Posts Tagged ‘Quality Inspection’
Top Benefits of Quality Inspection Services for Manufacturing
Did you know that the manufacturing industry was worth around $2.3 trillion as of 2021? The manufacturing industry is one of the most important industries in the world, but it can easily collapse when left unmonitored. Quality assurance is a very important part of any type of manufacturing.
Without quality inspection, it wouldn’t be possible to keep up with any defective products on the assembly line. Most of the products might be fine, but how many have defects? How many should not get shipped out because of these defects?
If problematic products get shipped out, this is bad news for your company. It can give you a reputation for producing low-quality products. You can avoid this issue with quality product inspection.
By using a quality inspection service to keep your products in check, your products will always be in good shape. But what other benefits can you expect from these services? Keep reading and learn more about how it works below.
Look Out for First Article Inspections
Product defects can happen very early in the production process. Less than 5% of your products might get produced at this point. Many people don’t pay much mind to this part of the manufacturing process because it’s so early.
But this is when major defects can start happening. Once defects start occurring so early, it may be hard to catch them later on until it’s too late. Once this happens, it might be impossible to fix the issue, and you’ll have countless defective products being shipped out.
Products become defective for many different reasons. The machines that create them may not work properly, or they may get misaligned. The product materials may be low-quality, or they might have gotten damaged in some way.
First article inspections can help catch defects that happen very early on in the manufacturing process. Whatever is produced in this early stage will be compared to what is supposed to get produced.
There will need to be an approved sample for this.
The Details
If your early products match this approved sample, then they’ll be good to go to the next stage of production. But if there are defects that prevent the products from matching, they will not proceed.
This ensures that defective products don’t go through unnecessary stages of development. The products will instead fit the rest of the production process. If there are any other inspections in the future, these products will pass them as well.
These inspections are very important for high-risk products. Some products may be more prone to defects than others. If you often have problems with these products, then these early inspections can be a big help.
This can save you a lot of time and money.
Pre-shipping Inspections
You need to set an acceptable quality level (AQL) for your products. As long as your products meet this level, they’ll be fine to get shipped out. If they fall below this level, they are too defective and low-quality to leave the manufacturing site.
While first article inspections can help reduce defective products, they can’t get rid of all of them. Defective products may appear later on in the manufacturing process. This would prevent first article inspections from catching them.
This is why you should have several inspections throughout the product manufacturing process. An important option is a pre-shipping inspection. This allows you to get one last look at your products before they’re shipped out.
How It Works
If there is a batch that falls below your AQL, it will have to get discarded or repurposed. There will always be a certain number of defects within a batch. It is sometimes alright to let some of those defects through.
But you should have a defect limit. How many defective products are too many? If your product batch is small, you might not want there to be any more than ten or so defective products.
If your batch is very large, it might be fine to have a hundred or more defective products. If quality is very important to you, you might insist on having a very low number of defective products, though this can be hard to achieve.
Certain types of defects might also be allowed, while others are not. Pre-shipping inspections can gather all this information for you. This makes it easy to get the results you want for your shipments.
Defect Sorting and Product Reworking
Once defects are detected, something has to be done with them. Some manufacturers prefer to discard or destroy their defective products. Others prefer to rework the products until they pass the AQL.
A quality inspection service can help you with both of these possibilities. Defect sorting allows you to learn more about your defective products. You can discover why they became defective and how you can prevent the same problems in the future.
This can also help you avoid delays and extra costs. This allows the manufacturing process to be far more efficient. If there are repeat issues in the process, a quality inspection service can help you eliminate those issues.
You can then refurbish or repair what you have to improve the process further.
The Benefits of Quality Inspection Services
Quality inspection services are ideal if you want to ensure that your products are high-quality. You can weed out defective products early on with first article inspections. You can then determine how many defects are remaining with pre-shipping inspections.
This allows you to closely monitor the number of defects and the quality of your products. Are you ready to improve your product quality? Check out how our services can help.
Can We Trust 3rd-Party Quality Control Services in China?
When you’re considering outsourcing your manufacturing to China, you may want to consider having an 3rd-party quality control (QC) agency check and test your products before they are shipped out of the country. But product quality Chinese suppliers provide can really vary sometimes. In order to combat this, manufacturers hire 3rd-party quality control services to inspect their product before they are shipped. But can we really trust them?
The importance of quality control in Chinese manufacturing
Generally speaking, quality control is essential for any manufacturing process, but it is especially important in China. If a company is not careful with its QA practices and starts producing poor-quality products, then the costs will skyrocket and profitability will fall dramatically.
For example, if a company produces one thousand defective units of product per day to be sold at $6 a piece and the cost to produce each unit was $2 then the total profit would be $4 per day ($4k per year). However, if 10% of the units are defective then the total profit would drop to $0 ($0k per year) because even though there are 1000 units produced they cannot all be sold at full price because some are defective. In other words, the more defects you have on your products, the lower your revenue will be.
That’s why it’s so important to have a good quality control system in place before production begins so that you don’t have these problems down the line. You are there for less headache but more cost-efficacy, not the other way around. Quality control is also important because consumers want assurance that the products they buy will work as advertised.
Doubt about Chinese 3rd-party quality control service providers
The quality of products made in China used to be questioned a lot. Companies often experienced difficulties with ensuring product quality and it was difficult for them to have peace of mind when they started manufacturing their products in China. It was not until the emergence of third-party inspection services that companies had some relief from this problem, but many companies still have doubts about whether or not these service providers are really independent.
It is because Chinese 3rd-party quality control service providers do not always act independently, and instead may act as agents for certain suppliers who are more powerful than others. Their goal is not only to improve product quality, but also the reputation of those suppliers who pay them well.
Can I trust them now?
The past can’t be denied. But thankfully, with the boom of advanced manufacturing in China and higher standard of quality required, 3rd-party quality control service there has become much more truly “independent”. They are equipped with a variety of professional skills for inspection and testing.
The most important thing is that these service providers are not dependent on individual factories but rather they offer their services to multiple factories as well as other buyers or clients.
You will also find that they often use various inspection methods to analyze products, including high-tech equipment such as X-ray machines, which are typically only available at highly specialized labs in the United States. All this means it’s easier than ever before for foreign buyers to purchase goods from reputable suppliers who employ such a service provider.
As for their job scope, these professionals will conduct inspections on all aspects of the product: shape and form, weight, color and appearance, size, packaging labels etc. If anything looks off (whether it’s an incorrect measurement), then your order might get rejected.
Moreover, because each factory may specialize in different types of items (such as electronics or food), hiring a QC service provider provides some assurance that any factory producing your product type is running according to modern standards. As long as you have faith in your own evaluation process and checklists from home office or another reputable company within your industry while visiting potential suppliers in person too—you’ll have nothing to worry about!
So yes, you can trust the 3rd-party QC providers now, just as how big names like Apple and Panasonic do!
How to choose an appropriate QC provider
It can be difficult to determine whether or not a 3rd-party quality control (QC) service provider in China is trustworthy. Here are a few tips to help you choose a reputable QC provider:
1. Do your research. Make sure to read online reviews and check out the company’s website about who they currently work with or have ever worked with, before making a decision.
2. Consider your needs. What type of products do you need to have inspected? What is your budget? Once you know what you’re looking for, you can start narrowing down your options.
3. Get in touch with the QC provider. Ask questions about their services and see if they would be a good fit for your business.
4. Request quotes from multiple providers and compare. The cost of a 3rd-party QC service is generally going to vary depending on your needs. For example, a full inspection for new products may cost more than a spot check for recently-produced goods. Some companies will even have an annual or semi-annual discount package that you can opt into. Once you have quotes from different providers, compare their prices and see if there are any special deals being offered by one company that you can take advantage of.
With the current travel restrictions, since they can’t be physically there to inspect, 3rd-party QC service in China has gradually become a popular option for many businesses with outsourced manufacturing there, which many of them have later found a pleasant surprise.
Shield Works is one with 17 years in this area as well as its own professional QC team and partnerships with certified labs. Contact us if you’d like to know more about our QC service!
How to Guarantee an Optimal Product with Quality Inspection in China
There is a reason that so many of the products that we enjoyed say “made in China” on them. China has recently been exporting about $2.5 trillion worth of goods and services every year! That is almost one-fifth of their entire economy!
Some people think of Chinese goods as being of low quality. Of course, with a country as large as China, the truth is that you can find both poor quality and extremely high-quality goods coming out of Chinese manufacturing.
The important thing is to make sure that you know how to find quality goods when you buy from China. That is why it is so important that you know how to ensure that you enjoy a quality inspection in China. Read on to learn all about the most important things to do to make sure that you enjoy successful quality inspections of your Chinese goods!
Find Someone to Help You Assess Product Quality
One of the most important things you need to understand is the difference between quality control and quality assurance. Quality control is all about inspecting the finished product. No matter how good the production process is, that does not mean anything if a simple examination of the end product shows that it suffers from serious flaws.
On the other hand, not all flaws show up on immediate examination. That is what quality insurance is for. Quality assurance is about examining the manufacturing process.
You are going to want to find experts to help you with both. When it comes to quality control, you want to make sure that you find somebody who is familiar with Chinese goods.
Some people are experts in assessing product quality for products that are manufactured in America or Europe. However, not all of the expertise that applies to goods from those locations will apply to goods manufactured in China.
On top of that, the person that helps you assess product quality for your Chinese goods will need to be able to understand the workers and leaders at the manufacturing company. In general, it is best to work with Chinese companies that will employ native Chinese experts with a deep understanding of Chinese manufacturing.
Understand Different Levels of Quality
It is also important that you find someone to help you with product quality who can help you understand what quality you should be looking for. Some goods need to be absolutely pristine. Even minor flaws disqualify them from distribution.
In contrast, there are a number of goods that are acceptable as long as they suffer from only minor or cosmetic defects. Lastly, there are even some products that are worth something even if they have significant defects as long as those flaws do not keep them from performing their basic function.
Make sure to work with a China inspection expert in product quality who can track the differences between these levels of quality. That way, they can help you strategize about how to manage them.
Find Inspection Agencies to Help You With Quality Assurance
As we have discussed, not all flaws in a product are detectable just by examining it. Sometimes, flaws don’t manifest until you use a product a handful of times. Then, it suddenly stops working.
You can detect a whole different range of flaws by examining the production process rather than the products themselves. That is what quality assurance is all about.
This part of ensuring that you have high-quality goods benefits even more from working with inspection agencies that really understand China. You are going to need someone who can go into the manufacturing sites and examine the production process. They will also need to be able to intimately understand company leaders and the employees who run the production process.
They will also need to be familiar with Chinese manufacturing processes. All of these are reasons to work with a Chinese quality inspection company.
Make Sure People Follow Correct Product Inspection Processes
During the product inspection process, make sure that your inspectors confirm that the products are being made according to your specifications. That includes things like being the correct size, color, having the correct packaging, and so on.
Throughout the entire product inspection process, it is important that your agent check many different products rather than just one. The exact quality verification process will vary depending on the nature of the product.
Here, it is again helpful to work with qualified professionals who already know what they are doing. They will know which verification processes to use for which products.
Make Sure Your Suppliers in China Use Quality Shipping
It is not enough that the quality of goods is high at the point of production. They can still potentially suffer serious problems with quality. The shipping process must also be of high quality.
You might have a great manufacturing company that produces pristine televisions. But the shipping process might riddle them with cracks.
As a result, you will also need an expert who can assess the shipping process. Of course, it is not always possible to guarantee that goods will not suffer any damage during shipping. But at the very least, you can confirm that the process for shipping does not systematically create flaws.
Enjoy the Benefits of Quality Inspection in China
We hope learning about how to ensure a quality inspection in China has been helpful for you. Working with manufacturing in China comes with a huge list of benefits as long as you can avoid the disadvantages that sometimes come along with it. The right quality inspection services in China can solve this problem and help you enjoy efficient manufacturing.
To learn more about how to make sure you get only the highest quality of goods from Chinese manufacturing companies or to speak with experts in quality inspection of Chinese goods and processes, feel free to reach out and get in touch with us here at any time!