When you outsource your production to a third-party manufacturer in China, not only you should care about the total cost and lead time, but also you need to be confident that the manufacturing supplier is capable to deliver products that meet your expectations and the quality standards.
However, how can you ensure your manufacturer will not let you down? And how can reduce risks and losses when quality issues happen?
Read on to learn how during production inspection can solve your problem.
What Are The Most Commonest Quality Inspection Services In China?
Typically, there are three main categories of quality inspection services to cover all stages of the production line including before, during, and after inspections.
- Pre-Production Inspections (PPI):
- Factory Audits & Verification
- Social Audits
- Pre-Production Inspection
- During Production Inspections (DPI/DUPRO)
- First Article Inspection
- In-Production Quality Control
- Defect Sorting Services
- Pre-Shipment Inspections
- Container Loading Inspections (LS)
What is A During Production Inspection?
During production inspection, known as DUPRO, is an on-site inspection process performed between 20% to 80% of the production is completed and packaged, and ready for shipment. This inspection randomly selects the finished products to ensure if they follow your original specifications and expectations.
In this procedure, the following will be verified:
- Colors
- Weight
- Dimensions
- Overall Appearance
- Functionality
- Performance
- Durability
During production inspection is a great opportunity to take corrective action before mass production. With DUPRO, you can improve product quality by nipping the problems in the “bud”.
What are the Advantages of During Production Inspection?
- Finding Minor Issues
While the pre-production can ensure that engineers or technicians have enough understanding and consideration of your requirements and expectations, the during production inspection is an effective measure to ensure product quality in the early stage of production.
Have a third-party inspection company with professional inspectors who can always do better jobs on finding defects than a novice buyer. Therefore, you can diagnose production issues to prevent excess defective items. In this process, you should keep in mind that you have a clear and detailed acceptable defective rate and default standards.
- Making Necessary Changes
Of course, you cannot accept the fact that the product will be complained by the customers caused by some minor but obvious issues
By applying DUPRO, you can not only check the product quality, but also you still have a chance to make necessary adjustments towards the products based on minor issues. Additionally, it may be easier to negotiate with the manufacturing supplier.
Say you are doing apparel business, for example, if you find your logo missing or go over the seam in the shirt, you should let the supplier repair the product.
After establishing the changes, you can keep monitoring the product quality with the rest of your production items.
- Reducing Costs And Risks
However, when it comes to the major defects, such as functional problems of the products, which would result in disasters, the during production inspection comes in handy.
As you know, a faulty or damaged component can ruin the whole order. The factory might identify some problems but hide them away until you conduct the pre-shipment inspection, or worse you won’t find out any problem if you don’t apply any inspection.
Therefore, the during production inspection might be your lifesaver to reduce huge losses and manufacturing lead time.
By keeping your eyes on the in-process production, you can understand the defective rate or any other problems in the current production stage. When some problems are unfixable, you can ask for re-working or even place another order in the very early stage of your production.
- Managing Production Schedule
After completing the production plan with your supplier, you should understand how long it will take to finish your order. However, your plan will get interrupted when unexpected errors occur.
The during production inspection can assist you to manage your production schedule more effectively.
Quality inspectors are not only responsible for checking and testing the quality of the finished products but also conforming the labeling and packaging of the final process, meaning you can monitor or adjust the whole manufacturing schedule based on current progress.
For instance, fixing the logo problems on your shirt order may lead to production delays, but you can ask for accelerating the production line by working overtime or getting more workforce involved.
In conclusion, the during production inspection can keep the production line on the right track.
When you find a partner to manufacture your product, it’s better to visit them in person, especially in your first order. But when it comes to quality control, you do not need to check the product by yourself.
A third-party inspection service provider help! China 2 West Group has a team of experienced quality inspectors on the ground to offer you an in-depth during production inspection, with a detailed report that will help you rectify the problems in the supply chain. Feel free to contact us today and discuss your inspection needs.
