China QC Because It Matters
The All Roads Lead to China blog just did a very helpful post, on quality control (QC) when outsourcing, entitled, "QC Failures Start in the Home."
All Roads starts out by referring to our post on "Outsourcing in China: Five Legal Basics For Reducing Risk" and Diligence China's post on finding the right Chinese partner, entitled, "In China it's 'Fool me once, shame on me.'" All Roads then rightly asserts that QC also is critical for avoiding problems. I completely agree. I had lunch just yesterday with a client who told me he has someone sitting at their China facility e-mailing him product pictures every day who has paid for his salary "hundreds of times over."
All Roads defines quality control as "a process by which (through the process), quality is not only maintained, but hopefully improves over time. That is not to say that a Casio will become a Rolex, but a good quality control process will reduce inefficiencies and identify areas that can be improved upon (sometimes, by complete accident)." The post then lists a number of quality control horror stories, none of which are anything new to those of us who deal in this area. Of course, that is the problem: QC problems are rampant.
All Roads sees the commonality in the horror stories being the companies failure to "invest in their quality control processes" and lays out the following path for QC redemption:
- From the beginning, either bring in your own people to monitor or "find an agency, consultancy, or other 3rd party that you can trust to represent you. Create terms that tie them to the quality and timeliness of deliveries."
- Take the time to understand your supplier's QC process and work it into your own. Make sure your supplier meets your process, not the other way around.
- Structure payment terms so a significant portion of your payments are not made until after successful inspection of production line samples (from mid-process of order fulfillment) and so that some portion of payment is not made until final delivery and inspection.
- Have your own people visit the site.
- If language barriers exist, bring your own translator experienced in manufacturing.
The post then goes on to say that while it is "convenient to believe to the contrary, problems do not just occur because a supplier failed to provide a quality product. In fact, in many cases, it is quite often the opposite' a proper quality control process was not establish, was not followed through, and risk was not shared properly."
I concur.
