A supplier self inspection project can work really well if you answer ‘yes’ to the following questions:
- Do you buy more than 5 million USD a year from a given factory?
- Have you been sending QC inspectors to check their quality?
There might be an opportunity for saving money by putting in place the knowledge, strategy, and framework for your suppliers in Asia to conduct their own quality inspections and provide correct and trustworthy results.
What is Supplier Self Inspection Enablement?
Supplier self inspection is the situation where a supplier does its own quality inspections and shares their findings with their customer. It is successful when if their inspection reports can be trusted.
However, that is a big ‘if’. A lot of groundwork needs to be laid, and this is what Sofeast can help you.
Want to learn more? Read these posts from our blogs:
Why choose this solution?
As a buyer: if you want to decrease your QC budget and you want your suppliers to be fully responsible for their production quality. You want to stop ‘baby-sitting’ them.
As a supplier: if you don’t have the know-how to set up an industry-leading quality inspection process.
Who needs this solution?
Any buyer that has enough power over supplier(s) to push them to go through this program seriously.
Any trading company, buying office, or manufacturer that wants to upgrade their quality control process and project confidence in their customers’ eyes.
What is performed in Supplier Self Inspection Enablement?
Sofeast performs some, or all, of the following activities:
- Setting up the strategy (e.g. what suppliers should be targeted, what’s in it for them, how to handle claims…), together with your team.
- Identifying what needs to be monitored (e.g. most frequent defects) and how to drive improvement (e.g. corrective action plan / 8D)
- Setting up implementation phases that make sense
- Reviewing inspection plans, quality standards, checklists, necessary equipment & competencies, sampling procedures, access to the latest specification versions, etc.
- Configuring an easy-to-use quality inspection software tool (SynControl) that provides the needed structure, issues reports automatically and gives access to statistics (demo available on request)
- Evaluating the supplier’s proposed inspectors
- Providing training (standardized and online in case of many factories) and on-site coaching to inspectors, and then setting up a random audit schedule
- Helping the buyer set up a randomized skip-lot inspection plan, to keep the pressure on the supplier
How is it reported?
This totally depends on the scope of work.
For example, when analysing the main risks associated with the current process, a fishbone diagram is often appropriate.
What does it cost?
We bill 40 USD an hour for desk work and 250 USD a day in factories.
Expenses, if any, are charged separately.
