While European and American customers are concerned about product quality, why do they need to inspect the production process and the overall operation of the factory?
In the late 20th century in the United States, a large number of cheap labor-intensive products with international competitiveness from developing countries entered the markets of developed countries, which had a huge impact on the domestic markets of developed countries. Workers in related industries were unemployed or their wages fell. With the call for trade protectionism, the United States and other developed countries have increasingly criticized and criticized the working environment and conditions of developing countries in order to protect their domestic markets and reduce political pressure. The term “sweatshop” originated from this.
Therefore, in 1997, the American Economic Priorities Accreditation Council (CEPAA) was established, designed the social responsibility SA8000 standard and certification system, and added human rights and other factors at the same time, and established the “Social Accountability International (SAI)”. At that time, the Clinton administration also With great support from SAI, the SA8000 system of “social responsibility standards” was born. This is one of the basic standard systems for European and American customers to audit factories.
Therefore, the factory inspection is not just to obtain quality assurance, it has become a political means for developed countries to protect the domestic market and relieve political pressure, and it is one of the trade barriers set by developed countries to developing countries.
Factory audit can be divided into three categories in terms of content, namely social responsibility audit (ES), quality system and production capacity audit (FCCA) and anti-terrorism audit (GSV). Inspection; quality system audit is mainly to review the quality control system and production capacity assessment; anti-terrorism is that since the “911″ incident in the United States, the United States has implemented anti-terrorism measures on a global scale from sea, land, and air.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection encourages importing companies and the international logistics industry to promote C-TPAT (Terrorism Security Management Program). To date, U.S. Customs only recognizes ITS’s anti-terrorism audits. Generally speaking, the most difficult factory inspection is the social responsibility inspection, because it is mainly an inspection of human rights. The terms of working hours and wages and compliance with local labor regulations are indeed a little far from the national conditions of developing countries, but in order to When placing an order, everyone will actively try to find a solution. There are always more methods than problems. As long as the management of the factory pays enough attention and does specific improvement work, the pass rate of the factory inspection is relatively high.
In the initial factory inspection, the customer usually sent the company’s auditors to inspect the factory. However, because the suppliers of some well-known companies in the world were repeatedly exposed by the media about human rights issues, their reputation and brand credibility were greatly reduced. Therefore, most European and American companies will entrust third-party notary firms to conduct inspections on their behalf. Well-known notary firms include: SGS Standard Technical Services Co., Ltd. (SGS), Bureau Veritas (BV), and Intertek Group (ITS) and CSCC etc.
As a factory inspection consultant, I often find that many foreign trade companies have many misunderstandings about customer factory inspections. The detailed explanation is as follows:
1. Think customers are nosy.
Many companies who have been in contact with the factory for the first time feel that it is completely incomprehensible. If you purchase products from me, I only need to deliver the qualified products to you on time. Why should I care about how my company is managed. These enterprises do not understand the requirements of foreign customers at all, and their understanding is very superficial. This is a manifestation of the great difference between Chinese and foreign enterprise management concepts. For example, the quality and technical inspection of the factory, without a good management system and process, it is difficult to ensure the quality and delivery of products. Process produces results. It is difficult for a company with chaotic management to convince customers that it can stably produce qualified leveling and ensure delivery.
The social responsibility factory inspection is due to the pressure of domestic non-governmental organizations and public opinion, and the factory inspection is required to avoid risks. The anti-terrorist factory inspection led by American customers is also due to the pressure of domestic customs and government to counter terrorism. In comparison, the audit of quality and technology is what customers care about most. Taking a step back, since it is the rules of the game set by the customer, as an enterprise, you cannot change the rules of the game, so you can only adapt to the requirements of the customer, otherwise you will give up the export order;
2. Think that the factory inspection is not a relationship.
Many business owners are well acquainted with the way of doing things in China, and they think that the factory inspection is just a matter of going through the motions to settle the relationship. This is also a big misunderstanding. In fact, the factory audit required by the customer must require relevant improvement by the enterprise. The auditor does not have the ability to describe a messed up enterprise as a flower. After all, the auditor needs to take photos, copy documents and other evidence to bring back for future reference. On the other hand, many audit institutions are also foreign companies, with strict management, more and more emphasis on and implementation of clean government policies, and auditors are subject to more and more supervision and spot checks. Now the overall audit atmosphere is still very good, of course, individual auditors are not excluded. If there are factories that dare to put their treasures on the pure relationship without making actual improvements, I believe there is a high possibility that they will suffer a blow. To pass the factory inspection, we must make enough improvements.
3. If you think your hardware is good, you will be able to pass the factory inspection.
Many companies often say that if the company next door is worse than them, if they can pass, then he will pass. These factories do not understand the rules and contents of the factory inspection at all. The factory inspection involves a lot of content, hardware is only one aspect of it, and there are many software aspects that cannot be seen, which determine the final factory inspection result.
4. If you think your house is not good enough, you must not test it.
These factories also made the above mistakes. As long as the hardware of the enterprise is flawed, for example, the dormitory and workshop are in the same factory building, the house is very old and there are potential safety hazards, and the result of the house has great problems. Even companies with bad hardware may also pass the factory inspection.
5. Think that passing the factory inspection is unattainable for me.
Many foreign trade enterprises originated from family workshops, and their management is chaotic. Even if they newly moved into the workshop, they feel that their business management is a mess. In fact, these enterprises do not need to overly reject factory inspections. After the hardware conditions are met, as long as the management has enough determination to find a suitable external consulting agency, they can completely change the management status of the enterprise in a short period of time, improve management, and finally through various Class customer audit. Among the clients we have counseled, there are too many such cases. Many companies lament that the cost is not large and the time is not long, but their own companies feel that they are completely up to the mark. As a boss, they are also very confident to lead their traders and Foreign customers visit their own enterprises.
6. Thinking that the factory inspection is too troublesome to refuse the customer’s factory inspection request.
In fact, at present, companies exporting to the European and American markets basically have to contact the factory for inspection. To a certain extent, refusing to inspect the factory means rejecting orders and rejecting better profits. Many companies came to us and said that every time traders and foreign customers asked for factory inspections, they always refused. However, after a few years, I found that my orders became less and less and the profits became thinner, and the surrounding enterprises that used to be at the same level have developed rapidly in the past few years due to frequent factory inspections. Some companies have also claimed that they have been doing foreign trade for many years and have never inspected the factory. While he feels blessed, we feel sad for him. Because over the years, his profits have been exploited layer by layer and can only barely maintain.
A company that has never inspected the factory must have received orders secretly subcontracted by other factory inspection companies. Their companies are like submarines, they have never appeared on the customer’s side, and the final customer has never known this company. the existence of the business. The living space of such enterprises will become smaller and smaller, because many large customers strictly prohibit unlicensed subcontracting, so they are less and less likely to receive orders. Since the subcontracted orders, the already low profit will be even more meager. Moreover, such orders are very unstable, and the previous home can find a factory with a better price and be replaced at any time.
There are only three steps in the customer audit:
Document review, visit the production site, and conduct employee interviews, so prepare for the above three aspects: prepare documents, preferably a system; organize the site, especially pay attention to fire protection, employee labor insurance, etc.; And other aspects of training, we must ensure that the staff’s answers are consistent with the written documents to the guests.
According to different types of factory inspections (human rights and social responsibility inspections, anti-terrorism inspections, production and quality inspections, environmental inspections, etc.), the preparations required are different.
Post time: Aug-11-2022