It's a common view that manufacturing companies should have a Quality certificate (ISO or equivalent). The ISO certificate doesn't only help the companies to maintain effective operations and produce goods with consistent quality, but also to gain new business: A quality certificate give potential buyers the impression of dealing with a well managed company. For some Chinese companies, a Quality certificate is just like an advertising tool!

To identify a list of suppliers in a given industry following criteria given by our clients, we first establish a long list, then call all suppliers to verify with them that they correspond to what we are looking for. Some stories happen to me when I call suppliers to do such screenings: The suppliers know that if they don’t have an ISO certificate, I will reject them. Here are some examples of some of them playing some tricks on me.

Case 1, the salesman tells me that they definitely have an ISO certificate, but it is locked in their boss's drawer! The boss is on business trip and he will send me a copy after his return. I believed them at that time. But when I call them two weeks later, the boss is still away! Going for such a long business trip, there must be another manager in the company that can provide important documents! I started having doubts and asked for more details…. In the end, the salesman admitted the truth: they don't have an ISO certificate. They just wanted to get the business!
Case 2, the salesman admitted that the company doesn't have an ISO certificate, but he can recommend another good company that owns one. Indeed, this salesman was honest and it was my first time a company would recommend a competitor! This gave me a very good impression. But at last, I discovered that the company he recommended was ISO certified, but could not provide the products we needed…
Of course I rejected both suppliers. Good screening of Chinese suppliers requires a lot of experience!

Steven Wen
April 2007

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