Factory audit
Someone has to walk the factory floor.
Production capacity, quality systems, financial health and labour conditions cannot be assessed over video. Our own team visits the plant and produces a report your Brazilian buyer can put in front of their board. 19 years, offices in Yiwu and Hong Kong.
No cost, no commitment. A 20-minute call to scope what you need.
Why it matters
What does a catalogue not tell you?
Whether the plant that made the sample is the plant that will make the order. Whether the three production lines in the photographs are running, or two of them are idle because the equipment is under repair. Whether the quality department is a department or a person. Whether the factory is financially stable enough to hold your tooling.\n\nNone of this shows up in a video call, and none of it is something a supplier volunteers. It is also not suspicion: a good factory has nothing to hide, and an audit report is often the fastest way for a cautious buyer to get to yes.
What the report covers
Four areas, verified in person.
- Production capacityLines, equipment, shifts, actual output versus stated output, and how much of it is subcontracted.
- Quality systemsIncoming inspection, in-process control, final inspection, certifications held and whether the documented process is the process being run.
- Financial healthRegistration data from Chinese official registries, registered capital, business scope and legal status. A supplier that cannot hold your tooling is a risk regardless of price.
- Social complianceWorking conditions, hours and safety, on the SMETA framework. Increasingly a requirement from the buyer's own customers, not only a matter of ethics.
How it works
Three steps.
- 1
Scope the audit
Which plant, what is being produced, what the buyer needs to see. Twenty minutes to define it.
- 2
We visit
Our own staff, based in China, not a subcontracted inspector meeting the factory for the first time.
- 3
You get a report that can be shown
Written to be read by a purchasing decision maker, with photographs, findings and a clear conclusion. Not a checklist with ticks.
Do you audit our own factory, on our behalf?
Yes, and it is one of the most useful ways to use this. An audit commissioned by the supplier and handed to a hesitant Brazilian buyer removes the exact objection that was blocking the deal, and it does so with a third-party report rather than a self-declaration.
Is this the same as an inspection?
No. An audit assesses the company: can this plant produce what it says, reliably, over time. An inspection assesses a specific batch: is this production run acceptable. Most projects need both, at different moments.
How long does an audit take?
The visit itself is typically one to two days depending on plant size. The report follows within about a week. Scheduling depends on the factory's availability and on where the plant is.
Do you use your own staff or subcontractors?
Our own team, based in China. It matters more than it sounds: a subcontracted auditor meeting the factory for the first time has no basis for comparison, and no relationship to lose if the report is soft.
Related
Next step
Tell us which plant.
Twenty minutes to scope what the audit should cover and who the report is for.
No cost, no commitment. Twenty minutes.