As an importer thousands of miles away from your supplier, you may often find yourself worrying about the situation on-site: whether the production process is moving along as planned in the schedule, whether the products are actually meeting the quality standards that you have asked for, how well is the supplier managing compliance with local laws, and many more such concerns fill up your mind constantly. In such a situation, having someone to represent you and your interests at the factory acts as a huge advantage for you, to oversee the product quality inspection service processes and report back directly to you.

When appointing a QC inspection protocol, you might be tempted to have just one competent person represent you in all spheres, who is dedicated solely to your business. Not only will it be easier to coordinate all inspections with one person, that person will also be very familiar with your business and will know exactly what to look for when inspecting the factory site. Your mind will be at peace knowing that you can trust and rely on that one person to make sure that you receive exactly what you have asked for.

However, as tempting as it might sound, it might not always be in your best interest to appoint one single inspector in-charge of all your QC needs.

Why might this be so? Let’s look at some of the foremost reasons why successful importers all over the world prefer to have a diverse team of inspectors inspecting their factory sites rather than relying on just one individual.

1. Integrity risk

One of the foremost concerns that importers face when appointing one single individual as an inspector is the risk of compromised integrity on the part of the inspector. Among the many qualities that are a prerequisite for an efficient inspector, objectivity and impartiality are perhaps at the top. However, sending the same inspector repeatedly to one site increases the chances of these qualities being compromised- the result of which will be partial results and lower overall quality of your products.

Simply speaking, the interest of the inspector and the factory owner do not align. Your inspector wishes to examine the deep intricacies of the production process to try and look for any irregularities that need to be fixed. The factory staff, however, wishes to avoid the hassle of fixing issues and potentially reworking the damaged products. They would prefer to keep matters as they are.

When you keep sending one inspector to the site repeatedly, the chances of him forming a personal relationship with the factory staff are very high. Whether unintentionally or intentionally, this results in a lack of objectivity when inspecting the products which may result in a number of issues such as:

• Misreporting the types of defects found in the sample.
• Misreporting the number of defects found in the sample.
• Skipping integral on-site tests or procedures to falsely favor the factory.
• Misreporting the production status to conceal any delays the factory is facing.
• Not inspecting the full sample size, which may result in inaccurate results regarding the overall quality.
• Sharing any confidential information with the factory staff, such as design files or prototypes.

These acts result in clear misinformation on the part of the importer, which will inevitably result in decisions made by the importer that is not optimal for the business, such as shipping and delivery decisions. On a much larger scale, compromised integrity of the inspectors can lead to extremely grave issues such as intellectual rights violation, or even involvement in crimes such as child labor which have severe penalties.

If the interaction of the inspector can cause so much damage to your business, why not just cut all contact between the inspector and the factory staff? You cannot, for a number of reasons. The inspector needs to be up-close with the factory staff in order to do his job effectively, such as:

• Use equipment provided by the factory staff to conduct on-site testing to check product quality
• Form samples and then move those products to conduct tests and quality assurance
• Unpacking and then packing goods after inspection

All of the above tasks are mandatory for an inspector to perform his job vigilantly and report accurate results- however, these cannot be achieved without the cooperation of the factory staff. For this reason, the inspector has to be involved in a certain degree of interaction with the staff to carry out his tasks smoothly. In addition to this, the inspectors also need to frequently communicate with the factory staff in order to assess a number of matters such as the production status and other relevant information required by the importer.

Hence, it is not practical to assume that you can completely isolate the inspector from the factory’s staff in order to avoid any integrity issues. If that’s the case, then what can you do?

Rotate the inspection staff

The solution to the problem is as simple as that- frequently rotating your inspection staff in no particular order. In this way, not only do you prevent any unnecessary formation of relationships between the inspector and the staff but also by keeping the rotation random the factory staff cannot predict in advance which inspector to expect and make any arrangements accordingly.

This is where a professional third-party inspection company becomes very useful as they have a very large network of inspectors available to rotate and send to the factory site.

How can you gauge the integrity of the third-party inspection firm?

The following characteristics may give you a wholesome idea of what qualities should be prevalent in a trustworthy third-party inspection team:

• A clear code of ethics: the third-party inspection team should ideally have in place a precise code of ethics that presents grave repercussions for any employee involved in any cost of misconduct that compromises the firm’s image. This should be entirely independent of both the clients as well as the clients’ suppliers.
• Clear procedures for any factor that might affect the integrity of the firm: these may include reporting any, even the minutest, favor the firm has received from the staff. This information helps the transactions remain as transparent as possible, such as receiving a transportation facility from the supplier.
• Active efforts by the QC provider to make sure that integrity issues do not arise. These may include steps such as internal auditing of the inspection staff as well as to discourage any unnecessary relationship between the inspectors and the staff.

2. You save time and money

How? Simple. Imagine that your inspector needs to travel a significant distance just to reach the factory site. Not only does this waste time, which results in fewer hours available to the inspector to actually carry out the inspection in the factory, the cost of travel is also high which ultimately you have to pay for. If you have one single inspector for all of your suppliers and their sites, then this person would have to travel a great deal and charge you for it.

In comparison, most third-party QC inspection firms have inspectors located in all major manufacturing regions. This means that the inspector will reach the factory on time and have ample time to inspect the factory thoroughly- while also saving you fuel cost! An inspector who is short of time may try to rush the inspection process, resulting in a lack of accuracy.

It may considerably difficult to operate as an importer when you’re so far away from your manufacturer, especially keeping in minds the different time zones. If you receive the detailed report outlining all details regarding the products quickly, you have more time to tackle the issues in order to avoid any potential time delays in the production process. In addition to issuing a prompt quality report within 24 hours of carrying out an inspection, most third-party inspection firms also offer you the service of operating very efficiently in order to make the best use of your time.

3. The production and shipping may be delayed if the inspector is unavailable

Is relying on one individual to inspect the products, in a way perhaps determining whether the goods reach you on time or not, really a good idea?

If you have only one inspector to do the inspection for you, chances are that you'll be facing a lot of delays. Suppose you have a shipment set to leave the factory within the next week. You wish to carry out a pre-shipment inspection to ensure the quality of the products and the packaging to make sure everything is in order. However, when you contact your inspector you find that he has other commitments in the coming week. This presents a major problem to you, as you'll have to make a choice between either delaying the shipment for another week or allowing the supplier to ship the products to you without having it inspected- meaning that you're potentially exposing yourself to receiving damaged products and risking your business and customers.

What to do, hm?

Again, the answer here is to have multiple inspectors available for you so that you do not have to rely completely on only one individual. Third-party inspection companies have a wide range of inspectors and you are likely to find one available on whichever date suits you- this means that the chances of you facing a delay are much lower as compared to a single inspector due to his unavailability.

4. The efficiency goes down with only one inspector

Suppose you have a really big order on its way with thousands of units. Even if you decide to check only a sample using the AQL techniques, the sample size comes down to a couple of thousand units. The situation may be even more difficult if you have to inspect each item individually, perhaps due to the nature of the product such as a medical instrument.

In such situations, it seems rather absurd to leave the entire task of inspection to only one individual. Firstly, this will require him spending days on ends consecutively at the site which might raise integrity issues, as explained above. Secondly, it may just not be possible for one man to inspect so many products in the given time- resulting in delays.

Also keep in mind that in case there are any defective products in the shipment that require rework, another inspection will have to be carried out once they are reworked to make sure that there are no defects still in place in the products. If you cut down the time for the initial inspection, you give yourself more time to request any changes or corrections required in the shipment before it is finalized.

Why multiple inspectors can increase efficiency

When you send in multiple inspectors to inspect the shipment, not only will the time required to carry out the inspection be cut greatly, but the accuracy of the results will also be improved. One reason is that it is much more difficult to bribe a group of people into reporting biased results than it is to convince one individual.

Having multiple inspectors to carry out inspection leaves you ample time to request any alterations that are required in the shipment.

5. One inspector may not be fit to inspect all your products

Inspecting each product that you are importing might require a different kind of expertise- which is very difficult to find in one person only. For example, you'll need a textile expert when you plan on importing shirts, but you'll need a different inspector when importing medical equipment. Relying on one individual to inspect all your products is a risky matter.

The specific requirements for each inspection vary depending upon the product being imported; these include on-site testing procedures, inspection protocols, and other relevant knowledge required to carry out the inspection successfully.

Inspectors are often specialized and experienced in inspecting one of the following categories:

• Softline products, including garments, textiles, footwear, and other fabric-based products
• Hardline products, including kitchenware, toys, furniture, appliances and more
• Industrial products, including industrial components and machinery
• Electrical and electronic products, including assembled consumer electronics and electronic components

The more inspectors that you have, the more diverse skill set will be at your disposal

Having a group of inspectors, each inspector having a different set of skills and expertise means that no matter which product you are importing, your inspection staff has the relevant knowledge. And specialized inspectors will be more familiar with common quality issues, some common causes and solutions to those quality issues and important applicable legal regulations for that product type.

It is common for third-party inspection firms to have inspectors with all kinds of skill sets so that their clients receive the best service in whichever industry they wish to enter.

Conclusion

If you wish to keep your business away from potential risks of delays and compromised integrity resulting in inaccurate inspection results, you must have a group of multiple inspectors conducting inspection rather than just one.