A factory audit is the best way to check the quality of a supplier before you purchase from them. It helps you identify any problems that may arise, such as poor quality, late deliveries or faulty products. Guangdong province is worth 1/3rd of the Chinese exports. Guangdong Inspection is a reputed inspection company in China with offices in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, helping SMEs to lower purchase risks while dealing with Chinese manufacturers. With offices in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, we cover all Guangdong business area when it comes to evaluate your Chinese suppliers and factories.
- Pre-shipment audit
Pre-shipment audits are performed to make sure that the supplier is following all requirements of the buyer. The pre-shipment audit can be performed by a third party or by your in-house team.
Pre-shipment audits are usually done in multiple stages, including:
- A pre-shipment inspection (PSI) – this is where an independent third party inspects your supplier’s facilities and processes to ensure they’re up to standard before you send them products;
- A final PSI – this is when you run another independent inspection session after receiving their final product;
- An end of line audit – this involves checking if everything has been shipped correctly and on time, as well as ensuring that all the issues (if there is any) detected in the previous inspections have been resolved.
- On-site process audit
An on-site factory audit is the most comprehensive type of supplier evaluation. It’s conducted by an independent third party and involves inspections of all aspects of your supplier’s facilities, including equipment and processes used in production, quality control procedures, and management practices.
The purpose of an on-site factory audit is to show you how effective your supplier is at achieving their goals–and it can provide you with valuable information about what steps they should take in order to improve their performance. For example:
- How well do they manage their inventory? Are orders being fulfilled promptly enough? Do they have enough space inside the facility for additional employees or machinery if needed?
- Is there evidence that suppliers follow safety protocols when handling hazardous materials (such as cleaning chemicals), related to those materials’ use during production activities at the facility itself (e.g., using gloves when working around those chemicals).
- Post-shipment audit
A post-shipment audit is a quality check on the goods after they have been shipped. It can be done by either the client or supplier, but it’s important to make sure that you’re getting an independent third party to conduct your audits.
Post-shipment audits are a good way to check for quality issues before they happen, such as:
- Incomplete information on the product description sheet (PDS)
- Missing parts or substandard materials
- First incident audit (FIA)
FIA is a type of audit that’s used to evaluate the reliability, quality and safety of a supplier’s facilities. It involves an inspection team from your company who are trained to spot potential problems in the factory.
The main benefit of FIA is that it can help you identify any potential issues before they become big enough for your business to suffer major losses. For example, if there are many instances where parts aren’t correctly assembled or finished correctly, this could lead to accidents at work sites or even loss of life if someone were injured during assembly process (e.g., using incorrect materials).
- Second incident audit (SIA)
A second incident audit (SIA) is conducted when a supplier fails to meet the requirements of an FIA. The purpose of this type of audit is to evaluate the supplier’s corrective actions and determine if they are effective in preventing future accidents from occurring.
The SIA report should be made available to all suppliers who were part of that specific SIA, along with any other relevant documents or records related to your relationship with them.
A factory audit is the best way to check the quality of a supplier before you purchase from them
Apart from inspecting the products, factory audit also includes social compliance audit and environmental audit. Social compliance audit inspects that a healthy, safe and ethical work environment is maintained. Environmental audit is all about assessing the supplier’s environmental performance is in sync with the compliance with local environmental laws and regulations.
Reputed inspection companies in China can conduct factory audit for both new and existing suppliers, but it’s especially useful if you’ve had trouble with your current supplier in the past. If there are the problems with your current manufacturer, then a factory audit will help you identify those problems so that they don’t happen again. It will help improve both your own quality assurance processes as well as those of the factory.
Conclusion
The value of a factory audit is that it’s a unique way to look at your supplier from a different perspective. By evaluating the quality of their processes and equipment, you can make sure you’re getting what you need from them. And if an audit reveals problems with process or equipment, it could help prevent future issues in your supply chain.
