Category: Pro QC

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.

1. Identify and prioritize critical parts/components/products in your list of purchasing demands
2. Categorize these into different categories with a pre-determined action plan
3. 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.

National Engineers Week was observed in February. It’s origins and purpose include:

“Founded by NSPE in 1951, EWeek is dedicated to ensuring a diverse and well-educated future engineering workforce by increasing understanding of and interest in engineering and technology careers.”

A point of differentiation for Pro QC is the engagement of engineers. Engineers are at the heart of the organization, including a founder whose roots are tied there.

It was noted once during an interview that “engineer is not a word, but rather an identity.” And, Queen Elizabeth II herself was noted as saying “at its heart, engineering is about using science to find creative, practical solutions. It is a noble profession.”

So, what makes up a “good” engineer? At Pro QC, we hire a number of inspectors, auditors, etc. to assist with projects all over the world. Common attributes we look for include:

• Problem solving ability
• Enhanced critical thinking, creativity
• Detail oriented
• Natural curiosity
• Effective communication skills

A few questions we ask to assess the attributes noted above include:

•  To know more about how an engineer approaches problems, ask them to identify which tools they would use to address a particular issue.
•  To know more about natural curiosity, inquire about projects or hobbies outside of work.
• Ask for examples of what processes they have developed that have enhanced some example of engineering performance capabilities? What was the impact on the organization?
• To evaluate critical thinking, we ask applicants to look at a cluttered photo and find a cat. We want to see how the applicant approaches finding it.
• We ask what people like the most and least about engineering in general.
• To learn more about someone, we ask them what they get out of engineering that they don’t feel like they would get from another professional.

Learn more about National Engineers Week: [url]https://www.nspe.org/resources/partners-and-state-societies/national-engineers-week[/url]

Written By – The Pro QC Quality Assurance Team

The World Bank has recently released encouraging figures with regards to India’s projected growth rate for the next two years, expecting 7.3% and 7.5% for 2018 and 2019 respectively. They have further stated the country has ‘enormous growth potential’ compared to the economies of other emerging markets. To put matters in perspective, the GDP of the other BRICS (Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa) countries are projected to grow as follows in 2018:

Brazil: 3.0%

Russia: 1.7%

China: 6.4%

South Africa: 1.1%

Source: reuters.com

India’s projected growth is all the more impressive considering recent disruptive government policies with regards to the implementation of GST in July 2017, as well as demonitisation earlier in 2016. It is noticeable that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Make in India” campaign has resulted in more positive sentiment towards the country with regards to local manufacturing. Important to note that a large driving force behind production in India also involves circumvention of the country’s relatively high import tariffs – local manufacturing/assembly allows companies to tap India’s vast and increasing consumer market in a more competitive manner.

What’s more, India’s rise on the world stage is notable, as the country is playing an increasingly important role with regards to stability and international order. Illustrative of this is for example the India-Israel Business Innovation Forum, taking place next week. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu is joined by over 130 delegates from 90 different Israeli companies to discuss business & trade opportunities in Delhi & Mumbai with local government and business representatives.

The above is in line with our own experience on the ground, as Pro QC International has seen an increase of business in India of over 30% when comparing 2017 vs. 2016. We are proud to have supported many new clients with their supply chains South Asia in 2017 and expect this trend to continue for 2018.

For more information on our services across the region, kindly surf to www.proqc.com or contact directly on daniel_ben-ezra@proqc.com.

This month represents six years of blogging and sharing quality news and insight. Pro QC has provided QC services for over three decades and has seen the emergence of technology within the industry and the significant advantages organizations have today as a result.

A few notable advances in technology we’ve seen over the years includes:

1984: When Pro QC started in 1984, scheduling requests were primarily handled by fax and were hand written.  During that time, the cost of international long distance prohibited frequent team communications among regions. Communications were slow, and calls were short.