After meeting representatives of the factory and having the first meeting. Next, you would have to get more out of your visit such as different production and storage areas to see whether it meets your requirement.
QC for Incoming Materials
Usually the factory would have sourcing and QC department to buy raw materials, components, packing materials, etc. to support production process.
Your job is to check out whether the factory as developed a systematic incoming material/components quality control system. Pay to visit to the raw materials incoming area to observe the QC staff conducting incoming inspection.
Normally every delivery there will be a few rejects and if they tell you they do not have rejected materials, probably they are not being thorough enough or they are lying.
Visiting QC and Testing Department
QC department plays a big role in maintaining high quality products during the manufacturing process. Only by constantly monitoring product quality can you avoid returning the goods for not meeting AQL(Acceptable Quality Level) as reworking the products will cost you and the factory a substantial amount of time and money.
As to testing room, usually factory has a separated room with testing equipment and some engineers running it. Take note of how they work and organize themselves when visiting the testing equipment.
QC Room for Customer Inspection
It is common for customers to send their representatives or 3rd party QC representatives to perform at least a random final inspection before shipping the goods. Some factories especially small ones do not have separated QC rooms for customer inspection. If it is a must-have one on your quality control list, refrain from them.
Mode Room
Large factories usually have their own mode room where diverse types of molds and technical equipments are displayed. By visiting the rooms you can learn more about the technical equipments they are using since product quality depends a lot on the precision of the mold.
Injection Molding Department
After visiting the mold room, next you should go and see them in operation. It is important to know the factory’s injection molding capacity as it determines the factory’s total capacity.
Production and Assembly Lines
This part of the factory tour is preferred by most visitors. There is so much to see including the lot of beautiful girls from all the different provinces in China.
Check if the production is arranged in a logical order. You might also come across production of goods for other customers even your competitors, and it is good idea to take notes and photos as the information can be important for evaluation.
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