Quality Control in China & Taiwan

Quality Control is important for any manufacturer, but nowhere is it as crucial as in China. The attitude towards Quality among (ex-) communist workers of state owned factories in China is just not quite up to the standard of what Western consumers have come to expect. The famous Chinese phrase “Cha bu duo” meaning “It’s not too far off” for many a factory still means “ready to ship”.

This is why Western Quality inspection is an essential part of any program to outsource manufacturing to China. When you and your customers are on the other side of the globe it is very practical to have somebody within an hours drive from the manufacturer who really understands what Quality means to you. 

Total Cost of buying from China

When buying from China you always have to consider the Total Cost, which includes:

• FOB price

• the cost of returns (material/immaterial)

• the cost of delayed delivery (material/immaterial)

• the cost of management (flights/hotels, jetlag, agony)

Paying for good quality inspection is an insurance premium that no experienced China buyer goes without.

Top notch Quality Control is of course included when Titoma takes charge of your manufacturing project for you, we take title to the product and back it up with our Warranty. We also offer our QA services as a separate service.

China Quality Assurance Services

Inspection Criteria definition: more then just numbers

Quality is often defined as “conformance to specification” so in order for us to measure it we first have to sit down with our client and agree on what key measurements define a quality product. In addition to that we realize that not all quality concerns can be reduced to a number, especially for aesthetic quality of products, and that’s where our Western staff with background in Industrial Design comes in very useful.

Supplier selection: it’s who you know...                          

Our management team has been working in Greater China for a many years, and collectively we know of a good number of suppliers that are good to work with, and which ones to avoid. In China we tend to opt for Taiwanese owned factories, because they generally have better, more long term oriented, management. The Guanxi concept plays an important role, when we work with a factory we have known for a long time, or to whom we have been introduce helps a lot, because then there is much more at stake than just the current business deal. In case of problem (yes, they do occur sometimes..) am “unknown” factory will just abandon a tooling halfway when they think fixing the problems will cost more then the final payment is worth. A “Guanxi“ factory will take the hit and keep going until the client is satisfied, so he avoids losing face.

Factory Inspection/Supplier Quality Audit               

While Guanxi go a long way, the mere fact that we’re good buddies with a factory owner is of course in itself not enough, and we provide solid audit reports of the factory we’re selecting for you.

Incoming inspection: Garbage In Garbage Out               

A factory Quality processes can be top notch, but Garbage In is still Garbage Out. That’s why we place quite a lot of emphasis on incoming inspection. Even more important is to verify that the incoming parts can only come from the approved source, a great majority of quality problems are caused by China manufacturers trying to save a penny by substituting inferior materials.

Pre-Production Inspection: An ounce of prevention…

The Pre-Production samples, which in case of electronics we define as final working sample PCBA in tooled housing, is of course an important milestone. No manufacturer is happy with 50,000 rejected units, so they often will try to sneak reworked units back in the shipments. Our goal is of course to identify potential problems early so we can eliminate the causes.

Production Inspection: 100%

Quality Inspection in most mass production factories in the US and Europe means Statistical Process Control. Don’t be surprised when a China manufacturer says he doesn’t know SPC, they typically go with 100% inspection. For a manufacturer of disk-drives armatures in Dong Guan this means that 500,000 armatures are inspected per day, by a hall full with girls with microscopes. Titoma makes sure that the inspectors are measuring the right attributes in the right way, and perform random sample tests of the final packaged product.

Titoma likes to do Turnkey Development and Manufacturing projects, so we can build the Quality into the design right from the start. We give you a total Low Cost advantage without the headaches.

Make sure you get Quality out of China. Contact us for more information:

Email: Quality Control & Inspection in China

Tel +886 2 - 87 88 19 85