How to ensure China's quality imports - Part 1 - Inspection of subcontractors' factories

When you visit various parts of the plant, you may know that some of the production is contracted with other factories. Subcontractors are usually nearby unless special circumstances apply.

The factory found this to be a sensitive issue that may be related to disclosure.

They may try to pretend that other factories belong to them and are an extension of your factory's production. In fact, there may be no more things. Usually, relatives of your factory owner run other factories and they help each other. This is very common in China.

The problem you want to forget is if the quality standards of the subcontractors are completely different [if they have one]. This means that any quality assurance given to you by the factory may be criticized or compromised by cooperation with the subcontractor.

The main reasons for the use of subcontractors in factories are:

1. Save money by squeezing subcontractors to accept lower prices than they can achieve
2. Overcoming the problem of insufficient temporary production capacity
3. Helping their factories operate effectively for friends or relatives who don't have enough orders
4. Cover up violations of labor rights
5. You can use production equipment such as injection molding machines, painting and mold shops that they do not have.

The problem is that you don't know how good or bad the subcontractor's factory manages without access. Your factory may not make this visit easy, but you should be insured.

Maybe your factory has several subcontractors. The more subcontractors, the more risk you have, and some of them will have quality problems. This is a good reason to insist on visiting them.

You can't simply lie in the subcontractor's factory. You need cooperation from your factory. It is likely that one of the staff will accompany you and your visit may be limited to the area of ​​the factory where the subcontractor performs work for your plant.

Always use the same stringent quality and performance requirements as your own. This is the only way you can protect your business interests and ensure the quality of your products imported from China.

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