Pre-shipment inspection: what to actually check
An inspection that happens after you have paid the balance is not an inspection. It is a receipt.
Everything below assumes the one thing that makes any of it work: the inspection happens before the final payment is released, and your contract says so.
Why timing is the whole game
Deposit paid, production runs, goods finished, balance paid, goods ship. That is the normal sequence, and in it your money is gone before anyone independent has looked at the product.
Move the inspection in front of the balance and the entire relationship changes. The factory now has a commercial reason to fix problems, because the remaining payment depends on it. Nothing else you do has the same effect.
If a supplier resists this, that is information.
AQL, explained without the jargon
Nobody opens every carton. Inspectors check a sample, and AQL, acceptable quality limit, is the agreed maths for how many defects in that sample mean the whole batch fails.
Three things to understand:
Sample size comes from batch size, using a standard table. A 5,000 unit order does not need five times the sample of a 1,000 unit order.
Defects are graded. Critical, major, minor. A critical defect is a safety problem and the usual tolerance is zero. Major and minor have separate allowances.
You choose the strictness. Common consumer goods settings are 2.5 for major and 4.0 for minor defects. Tighter numbers mean fewer defects tolerated and more rejections. For an electrical product, tighten the critical and major levels.
Agree the AQL levels in writing before production. Arguing about tolerances after a failed inspection is a negotiation you will lose.
What belongs in the brief
An inspector only checks what you asked for. A vague brief produces a useless report.
- The approved sample. Physically with the inspector, or photographed in detail from every angle.
- Dimensions and weight, with tolerances.
- Materials and hardware, by specification, not description.
- Function test, and how many units. For anything electrical, powered on and run.
- Packaging, inner and outer carton, drop test if it matters.
- Labelling, barcodes scanned, origin and care labels, plug and voltage markings correct for the destination.
- Carton dimensions and units per carton, measured, not taken from the quotation. This is also your freight cost, so an error here is money.
- Quantity, counted.
What a good report contains
Photographs of actual defects, not a gallery of the product looking nice. The sample size and AQL applied. A clear pass or fail against those numbers. Measurements as figures. Photographs of cartons, labels and markings.
If the report is three pictures and the word "OK", you have bought nothing.
Who should inspect
Third party agencies charge a few hundred dollars a day and are independent of the factory. For a first order with a new supplier, that independence is worth more than the fee.
The factory's own QC is not an inspection. It may be competent and it is still not independent.
The order that works
- Approve a sample and keep a sealed reference
- Agree AQL levels and the inspection brief in writing
- Pay the deposit
- Inspect before the balance
- Release the balance on a pass
- Ship
Most import disasters are a version of this list with step four missing.
We inspect against a written specification before the balance is paid, and you get the photographs and measurements before the money moves, not after the container lands.