The risk is that a product goes straight from development to production without the proper amount of attention.
A pre-production meeting between your supplier and our QA technician includes a simple risk analysis involving the different key parties in the factory (typically, the merchandiser and representatives of development, quality, and production). One of the main objectives is to point out and address potential production problems.
It’s also a great opportunity to stress your requirements and instill a sense of extra care and attention into your supplier’s management.
Basically, whenever something about a product is new to the factory, or whenever there is a lot of money at stake and risks have to be minimized, it is a good idea to conduct a pre-production meeting.
If you want the peace of mind that your supplier is 100% aware of your requirements and any potential risks and areas where errors can occur, sending in our experienced QA technician to talk them through it all will provide that safety net.
Our technician will also check the production setup, product samples, and any defects, taking photos along the way to include in your report, and discuss all of these with the supplier with a view to improving quality and reducing risks.
Typically, PP meetings are usually conducted for garments and other textile products (soft goods). Therefore, we usually perform these in textile-providing areas more often.
In general, we advise a first article inspection for hard goods.
A few examples of the value it brings:
- If an accessory is in the wrong color, finding out about it after 10 days of sewing is a disaster, both in re-work cost to the factory and as delays for the buyer. If it is noticed during a PP meeting that is held after all the accessories have been received, everybody saves time and money.
- If production operators, who never saw a new style before (since it was prepared in a sample room), do not do as planned, it is much better to detect it early. Giving a lot of attention to the first 10 or 20 pieces sewn is crucial. A great PP meeting is held not around a table but along the sewing line.
- If you want to make sure all the key parties in the factory are aware of the most important points, a PP meeting is a good time to remind them about it.
- If some quality issues were noticed in a previous batch, they can be reviewed and discussed in a PP meeting, leading to special attention points and more attention from the factory’s management and inspectors.
Your project is unique. As such, anything discussed in your PP meeting will be specific to your products and requirements. However, as a rule, a PP meeting’s report provided to you in English and with photographs will include items like this:
- Our recommendations to the factory:
- Number of defects found vs your AQL, if our technician is able inspect some of the first products made that day:
- Production status – focus on if the supplier has the right components/materials needed to begin and confirmation that materials and accessories, appearance, workmanship, etc. are similar to approved samples and specifications:
- Has the factory got specifications and samples in hand?
- Forecasts from the factory – includes lines, workers, date materials received, estimated dates, etc:
- Risk evaluation of the production processes, etc:
- Additional photos, such as the production setup and the first products completed.
What does it cost?
We charge 299 USD per man-day in major areas of China, India, Bangladesh, Cambodia, and Vietnam (and extra travel expenses apply in other places).
