End-to-end inspections that protect your brand before products leave China
Total Quality Control Management
Quality control isn't a one-time pre-shipment inspection—it's a series of checkpoints built into your entire supply chain. Kanary designs that system for you and runs it on your behalf. We start upstream with factory audits and raw material verification, then monitor production with golden samples and in-line inspections to keep defect rates within agreed thresholds. Before anything ships, we perform final product and packaging inspections to ensure only approved inventory leaves the factory. The result is fewer defects, fewer complaints, and products ready for scale.
Supplier & Factory Audits
Before you commit to production, we audit factories (and key sub-vendors when needed) to confirm capabilities, raw material quality, and process readiness. This prevents surprises later, like discovering a supplier can’t meet your standards once mass production has started.
Raw Materials & Component Verification
We verify that core materials and components match agreed specifications—textile weight, packaging durability, electronics performance, and more. Catching issues at the material level prevents leaks, breakage, failures, and compliance problems down the line.
In-Production Monitoring & Testing
Kanary sets up in-line inspections and batch-level checks to monitor dimensions, fit and finish, labeling, and functionality during production. When we see trends moving in the wrong direction, we intervene with the factory before inventory is finished and packed.
Kanary's Quality Control Process
Kanary takes in the whole picture of what quality control processes may already be in place at your chosen factory. If appropriate quality control is already present, our experts will supervise production to ensure that those procedures are followed. If quality control is lacking, Kanary will develop quality control processes, catered to your product, and will implement them with the supplier.
Analyzing Manufacturing Risk for Determination of Acceptance
Kanary leverages its quality control expertise to identify manufacturing risk and to limit quality issues. This includes implementing avoidance strategies, risk transfer, and mitigation techniques to determine what baseline acceptance is for production.
Supervising Production
During production, it’s important to make sure the quality control processes are being followed thoroughly. This means that all quality standards are easily indefinable using things like assembly diagrams, go no go references, and other fixtures to ensure a quality final product is being produced. Kanary can help put all these processes in place and make sure they are followed during production.
Final Product Inspection
While Kanary performs regular quality control tests on products as they're made, our team will conduct a final product inspection after manufacturing is complete. This allows us to double-check for any product defects, packaging issues, or any other problems that would affect product quality.
Approval to Ship Product
Kanary gives the final approval for products to be shipped, whether they are being shipped via sea freight, or moving to a China fulfillment warehouse for direct-to-customer shipping.
Quality Control Services by the Numbers
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As a loose guide, the typical “sweet spot” Kanary client who will benefit the most from our process and scaleable expertise will have annual gross revenue starting at approximately 5 million USD. If your business meets—or is approaching—this threshold, we can help you!
FAQ
What is quality control in China?
Quality control in China refers to what your business does to ensure that your products are manufactured as requested, without defects, and are safe to use by consumers. Quality control often involves several kinds of audits, some of which include:
- Supplier audits: Supplier audits are performed to ensure that a potential supplier is who they say they are, as well as making sure they have the manufacturing capabilities they advertise. Supplier audits are meant to weed out scammers and low-quality suppliers that should always be avoided.
- Factory audits: Factory audits are conducted to get a detailed view of what a factory's manufacturing capabilities are. This will be important if you are sourcing complex products that require special manufacturing.
- Social audits: Unlike other quality control audits, a social audit will determine if a potential supplier meets your ethical standards as a business partner. This may include how they treat their labor force, where they source their materials, or the environmental impacts of their manufacturing process.
These audits often occur before production begins. There are other audits that are part of quality control that will happen during product, which include:
- Initial Production Check (IPC): The IPC begins before mass production starts and lasts until about a fifth of your order is complete. During the IPC, machinery, raw materials, and factory processes are scrutinized to ensure that your products are made to meet your standards.
- During Production Check (DUPRO): The DUPRO begins close to when the IPC ends, and lasts until the majority of your products have been manufactured and packaged. DUPRO involves randomly taking products off the production line for inspection during various stages of the manufacturing process. If system issues are found, production can be halted.
- Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI): The PSI begins close to when the DUPRO ends. During the PSI, fully manufactured products are inspected for any potential quality issues before products are packaged for shipment. Defective products are removed from batches during this step.
Container Loading Check (CLC): Finally, the CLC is conducted as products are loaded onto sea freight containers and ensures that only products that meet your quality standards are shipped.
Can Kanary perform product inspection in China?
Yes. In fact, Kanary handles the entire quality control process for our clients sourcing products from China. We have an office in China, which allows us to visit the factories producing products for our clients, and to ensure those factories' quality control standards match what you expect.
Should I allow my supplier to conduct quality control in China?
You should never allow your supplier to handle quality control. They simply have too many incentives to cut corners, which will result in terrible product quality. Your business should handle quality control personally, or you can partner with a third-party, like Kanary, to help supervise quality control.
Should I hire a third-party inspection agency to help with quality control in China?
If you don't have a way to manage quality control steps yourself, you absolutely should partner with a third party to help with quality control. While there are stand-alone third-party inspection agencies, we recommend partnering with a sourcing specialist that includes quality control in their offerings, like Kanary.
What quality control inspection services does Kanary offer?
We offer robust inspection services on behalf of our clients. Our services include:
- Supplier audits
- Factory audits
- Social audits
- Initial Production Check
- During Production Check
- Pre-Shipment Inspection
- Container Loading Check