No one wants to receive defective products from their supplier after waiting for them to be produced and shipped all the way from China. Your customers won’t accept that ‘it’s your supplier’s fault’ and so your business is left carrying the can.
- You could turn to a local repair and rework facility and pay high costs to put the defective pieces right, or, if you’re lucky, you may be able to return them to the supplier in China at a high cost in time, shipping, and import duties.
- To make things worse, sometimes your supplier doesn’t understand your quality standard or is unwilling to do the fixes quickly.
Our 3PL facility can accept your repair or rework with affordable storage, transport, and labor costs.
We can also arrange to do this in a facility in the Shenzhen Free Trade Zone if needed as in this case no import/export duties need to be paid when the goods come in and then go back out of China.
Fixing these issues in China will save you a lot of money:
- Labor is probably cheaper in China than in your country.
- “Supplier interference” is a common issue of in-factory inspections, but not if it happens in our facility.
- Your supplier will be more likely to agree on a rebate if they receive the pieces that were sorted as “bad”, rather than receiving photos.
- Sorting out (and not paying for) the pieces that can’t be reworked at all may save you a lot of money.
We can receive products from outside China and repair them here. Note that your supplier could also send some people to our facility to conduct the work (in that case, Sofeast staff can assist them, will supervise, and will inspect the repair work).
There are 2 ways in which repair or rework can be undertaken:
1. Your supplier fixes the problem at our facility
The supplier that shipped the bad product can send some operators and equipment into our facility and do the repairing (which would be very difficult, say, if the goods were sent back to Hong Kong for example, as their operators may not be able to cross the border).
We show the supplier the issues so they understand where the problem lies.
We can do the inspection and sorting before the repair work, then, after your supplier’s operators are done with the repair or rework, we confirm it is well done or we do the repair work ourselves with our own team if it is not up to standard.
Only once the goods are up to your standard do we ship them to you.
2. We fix your products ourselves
First, we make sure we fully understand your quality standard. Photos and videos help, but the best is often samples that show what can and cannot be accepted.
We receive the batch of products at our facility, and we provide the first training to our operators/inspectors. Once their understanding is confirmed and there is no confusion, the unpacking & sorting process starts (this is quite similar to our 100% inspection service).
The products are typically separated into different categories, for example: “clearly good”, “clearly bad, can be reworked”, ‘clearly bad, cannot be reworked’, and “very close to the limit” (this fourth category then calls for a review with you, our client, if the standard is not very clear.)
Rework can then start. The process, here, depends entirely on the type of issues to fix.
We usually send photos and videos to the client about what we achieve, for confirmation that we are on the right path.
Once all the pieces are reworked, those that couldn’t be reworked are set aside (and often sent back to the supplier). There is typically a new inspection on those reworked pieces.
After repacking, all the good pieces can be sent to you (or your customers).
Possible repair and rework jobs are usually 1,000+ pieces, although we try to be as flexible as possible.
Repair and rework projects are typically undertaken by staff from the same factory that made them (your supplier), who sends the products and staff to our facility. Sofeast’s operators often get involved, too, if the supplier’s staff aren’t able to get the required results.
This really depends on your prior agreement with your supplier, and with your ability to leverage future business. We can help you communicate with your supplier if that helps, but in those situations, there are rarely miracles.
If Chinese suppliers raise concerns over claims that pieces are defective, we can show them in person where the errors are, leaving them less ‘room’ to claim that there is no problem (which often happens when relying on emailing images back and forth).
At Sofeast, we have been involved in Quality Assurance since 2006. We have the experience to help clarify your quality standard. We have trained technicians and operators to inspect and sort the products.
We also have a strong Supply Chain Management team that can handle the logistics aspect of it, and if needed order packaging materials, etc. If you subsequently use our 3PL to handle your fulfillment you’ll also enjoy these benefits, too.
In comparison to Western rework companies, when working with a China-based RMA center like ours you get:
- Lower labor costs
- Lower storage costs for your products after they’re received and before they’re shipped
- Ability to show some defective goods to your supplier, and/or have them send operators to do the rework
- Ease of ordering the same packaging, if needed
Our reporting can be adapted to suit your needs, but we typically send you full reports (with photos) at these stages:
- After the sorting is done
- When the re-work is being done, and once it is done
What does it cost?
We first need to evaluate the time to unpack & sort the goods and the time to rework & repack them. At that point, we can provide a quotation.
Note that this type of work is often dynamic — depending on the proportion of pieces that are “already good” vs. “bad but reworkable” vs. “bad but not reworkable”, the process can be shorter or longer. We can provide quotations at two stages:
- Before ‘unpack & sort’, based on the time to do that job
- Before ‘rework & repack’, once the sorting job is done and we see more clearly what needs to be done
Ready to get started with reworking & sorting defective products in China?
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