How To Find A Reliable Factory

Research before you contact anyone

Identify the product and the region you want to source from, then use directories and trade associations to build a list of candidates. The purpose of this stage is not to find the supplier, it is to understand what a normal price and a normal lead time look like for this product. Without that, every quotation you receive is uninterpretable.

Check the credentials that can be checked

Is the factory registered with local authorities and licensed to operate? Is it certified against international standards such as ISO9001, and has it been audited socially, for example to BSCI? Certifications are not a guarantee of quality, but the presence of a real, verifiable certificate tells you the business has been through an external process and survived it.

Visit, or get somebody to visit

A visit answers questions correspondence cannot: whether the production line exists, whether it makes this product, what the quality control process actually looks like on the floor, and who you would be dealing with. If you cannot travel, a third-party audit is a reasonable substitute. Asking to see the line and being refused is itself a useful answer.

Take references seriously

Ask for references from existing customers and contact them. Ask about product quality, delivery times and what happened when something went wrong, because that last question is the one that separates suppliers. Every factory has problems; the difference is what they do about them.

Use a third-party inspection anyway

Even after doing everything above, have the goods inspected before shipment. This is not an expression of distrust, it is standard practice, and any established supplier expects it. The inspection checks the goods against the specification you agreed while they are still in the country where they can be fixed.

Factory or trading company

It is worth knowing which you are talking to. A trading company can be a perfectly good partner, particularly when you need several unrelated products, but it cannot commit to a production schedule it does not control. Jonai Tech has produced card readers in Shenzhen since 2007 and the KIKOO range is built in a plant of about 3,800 square metres with around 100 employees, certified to ISO9001 and audited to BSCI.