There are always risks for the importer of working with unreliable, low-quality products from their suppliers, especially if you do not have visibility into the suppliers’ working processes and quality management system (QMS). This is one of the reasons why conducting a factory audit is essential, especially when you importing your products in Indonesia.
Furthermore, this auditing is important to get details information about your potential supplier including the supplier’s products and processes whether they are capable to meet your quality standard or not.
When should importers conduct a factory audit?
When it comes to the question “when is the best time to conduct this audit?” The answer is depending on your goal. However, most of our clients conduct this audit when they want to work with a new supplier and there is not much information about the supplier, including the supplier’s reputation, capacity, and capability to take the orders.
5 things you should know from your supplier
There is no one-for-all method for conducting a factory audit, and the scope and complexity of an audit might vary depending on the product or process. At Excellencial, we have conducted hundreds of Factory audits and we believe that there are five things that importers should know about their potential supplier, as follows:
- Supplier capability to take the order. Before placing any orders with your potential supplier. It is important to know the capacity and capability of the supplier to avoid any potential quality defect and delay shipment. Don’t let the cheap price offered by them becomes the main consideration for you to work with them. Furthermore, how they work, the materials they use are also necessary for you to know before placing an order.
- Review the supplier’s reputation. Knowing the potential supplier’s reputation is important before decided to work with them. Examine the supplier’s website and social media profiles, the certificates, and licenses they hold, including the factory facility. It is necessary to do to avoid scams and inexperienced suppliers.
- Don’t take customer complaints for granted. The client’s testimony such as google review and trade history, should not be taken for granted. They are playing an important role to give you information on how the supplier work including their product’s quality.
- Know if the supplier is outsourcing. If your supplier works with another company to make your products, you need to ensure that they meet your quality and specification standards to minimize any issues once the products arrive at your warehouse.
- Everything should be transparent. If the supplier refuses to be transparent during the audit or fails to provide certain quality-related documents, it could be a sign for you that the supplier is hiding some issues, whether it is quality issues or production issues.
Conducted a factory audit will identify, address and prevent problems before you placing any orders and spend your time handling the quality issues once the product arrives at your warehouse, ensuring the supplier consistently meets your quality standards is necessary.
Contact us for more information about the factory audit services in Indonesia.