How do Importers Manage the Inspectors in China Sourcing Office？
Made in China has become the trend of international trade,because China has the advantages of abundant labor, wide territory,centralized and complete supply chain,which makes importers from all over the world purchase goods in China and expand their own markets.When importers occupy a certain market share in the country’s market,many of them will choose to set up sourcing offices in China.Arrange purchasing personnel to make preferential purchases throughout China,so as to obtain considerable profits.
Such a sourcing office is usually composed of procurement staff and inspectors,which control the procurement cost on the one hand and the product quality on the other hand.Not only need a sound purchasing management system,but also need to develop a perfect product inspection process,so that inspectors can operate skillfully and control the potential risks of products.For senior executives,a mature sourcing office should have the potential of purchasing cost analysis and quality risk analysis.This potential is reflected in the recruitment of personnel,but also in the follow-up management.After all,a good system can cultivate a group of serious and professional employees,but the management is not difficult.Today,we focus on analyzing the management difficulties of inspectors in China’s sourcing offices.Importers can compare and see whether your own procurement departments have such difficulties and get solutions.
Difficulties in Managing Inspectors in China Sourcing Office
Composition of inspection team
Many importers who don’t understand China’s supply chain tend to have an inspector in the city where the sourcing office is located,so that the inspector can be managed by senior executives together with the sourcing staff.At the same time, they can maintain a good working atmosphere with other colleagues in the office. However, due to the vast territory of China,the production bases of different categories of products are widely distributed. It is impractical to run all over the country with only one inspector. While increasing the inspection cost,the inspection efficiency also declined.
It’s wise to know how the products are distributed in China and recruit inspectors according to regions. For example, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shandong and other provinces are all developed manufacturing areas in China.Each region is equipped with multiple inspectors and a QC manager is arranged to control all product quality and ensure the normal operation of the inspection team.At the same time,there will be no conflicts of interests among different inspectors,which will not affect their inspection efficiency.Executives only need to check the perfection of inspection system with QC manager regularly and put more energy into market research after the inspection cost is effectively controlled.
Resident inspector
Due to the control of inspection cost,importers may prefer to have only one inspector in one city.For importers, an inspector means that management is more convenient and there is no need for multi-level communication, but it is enough to directly convey their requirements to the inspector.Moreover,the inspector is already familiar with the company’s inspection process and the only difference is different products and different factories.But it’s not that simple in nature.An inspector is resident in a city and he is responsible for the inspection work in the surrounding cities.In the long run, he is familiar with every factory.When the factory knows that the inspector has the right to decide whether to ship the goods,it will inevitably bribe the inspector.For inspectors,the company is not allowed to accept any bribes.However,these orders are all repeated,so as long as there is no serious problem in quality,they will not be known and criticized by the leaders.Moreover,if an inspector goes to the same factory for a long time,it is easy for the factory to think that he is the only quality supervisor of the company in China,so it is normal to pay bribes.
If the inspector thinks that there will be no problem with the quality of the repeated orders,he will accept bribes recklessly,which will eventually lead to the importer receiving consumer complaints,which is the most terrible result.Not only invested a lot of inspection costs,but also affected the sales volume of products.Therefore, apart from the importance of inspectors’ professional quality,it is equally important to arrange more inspectors in a city.Because it can make inspectors feel pressure and work harder.
Number of inspectors’ branches
The so-called branches are cities where inspectors are distributed.The more branches,the wider the inspection scope.According to the second point of inspector’s residence,with the increase of branches,the inspection team has been expanded and there is a sharp contrast between inspectors.Each inspector is only responsible for his own area,occasionally he will help and sometimes he will exchange experience with others.Maybe some executives have QA awareness and give a complete system to inspectors.However,if these trainings are not combined with actual inspection,it is difficult for inspectors to accept and learn them.After all,many inspectors have stubborn fixed thinking and are unwilling to accept new things.Only by combining theory with practice can we avoid detours and even affect product sales.The following benefits are that the inspection efficiency is improved and the authenticity of the inspection work is certified.
Inspector’s professional level
Under normal circumstances,inspectors are divided into two categories:one is just engaged in inspection work,understands the basic inspection process and has certain learning ability;second,they used to work in a large inspection company,know the routine of the inspection industry well and have their own skilled inspection process.There is a sharp contrast between the above two types of inspectors and corresponding training systems should be established for different types of inspectors.For example,for newcomers in the inspection industry, hey are eager for a stable job and will spend a lot of time studying.This kind of inspectors can be given more training on product production process and QA knowledge,which is helpful to improve the efficiency of inspection work.
As for inspection veterans,they have experienced the tempering of large inspection companies and are familiar with different inspection processes.In addition to management training,QA knowledge should be instilled. After all,large inspection companies rarely have QA conscious,so customers often complain.At the same time, this kind of inspectors can help senior executives to formulate inspection procedures with higher operability and avoid inspection omissions.
Although all of the above are difficulties for importers’ management inspectors,after analyzing from different angles,executives who know the advantages and disadvantages should have answers.We hope that every importer can eventually expand his sourcing office in China,because there are certain challenges,which require executives to know more about the composition of China’s supply chain and the operation of the inspection industry.Of course, n the early stage,when the importer does not intend to invest too much budget on the inspection cost,he can take another way to save the cost,that is to outsource it to the inspection company appropriately.
Benefits of Proper Outsourcing
From the importer’s point of view,they definitely want to hand over all the inspection work to their inspectors, because it can be better managed.However,the difficulty of management and the uncontrollability of inspection work have been analyzed in detail above.Outsourcing is not strongly recommended because we are in the inspection industry.This is only considering the cost control of importers.Why can inspection companies reduce inspection costs? Of course,the main purpose of the inspection company is to help importers check the quality of products and control the potential quality risks of products.Inspectors of inspection companies are trained professionally and have customized inspection procedures for different importers to ensure the sustainability of inspection level.
More importantly,the inspection company has a broader inspection scope and is familiar with the production process of various products.Importers only need to give the product information to the inspection company and they can wait for the inspection results. Some cost-effective inspection companies can even propose technological improvements to help predict consumer complaints in advance and reduce the risk of claims.Isn’t this the biggest benefit of outsourcing?
CLI Inspection’s Comments And Summary
In addition to being concerned about the improvement of product quality,executives are more eager to know how to control inspection costs.The inspector is directly related to the inspection cost.If all aspects involved by the inspector can be controlled well,the inspection cost will be controlled.Through the organization of China Sourcing Office to management difficulties,the inspection cost is clear at a glance.
The inspector’s own quality,professional level,inspection efficiency and authenticity are all helpful to control the inspection cost.Once the inspection results are getting better and better,it will promote the improvement of the management system of the whole company and also reflect the management level of senior executives.At the same time,,this further enhanced the team cooperation ability of China Sourcing Office and expanded staffs.However,the importers’ supply chain management in China is more systematic,thus expanding the marketing scope of your products.This is a management mode that kills two birds with one stone,which is exactly what we expect.
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