Manufacturing companies in China, ranging from small cooperative factories to large foreign invested companies, are usually very dynamic, with a strong drive to sell their products. Many are equipped with professional marketing material, quality certificates, and long lists of references.  But amongst these companies, professionalism of the managerial team, quality level, reliability, capacity to manage consistently large projects or integrate into their clients’ system vary from one supplier to another and range from the best to the mediocre.

Once a potential suppliers list established, selecting the right one(s) is the single most important decision to the success of a sourcing strategy.

procurAsia has put together processes and tools to do a thorough supplier qualification: The most important element is an On-site pre-qualification visit:
A visit is the only reliable way to truly know the capabilities of Chinese suppliers, to check that the data collected on the company during the supplier identification process is 100% correct, and check all ISO & Quality principles are applied: In both workshops and offices, a procurAsia team physically reviews the company organization, its process flows, the quality of goods produced, workers training level, the overall working conditions, equipment and tools maintenance, etc. For example, we reject suppliers breaching basic Safety rules.

The worst companies are typically "rejected at first sight": No need to see the offices or the workshop, and the first peek from the gate tells us enough to recognize a terrible company. As an example, a supplier identified on the web in the Conveyor and material handling industry was the worst workshop we visited in this field. (We would still be courteous and spend the minimum time there in order not to offend the managers we have appointment with...)

The better the company, the more time we need to qualify it: warehousing, project management, logistics, packaging, all functions must be scrutinized in details and many questions must be asked. The use of modern factory management tools is typically a good indication that the company is well managed and capable of the best.

The second most important step is a face-to-face meeting with the supplier's management team, to get a feeling of its experience and willingness to embark on an ambitious project. The fact that data is not readily available and that Chinese companies are very protective of some type of information, does not make this discussion any easier. Our advise: cross-check all factory numbers and company figures given by the Chinese managers. Although it is not always possible to know with certainty what are the true numbers, experience helps to making a good evaluation.

After the pre-qualification visit and meeting, we have the option to make additional reference checks and/or verify the financial strength (debt, etc) of the company when it looks doubtful.

At this stage of the process we are in a position to make an evaluation and support it with a properly documented Supplier Pre-Qualification Report.

Once the supplier qualified, a thorough product qualification is still required, always assuming that “whatever can go wrong will go wrong”, unless it is explicitly managed!

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