Undoubtedly, product quality inspections are essential for every importer and we all know that they are achieved at a heavy cost.
It is obvious that as a smart business person, you all want to reduce this cost to a minimum amount. But this has to be done very carefully. You need to ensure that you are not giving an indicator to produce products at a lower standard to your suppliers.
In fact, you need to make sure that they deliver constant work with good quality. Here comes a question that is it alright to inspect a few shipments only?
It is important for you to understand that it is known as “skip-lot inspections” in the industry if you do not get every shipment inspected. Skip-lot inspections can be used to save dollars but only when you conduct it in the correct way.
If you are wondering about whether you should decrease inspections or not then we must tell you that you will not find a tailor-made answer to this question which fits all. We are enlisting some points which will help you in deciding if it is really the right choice or not.
Let’s read about skip-lot inspections and the correct circumstances to choose it. We will also talk about the optimum ways to reduce inspections in the most efficient way.
Skip-lot or reduced inspection: Should be considered on not?
Skip-lot inspections are about conducting inspections at regular and pre-decided frequency. It does not involve getting inspection services in India for every shipment.
All you should keep in mind that you do not have to stop inspections altogether. It is important to ensure a steady good quality of your products. When you stop inspections, it will decline your product quality gradually. You will not even be able to notice it.
Eventually, it will pose as a major quality issue which will call for many customer complaints. Such happenings are the greatest risk of avoiding inspections.
When should you consider reduced inspections?
There are various factors which you need to consider before answering this question for your business. You can consider reduced inspection frequency in the situations listed below:
- You have a long-term relationship which is well-established with a factory. And this factory has a history of developing products of optimum quality which passes inspections.
- You have a well-collected inspection data and contacts with multiple suppliers. They can inform you about the ones who are producing products of good quality. So, you must continue strict inspection at lower performing factories and reduce at higher-performing ones.
- If you are ordering the same item on a regular and continuous schedule rather than purchasing it occasionally. When you purchase an item sporadically, it is likely to possess quality issues when you buy it.
- If you ordering the same product more than once a quarter, this makes your factory efficient in producing a product because they are doing it frequently.
Apart from the above-mentioned points, you must also consider the complexity of the product category in which you are dealing with. If there is a complex product where you can’t afford low quality then maintain regular frequency levels.
How to securely reduce inspection frequency?
It involves making a smart expenditure on quality control. You must take steps which can maximize your budget for quality control in India. For instance, you can spend more on lower-performing factories and lesser on higher-performing ones.
In other words, in the way of reducing inspection cost, you must define certain parameters for quality that a specific supplier must meet. After reducing the frequency of inspection you should scrutinize the inspection results and check whether they are consistent or not.
If you come across deteriorating quality then you can switch to the previous inspection patterns. After this, repeat the process again until when you are satisfied with their quality consistency.
You can also decide with a supplier that they will have to take responsibility for all the additional inspection costs in case you need to stay stuck to the original frequency.
Moreover, when you get an inspection done at a factory, it involves a lot of other costs as well. For example, the cost of repackaging of goods, and the energy devotion to the inspector. Decreased number of inspections can be therefore very rewarding.
Final words:
Reducing inspection frequency can maximize its effectiveness. We recommend to not stop inspection altogether. Therefore, you need to make effective calculations based on the history of inspection data.
Moreover, you will have to scrutinize your inspection data closely to ensure that the quality of the same level is maintained. If there is any hampering of quality then you should move back to the same inspection frequency.
