quality Inspection [Podcast]

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How To set Up Your Receiving Quality Inspection

Our CEO Renaud Anjoran, joined by Adrian from the team, explores receiving quality inspections on incoming parts and materials used to manufacture your products.

Consider what would happen if the inputs (components and materials) being used by your manufacturer are not OK? Even if the manufacturer does a great job, you will probably still end up with products with quality and reliability problems.

By doing a receiving quality inspection before parts or materials get to the assembly line we reduce risks by a great deal. 

Keep listening to understand what the inspection is and how to set it up…

 

Listen here!

Listen: How To Set Up A Receiving Quality Inspection?

Watch on Youtube

 

Episode sections

  • 00:00 – Greetings and introduction.
  • 01:02 – Covid in China.
  • 06:28 – What is a receiving quality inspection?
  • 14:11 – Benefits a receiving inspection provides.
  • 16:16 – Some observations about why receiving inspections are needed.
  • 19:22 – How a receiving inspection is made up (5 parts).
  • 21:55 – 1. How to define receiving inspection requirements?
  • 23:59 – 2. How to focus on the most important criteria  (most critical parts and the highest risk)?
  • 26:39 – 3. What incoming inspection procedure to follow?
  • 31:13 – 4. How to report the findings?
  • 33:08 – 5. How to drive improvement in the supplier base?
  • 35:41 – Wrapping up.

 

Related content…

 

Listen, rate, & subscribe to the ‘China Manufacturing Decoded’ podcast on your favorite provider

More episodes are to come, so remember to rate us and subscribe! You can find us on:

If you enjoyed this episode, don’t forget to give us a 5* rating and share it with your network if you enjoy listening!

Electronic Product Inspections For New Products: What’s Appropriate?

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Electronic Product Inspections For New Products What's Appropriate

One of our customers recently asked what kinds of electronic product inspections would be appropriate for their new product. Since a lot of businesses are developing and manufacturing electronic products, let’s explore this interesting topic here…

Continue reading “Electronic Product Inspections For New Products: What’s Appropriate?”

How To Maintain Good Quality When Manufacturing A New Piece Of Apparel?

Posted on by sofeast

How To Maintain Good Quality When Manufacturing A New Piece Of Apparel?Maintaining good product quality when manufacturing a new piece of apparel is a common concern, even when working with a regular manufacturer.

The issue here is that the garment is ‘new,’ and, in this case, new means ‘increased risks.’ Increased risks that the manufacturer will make errors in production, that deliveries might be delayed, or that costs may spiral…and the list goes on.

Examine a couple of suggestions for reducing these risks in this scenario here.

Continue reading “How To Maintain Good Quality When Manufacturing A New Piece Of Apparel?”

My Supplier Didn’t Prepare My Export Packaging For Checking And More… | Disputes With Chinese Suppliers Q&A (Volume 7)

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Disputes with Chinese suppliers Volume 7

What happens if your Chinese supplier hasn’t kept up their end of the bargain when inspections happen? In this case, what can you do if a supplier hasn’t prepared export packaging for checking or performed a package drop test, leaving you unsure if it will protect your products during transit?

Also, how do you use your quality inspection report to drive your supplier to improve and what to do if you do have a quality dispute?

Let’s explore these points in this volume of the ‘disputes with Chinese suppliers’ series where our CEO, Renaud Anjoran, answers your questions…

Continue reading “My Supplier Didn’t Prepare My Export Packaging For Checking And More… | Disputes With Chinese Suppliers Q&A (Volume 7)”