Title Page
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Supplier Name
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Product Category
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Location
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Conducted on
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Prepared by
General Information
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Date established
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Total annual sales
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No. of Employees
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No. of Quality Control Employees
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No. of Operators
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No. of Machines
Quality Control
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Does the supplier has a quality system?
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Opinion about the factory'a ability to deliver quality products consistently
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Does the factory communicate requirements to its suppliers on its POs (or other documents)? Are these requirements clearly listed?
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Are incoming QC results recorded in a formal report?
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Are conform samples available to workers in production and QC areas?
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Are clear procedures given to each operator and to the QC staff, for each job?
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Does final QC occur before or after packing is completed?
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Are there QC staff solely dedicated to final QC? How many? Do they only do QC, or also a finishing operation at the same time?
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Are final QC results recorded in a formal report?
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Is the first-pass yield displayed on a wall, and tracked day-by-day and line-by-line?
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Are numbers and details of customer complaints displayed on a wall?
Cost Control
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Are top managers (general manager, production manager, finance manager, sales manager, QC manager) part of the owner’s family? Or are they professional managers?
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Are there several empty floors?
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Can you see recent investments in expensive machinery?
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Are there idle machines?
Maintenance
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Is equipment failure down time calculated?
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Are there checklists for maintenance? Do they seem to be followed?
Visual Control
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Is the number of pieces per labor hour displayed on a wall, and tracked day-by-day?
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Is the amount of scrapped material displayed on a wall, and tracked day-by-day?
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Is the total unit cost displayed on a wall, and tracked day-by-day?
Degree of "Lean-ness"
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Can you see a lot of inventory kept before production and kept between each production step?
Production
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Before a new product is launched, are some jigs/tools prepared by the engineering department?
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Is pre-production inventory well organized?
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Is work-in-process inventory stored in a predictable way, or do people need to look around to find what they need?
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Where do the components used in production come from? How long does transportation take?
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Is production organized as a continuous flow, without any work-in-process inventory visible in the workshop? (best)
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Is there a kanban system? (very good)
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Is there a production planning, with details for each workshop, and updated every day? (good)
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Is there no production planning at all? (worst)
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Is there a list of approved subcontractors, who can take over part of the job? For which process steps?
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Is there a power generator?
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Is equipment failure downtime calculated?
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Are there checklists for maintenance? Do they seem to be followed?
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Is the proportion of on-time shipments displayed on a wall, and updated at least weekly?
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Is the time to make one piece, from start to finish, displayed on a wall, and updated daily?
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Can you see a lot of inventory between each production step?
Compliance
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Are there enough fire extinguishers (in workshops, dormitories)? Are they accessible, and up to date?
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Are there enough emergency exits? Is it possible to lock them? Are they used as storage areas?
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Do workers have appropriate personal protective equipment (gloves, masks, glasses, safety boots)?
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Are there enough first-aid kits? Are they available and full?
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Does production generate a lot of waste? Is this waste treated?
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Has the factory invested in energy-efficient equipment?
Summary of Findings
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General organization in the factory
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Working environment (light, noise..)
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Motivation of top management
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Ease of mutual understanding
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Can they make our product?
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Do they have enough capacity?
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Do they already sell to our country?
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Do they understand our standards?
Completion
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Full Name and Signature of Inspector/QC Manager
