As competition in the market increases due to an ever-increasing number of businesses in the economy, consumer expectations and demands from each business also increases. This means that businesses can no longer survive in the market by producing anything less than top-quality products. In such a situation, for any business to come across products that do not meet customer’s requirements is a huge cost: not in terms of monetary losses, but the loss of integrity and image of the business also. Therefore, when you encounter products that are not in-line with the specifications that consumers require of you, the cost of scrapping and reworking those products can be huge.

The instances of businesses losing thousands of dollars worth of products because they do not meet the requirements are not unheard of. In fact, even today some businesses rely on word of mouth or communication through email to inform the supplier of their demands and specific product features that they require them to build. This form of communication is extremely prone to misunderstandings, on either end of the transaction, which can result in faulty products that do not pass quality inspections and thus need to be discarded. The most effective step that you should take to avoid this problem is to carry out a thorough QC program.

However, if you're like most importers, the thought of paying additional charges to have your products inspected in a foreign country might worry you. This is where ATIHongKong comes to aid you.

How third-parties bill you

Most of the third-parties that are operating today bill you on a concept known as ‘man-days’: this is a unit of time used to represent how long a single inspector is needed by your business to perform his tasks and carry out inspection of your products. How many hours there are in a man-day varies from one third-party inspection firm to another.

However, it is not true that an inspector will only bill you for the time he actually spends physically inspecting the goods. In fact, there are several other factors that constitute as contributing to a man-day that is necessary for the inspector to fully do his job. Such tasks include, but are not limited to:

• Preparing the inspection area, which can vary depending on the readiness of the facility
• Pulling a random sample of goods (when using acceptance sampling)
• Writing the inspection report on-site
• Submitting the report to technical staff in the home office for review and approval
• Returning from the factory or inspection site

All of the above activities require time and effort and are essential to thoroughly inspect the goods and inform you regarding the status of the products and the production process. If the time required to perform these activities is a lot, then the inspector may potentially have lesser time available to actually inspect your goods.

Impact of number of units inspected on cost

The number of products that have to be inspected is one of the foremost determinants of the end amount that you will have to pay to the inspection firm; the larger the sample size, the more man-days will be required to inspect those goods and consequently, the higher will the bill be.

In case of consumer goods, it is often highly impractical to inspect each and every good because these orders are usually prepared in extremely large quantities, sometimes as many as tens of thousands of units per shipment. To physically examine each unit would not only require a great deal of time and energy but would also result in the end bill for your inspectors being unreasonably high. For this reason, third-party QC inspection services providers will often select a statistically significant sample from the entire shipment to inspect, from which the overall quality standards of the entire shipment can be inferred. ATI, like many other third-party QC providers, uses the system of acceptance sampling that provides a scientific and quantifiable method of measuring the quality of a shipment.

But within the AQL system, there are also different levels of sampling: three general inspection levels (GI, GII, and GIII) and four special inspection levels (S1, S2, S3, and S4). These inspection levels determine your sample size, and in turn, the man-days needed for inspection.

ATI optimizes your AQL sample for inspection

ATI provides you with a handful of options depending upon your needs that best suits your requirements to seek the best possible service given the lowest price. 

For example, you might be ordering a shipment of 1000 sunglasses from your manufacturer in china. ATI might present you with the following options to choose from:

• Inspect a GI sample size of 150 pairs in 1 man-day
• Inspect a GII sample size of 300 pairs in 1.5 man-days
• Inspect a GIII sample size of 515 pairs in 2 man-days

While you may wish to avoid uncertainty regarding the product quality as much as possible by checking the largest number of sunglasses to gauge their quality, a 2 man-day option might be out of your budget. By providing you with a number of options, ATI gives you the opportunity to choose what suits you best keeping several other factors such as budget and time constraints in mind. ATI also suggests you with a thorough inspection plan according to your requirements that outline details such as shipping deadlines and any specific quality concerns that you may have in mind regarding the products.

Aligning testing procedures and sampling based on your needs

Depending upon the type of product that you are importing, the on-site tests that you need to conduct- as well as the time needed for them- may vary considerably. The more complex your product is, the more time and resources will be required to perform tests on it, resulting in higher charges for you. This is where ATI helps you once again by providing you with an optimal plan that gives you the best satisfaction in terms of quality of the products that you wish to achieve while keeping your time and budget constraints in mind.

ATI provides you with a number of different tests that can be conducted on a specific product, such as garments. Each test will vary in complexity, and therefore in price. by providing you with numerous options to choose from, ATI suggests which tests are vital for your product and in what frequency. This aids you in choosing the optimal testing procedures for your products while keeping costs in mind.

How ATI aids you in inspecting your goods when and where you need it

Ideally, you would wish to have an inspector overlooking the production process on your behalf in the factory every day. This would provide you with the greatest assurance regarding the quality of your products. However, for most importers, such a desire is often way out of budget. Instead, you must align your demands to reflect your budget. You'll most likely be presented with a choice to choose from some of the key stages of production to conduct inspection, which encompasses:

• Incoming quality control (IQC): Checking raw materials or components before production
• In-process quality control (IPQC): Checking semi-finished goods during production
• During production (DUPRO) inspection: Checking finished goods when 15-80 percent of the total order quantity is finished
• Pre-shipment inspection: Checking finished goods and packaging when 80 percent or more of the total order quantity is finished

As a business striving to make larger profit margins it doesn’t make sense to incur additional costs, especially when that cost is completely upon your discretion, right? When talking about pre-shipment inspection services by ATIHongKong, many businesses wish to avoid this process because of the additional strain on resources that it will bring in terms of both time and money. You would want your suppliers to produce the right kind of products, to begin with so that there is no reason to carry out any pre-shipment inspection.

Why waste money on inspection when you can just stress upon your supplier to make products that fulfill all the specifications and requirements that you have asked for? Alas. If only it were that simple.

Sadly, more often than not, manufacturers will produce goods that in one way or another do not meet your requirements. It is only upon the arrival of the shipment that you find that several pieces of goods are defected; this begins the dreaded process of repairs and returns that is nothing but a nightmare for every business.

Defects are inevitable, but it’s better to identify it while you can fix it rather than sell out faulty products that would not only cost you more in the long run but also cause discomfort for the customers. So investing in pre-shipment inspection is a sure shot way to make sure your business only sends out products that abide by the set quality standards.

What about travel costs?

In addition to the man-days spent inspecting the goods, you will also be charged for any travel expenses that your inspector incurs while traveling to and from the factory site. These costs can contribute to a significant proportion in less developed countries where factories are often located in far-off remote areas, distant from any means of public transport. Even in countries such as China where infrastructure is readily available to assist movement from one part of the country to another because the country is so vast it will often take up large sums of money to relocate from one site to another.

How ATI helps you limit travel expenses

At ATI, we provide you with a unique all-inclusive man-day rate for the majority of your inspections. This means that the expenses are all factored into one flat rate and you will not have to pay any additional costs exceeding that quoted as one man-day. How are we able to do so?

Mainly because ATI has a wide network of inspectors located in the main manufacturing zones found globally, where local inspectors are often located nearby the factory sites to minimize costs. So when working with ATI you no longer have to worry about what mode of transport your inspector has opted for when traveling to the factory and how much would you be charged for it.

Conclusion

Quality control is an integral part of any business that wishes to ensure customer satisfaction. As a buyer working with a manufacturer overseas, you may encounter a countless number of problems in the production process, including those that you may least expect. It is therefore very important for you to undertake adequate precautions in order to make sure that you do not encounter any defects in your problems or disruptions in the production process, and the best way to do so is to carry out adequate pre-shipment inspection.

At ATI, we provide you with the best service while minimizing your budget so that you receive top quality products without compromising on costs.