Do you have a trusted supplier who you want to keep working with, but you need them to improve in different ways?
Many importers don’t know where to begin to push forward supplier improvement, or if it’s even possible in their situations. So this is where Sofeast’s experts come in to assist you with a supplier improvement audit.
What is Sofeast’s supplier improvement audit?
In a supplier improvement audit we keep the pressure on your supplier for you in order to improve their performance or keep it at its peak with a monthly or bimonthly re-auditing program.
We give them to-do actions and the support they need to improve, and then review their progress later on.
We start by looking at the systems and processes of a factory, and we rank the issues based on the risk of not meeting the client’s needs.
There are actually 4 situations, depending on the situation at the factory.
| Factory knows how to do | Factory doesn’t know how to do | |
| Factory has sufficient manpower | Regular auditing, to uncover issues, is sufficient. Supplier can come up with solutions and implement them. | Factory needs some auditing and some help (consultation and/or contract work to develop new systems or improve processes) |
| Factory lacks manpower | Regular auditing is necessary, but needs to be complemented by consultation (giving them direction). | Need for training, auditing, consultation, and much technical help. |
Why choose this solution?
You want to keep working with the same supplier. Maybe you have invested a lot of time developing a product with them. Maybe you feel they are good people working with poor systems. Maybe they are the only ones giving you low pricing.
However, the consistency of product has to be improved. (Note that we can also work on cost containment of on better planning systems, but pricing is higher.)
Who is this audit suitable for?
Any buyer who needs a supplier to improve, and who has sufficient weight over that supplier to push them to take action.
What activities make up this audit?
A number of Technical & Quality Audits (TQAs) scheduled over time at the same facility.
We often have a general ‘theme’ (which we don’t reveal in advance) for each audit, but also review issues noticed in the past, and assess improvement.
If we also need to switch from an ‘auditor hat’ to a ‘consultant hat’, the exact plan is to be adapted based on the actual situation.
Our office staff often needs to follow up on an improvement plan, too, if the client and the supplier don’t take the lead on this.
How is it reported?
We send you a report after each audit performed throughout the whole supplier improvement audit process, outlining the issues found as well as progress made since the last visit on the actions taken.
What does it cost?
When it comes to audits, price in mainland China is 445 USD per day in the areas where our auditors are located, if they are ordered as part of a program. Extra travel expenses apply in other areas.
When it comes to consulting, the daily cost ranges from 425 USD + expenses for a junior engineer to 850 USD + expenses per for a senior engineer.
If our office staff follows up on an improvement plan, that work is billed at 34 USD per hour.
Ready to get started with a supplier improvement audit project?
Sofeast's expertise in many products, materials, and processes benefits you
You need to know that your supplier auditor understands and is experienced with your products, materials, and production processes.
Sofeast’s quality, engineering, and supply chain experts have cumulative decades of experience in developing, producing, and testing products in China and Asia. So when we go into your, or your supplier’s, factory, you know that our staff are seasoned and can fully understand your needs and the situation that they see before them.
Explore products that we’re expert in
You can tap into and see our experience in numerous common product types by visiting the products that we’re expert in page.
Explore the materials and processes that we’re experienced in
You can follow this link to dive deeply into the materials and processes that we know very well, for instance, thermoplastics, plastic injection molding, steel alloys, die casting, and many more. Alternatively, hit the button below:
Learn more about supplier improvement in these resources
Over time we’ve created these blog posts which are related to supplier improvement audits and developing suppliers that you may also find useful:
