In this email, you’ll learn about inspecting your goods prior to their shipment to you.

Once your goods have been manufactured in China, should you outlay more money to have your product inspected prior to loading on the container?

If you’re not using an independent sourcing company then yes, you probably should have a third party inspect the goods.

If you’re using a trusted sourcing company, the answer depends on a few variables, such as:

•    Order value
•    How safety critical your item is
•    Your confidence/history/relationship with the supplier
•    Your risk tolerance

For example, it mightn’t be cost effective to inspect a $10,000 order of erasers from a company who has been making and exporting erasers to the West for 10 years. (Low value, low safety criticalness, high confidence in supplier)

However, a $50,000 order of erasers may be worthwhile inspecting.

At ChinaDirect, whether we’re doing an on-site inspection or not, we always put the responsibility of checking the goods onto the supplier.

We’ve devised a highly effective form that shows the supplier we’re not only serious about quality, but we’re going to hold him accountable for it.

It’s called a Supplier Self Assessment form, and we introduce it to the supplier when we’re negotiating the Purchase Order, so the supplier clearly knows clearly our expectations, and how he will be assessed.

The supplier simply fills out the Supplier Self Assessment form and sends it to you prior to your inspection of the goods, or if no inspection is being undertaken, before shipping your goods.

If everything looks ok on the form, you can approve delivery.  If there are any areas of concern, you have a conversation with the supplier to resolve it, BEFORE SHIPMENT.

Of course, the only instance where you would not have a third party inspect the goods is when the order value is low, your product is not safety critical, you have high confidence/history/relationship with the supplier, and/or you have high risk tolerance.

See here for further details on the Supplier Self Assessment.

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