
The Future Of Manufacturing? Digital Transformation.
I recently listened to this podcast from McKinsey on the future of manufacturing, and I’ll summarise some of the key topics and add some of my own thoughts on the points they made about the direction that the manufacturing industry is headed in.

Risk Management When Buying Products From Chinese Suppliers
Recently I was talking with a friend who used to run a buying office in Hong Kong, and he described how buying products from Chinese suppliers is, in good part, about risk management.

Quality Control For Manufacturers: How SynControl Changes QC Approaches
Here are 5 ways a factory can change its quality control approach and drive better business results with, and without, quality inspection software like SynControl…

Quality Inspection: Why an AQL Limit of 2.5% Means Nothing
Many Chinese suppliers try to reassure their potential customers by claiming they are certain to pass a QC inspection with an AQL of 2.5%. When asked for documentation that explains precisely what they mean, they usually have nothing to offer.

Quality Inspection Level & Sampling Lot: Making the Right Choices
Deciding what is in a sampling lot, choosing an inspection level… Most quality managers would say this is ‘Inspection 101’ and that their company does a good job at this.
Let’s look at how you can make better choices when it comes to setting a quality inspection level and sampling lots…

8 Ways Adopting Quality Inspection Software Gives Importers Great ROI
Do you work in a buying office? Are you requested to keep costs as low as possible? Do you need to justify how every investment will contribute to cut costs?
If implementing quality inspection software to improve your inspections is a solution you’re looking at, but you need to be able to show its ROI, then this article is for you.

Product Compliance in the EU: Guidance On Creating Technical Files
If you are an importer in the European Union, are you aware of your obligations related to product compliance? Do you know that you need to keep a technical file about every product you place on the market for at least 10 years?
In this post, we’ll give you some technical file guidance to help you stay compliant, and will also show how the SynControl quality inspection software can handle the task of building and retaining the files for you…

5 Important QC Inspections At Different Production & Shipment Stages
Many buyers tend to focus on the final pre-shipment inspection only. However, there are many other inspection touch points along the production cycle, and even after shipping.
I’ve listed the 5 most common types of QC inspections that can or should be conducted in this post. If you aren’t running these, perhaps you can consider it…

4 Proven Tips For Enforcing Quality Standards In Asia
Once you have established a quality standard for the products you are importing from China (or other low-cost Asian countries), you need to be able to ensure that the standard will be enforced and that quality levels won’t drop over time.
Keep reading for four suggestions that will help you to enforce your quality standards:

10 Steps to Ensure High Quality Production in China
If you import products from low-cost Asia (China, but also Vietnam or India), you need to take steps to increase the odds that you receive high quality production batches. It means you work with the right companies, you set the right standards, and your standards are strictly adhered to.