Understanding the buyer’s requirements
Does the factory have a clear list of all desired characteristics of a product, before production starts?
Is it clearly specified how each characteristic should be measured?
Are conform samples available to workers in production and QC areas?
Suppliers of inputs
How does the factory evaluate and select material suppliers?
Do they communicate the requirements accurately to material suppliers?
Do they check whether a purchased product is up to specifications? How?
Do they send samples for lab tests? How often and for what tests?
Are materials properly stored?
In-house production
Does the factory give clear procedures to each worker and for each job (including the QC staff)?
How do they validate that each production process achieves the desired results?
Do they do in-process QC? On what proportion of products? What do they do with the data collected this way (corrective/preventive actions)? What happens to pieces found to be defective?
How do they ensure that measuring instruments are available and correctly used?
Do the operators control their own work?
Is there regular training?
Subcontracted production
Are materials delivered directly to subcontractors? How are they checked?
How does the factory control the work of the subcontractor(s)?
What do they check about the subcontractors’ operations?
Final QC
What proportion of products is checked? How are they checked? Does it include packing?
Is there one last inspection based on AQL statistics? Based on what level of AQL?
What happens when non-conformities are detected?
