Many companies that import products from Asia also have set up their local offices for such kind of audits. Others have also secured the high quality of their imported products by hiring a reputed audit company. Together the companies and the buyers can organize the right supply chain to fit their requirements.
Different types of factory audit take place as the production work finishes and also before shipment. If the audit fails, a factory needs to reproduce the products and they need to pay for the re-inspection. A good company needs to perform audits in a specific and efficient way.
They send the inspectors from their company for the proper inspection and then pass their notes and photos to the typists to make a report. Product inspection is actually a way to collect the samples of the products for the lab tests. The factory audit is invoiced also at a different price set than the product check. The entire process of inspection is not much risky yet very simpler. Then the clients get the reports after a few days of the audit.
Reasons to go for factory audit:
As the market is very much competitive now, you need to keep on the top of all of your outsourcing partners to ensure the quality of finished products and to meet the ethical demands of the increasingly aware customer base.
Initial Evaluation of the supplier
Before starting your business with a new party, it is wise to check that they are authentic to deliver the product as they have promised. Many contacts in the developing world may advertise themselves as the representing a factory, when in fact they are the middlemen. They enable often the small factories to reach the big market place. But sometimes they failed to resolve the quality issues and so the initial evaluation of every supplier is very important.
Social Compliance Auditing
An important component of delivering products to the large market is ensuring that your suppliers can meet certain ethical, quality and environmental standards. Even many big companies with established policies of using ethical sourcing have unfortunately fallen foul of failing to audit their supply chain for compliance with these policies.
Supply Chain Auditing
It is not only your direct partners whom you want to monitor but you need to ensure that everyone supplying the products is meeting the specific standards. You need to ensure first that the products supplied by your chain of suppliers are high quality and not using cheaper materials or using toxic chemicals.
Production Inspections
You need to check the samples of the products also to know the quality. So a factory audit can check the small number of products first during the early manufacturing process.
Shipping and loading inspections
The audit may not end at the factory only. If you are dealing with the fragile and high-value products, you need to meet specific requirements for loading, packing and labeling. It helps in ensuring that they will not break damage or go missing.
