We asked one of our clients to give us their impressions at a China factory visit recently. Read below to get an idea of how they felt during this trip regarding the factory audit for custom promos. This is one of a series of blogs that we will title: Buyer Diary.

 What is a factory audit?

A factory audit, as the name suggests is an assessment of the factory which is in charge of manufacturing the custom promos. A factory audit is done by professionals who have been working with factories long-term. The aim of a factory audit is to consider the overall condition of the factory, and decide its suitability to take up orders for custom promos.

Factory Audit for Custom Promos

Factory Audit for Custom Promos

What factors does a factory audit consider for custom promos?

Generally, a factory audit consists of assessment on the various factors, such as the following (not exhaustive)

  • Factory experience
  • Factory space and warehouse
  • Factory manpower
  • Factory equipment
  • Factory management

We can ask ourselves the following questions to further understand what the assessment of the custom promo factory is about. Let’s assume it is an order with 200,000 pieces of quantity.

Factory Experience

How many years of experience does the factory have?
What is the core manufacturing of custom promos for the factory?
Does the factory specialize in manufacturing for plastic items or metal ones?

Factory Space and Warehouse

Is there sufficient factory space to manufacture and store 200,000 pieces of custom promos?
Will there be a logistics difficulty?
Who handles these administrative matters?

Factory Manpower

How many full time staffs are there in the factory?
Can the staff manage to produce 200,000 pieces of custom promos in the limited time?
Are this staffs efficient?

Factory Equipment

Does the factory have the relevant equipment to manufacture the custom promos?
Are these factory equipment sufficient to deliver quality goods?
Are the factory equipment sustainable?

Factory Management

How is the factory being managed?
Who makes up the factory management?
Is the factory management team capable to manage a factory to manufacture custom promos of a certain standard?

Why is a factory audit important?

A factory audit is important to ensure that the factory is capable to manufacture the custom promos according to requirements.  Also, it is to make sure that the factory meets the client’s expectations. Most importantly, we would like to make sure that production starts efficiently on the right path.

What if the factory audit fails?

It is ODM’s advice to not proceed with a factory which did not pass the factory audit. Otherwise, it is best to take precaution measures as we expect the potential manufacturing problems which may arise. It is also time to be strict and professional with the China factories, to ensure that mistakes are reduced to the bare minimum.

Passing a factory audit

This means that you have your factory ready to manufacture your custom promos! Then we will have to make sure that everything is well understood and ready for production.