I spent about a year in China developing a quality control system for a foreign company, so I thought I'd write a little about the industry and what the third party inspection services process is, as well as why it's essential if your business is to succeed.

Why Inspect?

There are obvious economic benefits to producing your goods in China, but you must also be very aware of quality issues that may arise. Although the racist comments of the past about poor quality goods being produced in China were more American propaganda than hard facts, there are still quality control issues that are a serious concern to companies no matter where a product is made. The issue is simply amplified in China because of the remoteness of the factory, extreme language barriers, and lack of strict governmental controls.

The American government alone publicises hundreds of quality issues every month of product recalls, and thats only when they pose a serious threat to the safety of users - in most cases, defective products rarely trigger an entire recall. A recall of major consumer brands can often harm the brands sales by as much as 5% over the coming years, but even on a smaller scale defective products that don't trigger a recall can still seriously harm your brand in the eyes of consumers. To avoid these problems, companies use a variety of inspection and globe valve inspection services methods we will discuss later.

The solution is to use a local inspection company in China that you can trust to provide prompt and accurate quality assurances.

Quality Assurance Methodology:

There are various checks that can be performed throughout the production process, not all that relate to the product themselves. Let's take a moment to examine some of the standard tests.

Failure Testing: Otherwise known as stress testing. This test involves repeating the same action hundreds of times - for example: opening the door on a cupboard, applying pressure equivalent to a human body on a chair.

Conformance: Whether the product conforms to specification supplied by the purchaser. These are usually in the form of drawings, colouration charts etc.

Internal Testing Checks: Non destructive testing services does not just involve the inspector on inspection day, it is in fact a constant process that the factory is responsible for itself. Come inspection day, the inpsector will determine whether or not these internal checks and testing are actually being performed.

Employee Conditions: Any respectable company will have set certain conditions that they expect factories to comply with regarding pay and working conditions. One basic example might be whether child workers are being employed or whether sufficient breaks are given and holiday time is being used. This is a contentious issue though, and human factors cannot always be reliably confirmed.

How is a basic check performed?

Once the work order is placed, a qualified engineer will be sent out to the factory in question - often unannounced. The engineer will randomly choose a box of products, and then box will be opened and examined. Those products will be checked initially against a checklist of specified factors - size, colour, button placements etc. There will then be further testing using specialised equipment to test for more specific problems like electrical current leakage.

What is failure tolerance?

When production companies are given a work order, the contract actually specifies a failure tolerance rate. No production run can be perfect, there will always be human errors or machine imperfections in plastic mouldings etc - but the failure tolerance rate determines what percentage of imperfections in the product are tolerated before the contract has been legally breached. For example, a 10% failure rate would mean during testing it is OK to find 1 out of every 10 products is defective in some way.

What do companies do when an inspection fails?

If a shipment fails to meet required valve inspection report and inspection standards, the company is legally entitled to reject the shipment. Outright rejections are uncommon, however they do occur. The more likely result would be a "fix request", whereby key components are remade or repolished, resprayed etc. This is of course only possible where a fix can be made, like surface colorations. More basic problems like faulty electrics might require an entirely new production.

I hope that's taught you a little about the production quality control process that companies go through. Just one word of warning though - a lot of quality assurance companies in China will provide just as shoddy services as the factories they purport to check. If you are looking for a professional company to perform these services in China for you, then I personally recommend this China Inspection company.

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