Poor Quality Products from Chinese Factories
How will you feel if you order, for instance, a hand-blown Christmas tree ornament and get the whole container delivered, but only to discover that the small ring needed to get the ornament hanged from a tree is missing? As a retailer, this may ruin your business and make customers give you bad reviews if such a problem persists.
The fact that China is an advanced country does not rule out the possibility of their factories – particularly small scale companies – delivering products of low quality or standard. While your direct supplier may wish to get things right, the factory may just refuse to comply with the wish, probably because they don’t know you or they just have no reasonable reason to trust in long-term business.
China OEM factories agreement is based on five key issues: price, quantity, quality, date of delivery, and payment terms. Many of them only show concern for the price of products at the expense of the other four issues highlighted. When you do not clarify or emphasise the importance of the five fundamental manufacturing issues to the Chinese factory, you may end up getting products of poor quality. This, when not detected early, may result in customer complaints, loss of sales, and incurring of additional expenses. Early detection of quality problem before shipment is much better than an after-delivery detection.
Therefore, tackling this problem requires you to state clear quality requirements into the contract, with clear penalties upon the failure to meet such quality benchmarks. Usually, a factory has to support any of its claims by written documents.
Also, at the preorder stage, select a supplier that approves the factory of production to ensure delivery of the right quality of product at the right time. This is otherwise known as factory audit. Usually, it is done upon the screening down of potential suppliers to a few serious ones. The auditor typically verifies incoming materials, products that are in process, and finished goods. With this, the quality system of the factory, as well as their reliability, is assessed.
However, caution has to be taken at this stage. This is because factory audits seem to follow a scientific approach and as such, favor larger manufacturers. These manufacturers tend to pay little or no attention to small orders. To be on a safer side, ensure the pre-qualification phase of audits is oriented in the direction of suppliers of a suitable size. With the observation of the highlighted tips, your product’s quality assurance is certain.
Summarily, though some Chinese factories constitute the black sheep, other factories produce products of high quality. Good or bad quality products can emanate from any country. Therefore, it’s up to the brand which will take up the credit or blame for good or bad quality products to exercise due diligence in ensuring that its products are not only of good quality but also up to the standards. Thus, when you order any products from Chinese factories, remember to pay attention to quality.