What Buyers Should Look At When Visiting A Factory in China

In this podcast, Renaud and Paul Adams (Sofeast senior engineer) discuss everything that buyers need to know to get a lot out of factory visits to their suppliers' factories.

They cover checking:

• The basics that buyers need to be looking at. A selection of things you need no special training to check, such as the general state of the factory (is it dirty, etc).
• Quality Control basics. What you should look out for regarding the supplier's grasp of QC, such as the tracking of data, etc.
• Documentation. If documentation is in Chinese you may be prevented from checking certain things like procedures, so what can you do in this case?
• Inventory. Is it 'good' to see a busy factory with lots of inventory? What can we learn here?
• Production speed. This affects lead times, so how to check this? How about a production planning system?
• Social compliance. There are audits for CSR, but when sourcing you can evaluate basic supplier compliance, such as fire prevention, emergency exits, etc.
• Engineering capabilities. Why a focus on new product development is important. Can the supplier help you with development? Can they understand your product and blueprints?

 

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