Quality of Chinese Products: 4 Common Problems of Skipping a PSI

4 Problems Resulting from a Failure to Verify Quality of Chinese Products Before They Ship: PSI

Pre-shipment inspection (PSI) is one of the critical elements in your company’s quality control procedures – and an important step to verify the quality of Chinese products.

If you choose not to conduct a pre-shipment inspection, you are taking costly import risks.

Here are 4 problems with failing to verify the quality of Chinese products during the pre-shipment phase:

1. Product does not meet the quality standards of the countries you want to import to.

With various countries following various quality standards, it’s difficult to keep track of which products need to meet which requirements.

When working with a supplier overseas, it’s critical to ensure the specifications of the countries you’re importing to are, in fact, met.

In addition, you want to catch any mistakes before the product is shipped – and before you pay for them.

By conducting a pre-shipment inspection, you’ll be able to verify the product quality at the source and avoid paying for defective goods.

2. Your company’s quality standards were not met.

Imagine that your biggest brand of product is shipped, but not made according to your company’s standards for quality. This could cause costly recalls and damage to your brand’s (and company’s) reputation. Yikes!

Be proactive and verify the quality of products before they are shipped.

With a pre-shipment inspection of Chinese products, you can be assured that the supplier has met the agreed-upon specifications that your company requires in order to produce a quality product.

3. No report is provided stating the quality of Chinese products met your quality standards.

While the quality of Chinese products may have been inspected in pre-shipment, you were not given a report stating such.

There is an old saying that comes to mind, “if it isn’t in writing, it didn’t happen.”

It’s important to have the inspection results in writing, for your records. Plus, it allows you to look back on the inspection findings should you need to.

4. Failure to use an independent third-party and relying on your factory quality control staff to check the quality of Chinese products.

Simply put, having your factory quality control staff check for quality during the pre-shipment stage of production can lead to a biased self-assessment process.

In addition, the World Trade Organization’s, Summary of the Agreement on Pre-Shipment Inspections (PSI), states:

“The agreement establishes an independent review procedure — administered jointly by an organization representing PSI agencies and an organization representing exporters — to resolve disputes between an exporter and a PSI agency.”

Therefore, to conduct a credible pre-shipment inspection, an independent third-party should be hired. That way, any self-assessment and conflict of interest are avoided entirely.

Why do Big Companies Need Pre-Shipment Inspections?

Peace of mind, for starters.

While the world-wide marketplace provides amazing benefits, it also is full of costly risks.

It’s critical to ensure that the correct product specifications, quality standards, and all other agreed-upon standards are met before they are shipped and paid for.

This mitigates import risks that could be costly – both in terms of money and brand image.

By performing a pre-shipment inspection for the quality of Chinese products, your company can mitigate expensive importing risks, the number of products returned, and a tarnished brand image.

How QIMA Can Help

QIMA has highly-trained product inspectors that conduct pre-shipment inspections. Among the many criteria reviewed, they check the quality of Chinese products.

By comparing product samples to your quality requirements and the standards of your destination market, inspectors can verify product functionality, performance, durability, overall appearance, and dimensions are correct.

Our product inspectors receive training regularly to keep current in their field of specialization (softlines, hardlines, food, and other industries).

Plus, they have access to hundreds of customizable checklists to meet your company’s exact needs.

What’s even better? You receive a detailed inspection report after the pre-shipment inspection is completed. It shows a pass/fail result along with a summary of key findings and a detailed account of the inspection results.

Depending on the report, some include images showing all inspection points so that you can see exactly what was discovered.

These reports are sent electronically, too, for faster results!

Your Next Steps

Help avoid recalls, reputational damage, and the many other costly impacts of having sub-quality products associated with your company by conducting an independent third-party pre-shipment inspection.

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