Case Study | Why suppliers always tell you that the product need to be reworked?

The product needs to be reworked must be due to poor quality.

Case review:

Company A wants to purchase 2500 sports cameras. Company A has purchased this product from foreign trade company B many times before. Company C is a sourcing service company in China, and the company is indirectly involved in the purchasing process (Company C places an order on behalf of Company A to designated foreign trade company B, but does not know who is the factory that produces the products). Now the customer places an order directly to Company C. It is impossible for Company C to purchase from a foreign trade company. It must find the source factory and purchase from the factory. Company C was looking for factory, and just found the factory D that had previously supplied foreign trade company B. Naturally, company C placed the order to D factory. Because the customer’s previous orders were actually produced by factory D, they know very well about the requirements of customized products, and the price is also right.

The communication in the early and mid-term of the order is relatively smooth, and the D factory is also very cooperative. The pre-production samples/packaging samples are confirmed as scheduled and the production delivery date is not delayed. However, during the inspection process of company C, it was found that the blister in the product packaging was too thin, and the excessive force during the operation of the production line staff caused the edge of the blister to crack. The packaging of 40 out of 200 products was cracked. The product itself has no quality problems.

Company C requires factory D to rework all the 2500 units and replace the cracked blister. At this time, the D factory, which was well-mannered and very cooperative, immediately changed its face and refused to accept rework.

The reasons are:

1. Samples were sent to Company C for confirmation before the packaging is mass-produced, and the goods are consistent with the samples. (The sample is indeed confirmed)

2. The supplier believes that the product is okay, the packaging is slightly bad and does not affect the function of the product.

3. The material itself is like this, and the blister will also crack if it is reworked.

Repeated communication and coordination with D factory, but they still reluctant to rework. Only willing to make up the condition of blister according to the inspection ratio. Unfortunately, the order was delivered in a short period of time, and the company C had no choice but to accept this result.

500 free replacement blister

The reasons for this phenomenon are:

1. For company C’s own reasons, it did not take into account the problem that the material is too thin and easy to crack when confirming the sample. But factory D often produces this product, so company C should be notified of this phenomenon.

2. It is not told that the blister will crack, because the D factory thinks this problem is too normal and is not a product quality problem. The factory believes that packaging is not a product, as long as the product is okay. But for customers, the packaging is also part of marketing. Buyers first look at the packaging of the product. Bad packaging will also give consumers a bad shopping experience. So the packaging is as important as the product.

3. The most important reason is that the rework costs incurred by product rework will be contrary to their interests. Rework requires material costs, labor costs, etc. Reworking a product is more expensive than producing a product, which will result in less profit for the factory.

In fact, rework and repair of products has always been problematic place. One of the reasons is that rework and repair are all manual operations, and there is almost no mature production line process control.

The complexity of rework management is beyond ordinary people’s imagination. For complicated things, we can’t ask too much. The more we expect, the less we get.

Many products purchased from factories are of poor quality because of low prices and low wages for employees. Naturally, factories and workers will not do their best to serve you. .

“Anyway, this little problem does not affect the use of the product. It doesn’t matter.” “We can’t buy materials to rework, can’t reach the minimum order quantity of the blister.” the factory find various reasons to refuse rework. Suppliers who refuse to rework usually target the low-end market, so they have such quality standards. Such factories are not strict in quality control, do not pay attention to details, and the related costs are low, so their prices are also low.

The way to cooperate with such suppliers to avoid disputes is to specify the thickness of the relevant materials in the contract and specify all requirements as much as possible.

When choosing a supplier, don’t keep your eyes on low prices, keep in mind that you get what you pay for.