By The Pro QC Quality Assurance Team We’ve been living in unprecedented times, there’s no doubt – but things must get back on track sooner or later, and the supply chain is the first that will be called upon to function well. So how does your business handle it? We’ve put together a handy checklist for you. As we speak, China is beginning to get back on track, but the impact of COVID-19 remains tangible. The labor force isn’t quite fully back in action, and the other end of the supply chain is missing raw materials. While sub-suppliers get warmed up and factories push all their buttons to get started, quality standards may slip until things are fully back online again. Image Source:Moody’s Our advice is to treat this as a warm-up; every purchasing company needs to look at this as their first order from a new factory. Pro QC’s checklist ensures you, as a buy-side company, have everything you need to verify your supplier can stick to production deadlines and targets without compromising on quality. Identify and prioritize critical parts/components/products in your list of purchasing demands Categorize these into different categories with a pre-determined action plan Ensure you have a supplier verification audit conducted to ensure the production readiness of your critical suppliers. Treat this as if it is the first time you are working with a factory; focus on prevention and pre-emptive Quality Assurance measures including: Enlist a third-party objective verification of the factory’s production readiness, workforce situation, production capacity, ethical requirement and sanitary compliance Check on the readiness of your supplier’s raw material and the associated quality Monitor quality of existing materials and production during this warm-up phase Implement in-process Quality Control All of this should be conducted on-site, in order to provide verification that your production is headed in the right direction as things start to return to normal. While you should expect a few problems in this phase, our evaluation serves as a great way to ensure you are able to make better-informed decisions about the next steps for your supply chain. Pro QC is already using the above framework for many clients to perform on-site factory audits in China and the many other markets in which we work. Get in touch with us to find out how we can help you get your business back on track.
