Quality inspection

When concluding contracts for large foreign trade deliveries, foreign economic activity participants face a number of difficulties: the inability to independently familiarize themselves with the manufacturing process, the likelihood of violations of production standards, non-compliance with packaging requirements for sale in the EAEU, and a number of other factors create the risk of receiving low-quality products and serious financial losses. In order to protect yourself from unwanted expenses, it is advisable to organize an independent inspection of the quality of goods before shipment from the manufacturing plant.

OnlogSystem provides a service for inspecting the quality of products at the sender's warehouse or other location. We organize the inspection of goods in accordance with international standards and provide an objective report on the condition of the imported batch.

What is product quality inspection?

Product quality inspection is the process of checking the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of products, as well as monitoring the main production stages that may affect the consumer properties of the products.

During the assessment, the expert determines whether the product complies with the declared characteristics in terms of:

• Appearance, packaging, and configuration;
• Performance;
• Functionality;
• Durability, as well as checking the correctness of labeling and filling out accompanying documentation.

When and why might a foreign trade participant need to inspect the quality of goods?

As a rule, product quality control is required at the stage of starting cooperation with a new supplier in order to gain greater confidence in the security of the transaction. Production inspection will help solve several of the importer's tasks at once, for example:

• Eliminate the possibility of receiving goods that are unsuitable for sale before full payment for the batch;
• Minimize the risk of recalling defective products and causing reputational damage to the company;
• Forecast the timely shipment of the order;
• Assess the compliance of production standards with expected quality standards.

What types of inspections are there?

• Pre-Production Inspection — initial inspection or pre-production control necessary to assess the quality of raw materials, materials, components, and parts from which the products will be made;
• Initial Production Check — preliminary assessment of the first samples of manufactured products (usually carried out when no more than 10% of the total volume of the planned delivery is ready);
• During Production Inspection — production control carried out when 30-50% of the total quantity of purchased goods is ready. The inspection is carried out directly during the manufacturing process at the factory and is more often used for continuously manufactured products;
• Pre-Shipment Inspection — pre-shipment quality inspection, which is carried out at the final stage of production (when more than 80% of the purchased products are ready for shipment) in order to check the goods for compliance with the buyer's specifications.

In addition, when inspecting certain categories of goods, the expert may apply special inspection methods, for example:

• Individual inspection — a detailed check of the appearance, functionality, and safety of expensive products;
• Checking for hazardous metals — usually carried out during the inspection of clothing and other textile products, as needles and other hazardous metal objects that could harm consumers may remain in the products during the manufacturing process.

How is the batch of goods for inspection determined?

In most cases, goods are sampled for inspection according to AQL (acceptable quality level) standards, the 4-point system (for detecting fabric defects), or food standards (when inspecting fruit, vegetables, or fish). However, the customer has the right to independently determine the control criteria and the size of the batch to be inspected.

Comprehensive outsourcing of foreign economic activity from OnlogSystem

Our company's employees can carry out quality inspections of goods as part of a comprehensive outsourcing of foreign economic activity. This service also includes: sampling and selection of product samples for laboratory testing within the EAEU, monitoring the loading of containers into vehicles, insuring deliveries against transport risks, customs clearance of imports under the broker's electronic signature or under an agency agreement, and performing other related tasks on a “one-stop shop” basis.

For example: