Product Inspection Checklist helps importes safer

Product inspection checklist is widely used in the field of physical product manufacturing and quality inspection service. In the third-party product quality inspection service industry, due to the particularity of the industry, it needs to face the quality inspection requirements of thousands of different products from different customers. A product inspection checklist database is established for each product, which is convenient for third-party inspectors to go to factories to conduct efficient and professional product quality inspection. It can be said that the product inspection checklist is one of the important technical documents in the third-party inspection industry.

“The Checklist Manifesto” holds that in modern society, people often make mistakes due to negligence in the face of increasingly complex work and a good way to effectively solve such problems is to establish a checklist of work contents. At the same time, getting into the habit of checking the checklist can not only reduce mistakes and negligence, but also help you to have answers and avoid being overwhelmed. The product inspection checklist of the third-party inspection is how the checklist applies in the daily inspection work of the third-party inspection industry.

Third-party inspection service effectively promotes the development of international physical trade. Specifically, third-party inspection agency refers to an object other than two interrelated subjects, which is a commodity inspection activity carried out by a third party (such as a full-time supervision and inspection agency) in an impartial and authoritative non-party status according to relevant laws, standards or contracts. The existence of independent third-party testing enterprises has its own special significance, which is not only an effective supplement to government supervision, but also can help the government get rid of the “trust crisis” and provide support for the industrial transformation and upgrading of factories.With the improvement of people’s living standards and the demand for product quality continues to increase,the demand of multinational importers for third-party testing industry continues to increase as well.

Product Inspection Checklist of the Third-party Inspection Company

For third-party inspection companies,the product inspection checklist summarizes the main work during quality inspection, so as to help you understand the workflow of inspection companies more clearly.In all inspection services provided by CLI, the product inspection checklist will be used as a clear standard for goods inspection.

The Roles of Product Inspection Checklist in Third-party Inspection

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For third-party inspection companies,the functions of product inspection checklist mainly include in the following aspects:

• Show the professionalism of the third-party inspection company.
• Improve the efficiency of inspection by inspectors.
• Let the factory know what standards the client’s products need to meet.

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Help you to understand products from the perspective of quality inspection.

1.Consumer Perspective

• The appearance of the product directly affects whether consumers will buy the product or not.
• The use function of the product affects the experience of consumers.

2.Factory Production

• Workers’ operation problems,the operation methods of new and old workers may cause different product quality.
• Under the condition of saving costs, factories cut corners in different links.

Third-party inspection companies offer a variety of Inspection service, most importers will give priority to Pre-shipment inspection. According to different product types, before arranging inspection, the account manager of CLI will select the corresponding product inspection checklist and then according to the products that each inspector is good at to arrange an inspector who is familiar with the professional knowledge of the product to go to the factory.The inspector will randomly select the bulk according to the sampling scheme by confirming the quantity of the bulk.Check the appearance and process of products according to the product inspection checklist. Do functional test and abuse test.Issue an inspection report to evaluate the overall quality of goods and reflect the average quality of products. At the same time,inform importers the  existing management problems of the factory.

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The Relationship Between Product Inspection Checklist and Inspection Report.

The inspector of the third party inspection company will issue an inspection report after finishing the inspection. On the one hand, the report record the basic packaging,appearance and all relevant tests  of the product to show the quality of the product.On the other hand, it also restricts the inspector to inspect the product according to the product inspection checklist at the inspection site, ensuring that there is no omission.The following picture is the main test items in the product inspection checklist from a USB camera report. With this list, you can know clearly whether the appearance and performance of the product meet the requirements.

Before Product Quality Inspection,How to Make Product Inspection Checklist?

Generally,the product inspection checklist consists of two parts, one is your requirement and the other is the general Chinese standard.Considering the potential risks of your products from many aspects and thinking about what will happen to your products in the production process will help you list the specific potential defects. Each client’s requirements are different.If you has sold the product, you can refer to consumer complaints,past problems and make a list to the third-party inspection company. During the product inspection, the inspector will focus on the inspection to ensure that the factory will not have the previous problems again. If not, you can list your concerns based on your knowledge of the product.

A professional third-party inspection company will have its own database and a product inspection checklist for each type of product.The product inspection checklist is formulated through the following aspects.

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Refer to the national standard

Almost every product will have Chinese standards,which are divided into national standards,industry standards,local standards and enterprise standards. According to standardization objects, standards are usually divided into three categories: technical standards, management standards and work standards.

Technical standards
Management standards
Work standards
Technical standards

Standards for technical matters that need to be coordinated and unified in the field of standardization. Including basic standards,product standards,process standards,testing method standards,safety,hygiene and environmental protection standards.

Management standards

Standards for management matters that need to be coordinated and unified in the field of standardization.

Work standards

The standards formulated for the responsibilities,rights,scope,quality requirements,procedures,effects, inspection methods and assessment methods.

CLI has accumulated decades of experience in the inspection industry,combined with standards,from the perspective of the operability of third-party inspection,summed up a product inspection checklist belonging to CLI for each type of product, ensuring that this product inspection checklist is professional and well-founded.Besides,the standard also includes the Laboratory tests, you can click to view the introduction. With reference to the national standard, the product inspection checklist mainly includes the following sections:

• The packaging and appearance of products refer to the comprehensive performance of the external shape, pattern, color, structure and size of products.

On the one hand, appearance and packaging can promote the increase of sales volume.The beautiful and novel product modeling is easy to win the favor of customers to make the products sell well.On the other hand, to prolong the life cycle of products, many products seem to be approaching the recession period and the sales are already in a weak state.However, once the shape is improved and the color changes, they will come back to life and become the best-selling products in the market.

• The function of the product.

On the one hand,ensure that every function of the product can be met,on the other hand,check the basic needs of consumers during use.

• Abuse test of products.

Simulate consumers to use and check  whether the product can meet the basic requirements under some common extreme conditions.

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From the national standard to the production process of products,for every link that factories are easy to cut corners or have problems.

From this perspective, it is necessary to have rich industry knowledge and understand every manufacturing process of the product, so as to analyze that the factory may cut corners or make mistakes in that process step and focus on them during product quality inspection. Inexperienced inspectors can’t do this, please see our inspection team.

Product Inspection Checklist of CLI

In the third-party quality inspection, products are usually divided into three categories: softline, hardline,electrical and electronic products.Softline includes household textiles,clothing and other textile or knitted products,as well as footwear. Especially clothing,the industry is labor-intensive and prone to quality defects.The manpower involved in sewing and stitching increases the variability of production.The following is the product inspection checklist developed by CLI for softline bedding:

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Visual inspection:

During the quality inspection, inspectors will use visual methods such as hand touch and visual inspection to inspect the appearance and packaging of products.

• Check whether the sewing is horizontal, flat and vertical. There are no defects such as dirt,oil stains,thread ends,needle skipping and needle dropping on the product.
• Check whether there is color difference in batches of products from the same colors.No color bleeding and mixing are allowed.
• Check whether the product printing is clear and consistent.
• Pay attention to check the craft of each product, especially some lace and pleating.
• Pay attention to whether the packaging and printing information are consistent with the color card and the actual product.
• Check whether the filling of middle,edge and corner from quilt and pillow are same.
• Check the weight and size of the product.
• Check the packing materials.

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Spot test:

Generally,many tests require factories to provide professional test equipment,but in daily third-party inspection,many factories cannot provide professional equipment,so CLI inspectors will simulate the test conditions,and then check the product functions in combination with consumer use.

• Do tensile test on the suture and splice to check whether they are firm and not loose.
• The zipper of the product or package should be able to pull the switch normally and smoothly.
• Fluffy products, shaking and pulling products to check whether the fluff will fall.
• Do the tensile test of the packaging bag to check whether it is firm.Carry out load test on the handle to hang the product for 2 hours.
• Color fastness check,testing with washing powder to check whether the product will fade.
• Check whether each rubber band can be used normally and then do abuse test: pull the rubber band 10-12 times,check the elasticity and firmness of the rubber band.
• Check the GSM of fabric.
• Barcode scanning of cartons and products.
• Carton drop test.

Determination of Defects in Product Inspection Checklist

Different products will have different quality defects,depending on the materials,production technology and standards. Defects are generally divided into three categories: major, minor and critical defects.

Definition of major defects

The major defects of products with quality defects obviously deviate from the buyer’s product specifications.Major defects are those that may adversely affect the function, performance or appearance of products. Customers can easily notice these defects.These defects may cause customers to return goods,complain or ask for a refund.Most importers set lower limits on major defects than minor defects in the samples they inspect. They usually accept orders with relatively few major defects. However,if the goods fail to pass the inspection due to finding too many major defects, they may reject the order or ask the supplier to keep or rework it.

Definition of minor defects

Minor defects are usually small and unimportant problems, which will not affect the function of products.In most cases, customers won’t even notice a minor defect in the product. And customers are unlikely to return goods just because of a minor defect. Importers often set the highest tolerance, or AQL, for the minor defects in the sample size they inspect, that is, in a certain sampling ratio,specify the number of three types of defects that are acceptable. However, if the number of minor defects found exceeds the limit of the corresponding proportion, the conclusion of defects will fail.

Definition of critical defects

Critical defects are the most serious of the three types of defects.Critical defects will make the product completely unusable or cause harm to users. These defects make enterprises face serious risks of product liability, litigation and product recall. Many importers adopt a “zero tolerance” policy for critical defects in orders commensurate with this risk. If a single critical defect is found in the order, the product inspection conclusion usually fails.

Role of Product Inspection Checklist in Specific Cases in CLI Quality Inspection

Last month, we tested a batch of USB cameras for an American client.Almost no third-party quality inspection had been arranged before and the reason why the client suddenly arranged quality inspection was because there were many complaints on Amazon.The main complaint is from the appearance of the product.There are many finger prints on the camera and there are many scratches on camera body.The client sent 80 defective pictures to our company.When the client placed the inspection order, CLI inspection team immediately worked out the product inspection checklist according to the client’s needs and arranged someone to follow up the inspection fully.The factory explained the finger print of the complaint was because they felt that the film on the lens was not beautiful, so they specially asked the workers to tear off the film before packaging it.However,in the actual operation process the workers did not wear gloves strictly throughout the whole process, which led to the finger print residue. When consumers receive such products, they will think that the products have been used, which affects the shopping experience.

The inspection process established by CLI is mainly as follows:

1. Product appearance: send the defect photos provided by the client to the inspector for reference and according to industry standards to make a comprehensive inspection of the product appearance.
2. Check the functions of the product,the  tests are as follows

In the first two inspections, many problems were found, as shown in the following tables.On the third day,the factory reworked all defects found by inspectors.

In the following inspections,the major problems of the products have been obviously improved and the minor problems have been continuously reduced. In order to avoid finger prints, the factory kept the film, as shown in the following photos, but it still does not look beautiful enough. This problem was repeatedly mentioned in the report to remind the client.

To solve this problem, the factory provided a new solution. After communicating and confirming with the client , the lens film was updated as follows from the seventh inspection,It looks more beautiful:

By June, the whole batch of goods has been inspected 15 times and CLI Company specially arranged two experienced inspectors to take turns to inspect the goods. During the inspection, the inspector constantly gave feedback to the factory for positive rectification. Because there were missing parts in the previous inspection, the factory specially arranged a person to inspect the parts to ensure that similar problems would not happen again. The finger print problem has been completely improved and the scratch is almost gone.

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Many importers believe that the use of third-party inspection services not only takes a lot of time in communication, but also delays the delivery time and even affects the sales period. However, when there are many consumer complaints about the products sold by the importer,they have to contact the factory to find out the root of the problem,ask the factory to ensure the next product quality and put an end to any complaints. At this time, however, the trust between the two parties has already had problems and the unilateral promise of the factory can’t reassure the client.At this time, the client chose to use CLI’s service to supervise the factory. For this inspection, CLI provided a professional product inspection checklist. Because of the inspector’s professional service attitude and the inspection report as the basis, the factory also cooperated very well and invested manpower and material resources to improve the product process as soon as possible. In this order, both the factory and us serve the client. For this inspection, we not only help the client control the risks before the products are shipped, but also supervise the factory to improve the quality of the products.

CLI Inspection’s Comments And Summary

This article explains the function, definition, origin and main contents of product inspection checklist in third-party inspection from six aspects.Then combined with CLI’s own product inspection checklist , we give examples of how to help clients find and solve problems in daily product inspection, inspection reports and cases. Understand the clients’ requirements through full communication in the early stage and combine with industry standards to formulate the most suitable product inspection checklist for this product, so as to ensure that the inspector can give full play to the inspection work during the inspection. Hope this article will help you find a satisfactory inspection company more easily.

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