In-House vs. Third Party Quality Inspectors

To have an in-house quality inspection team or to hire a third-party quality control company – that is the question we’ll be focusing on in this blog post. In order to decide, it really comes down to: What do you want to do in-house, and what do you want to subcontract?

The main reason why some importers want their own team to perform inspections is to save money.

If you decide to hire your own inspection team, not only are you paying for their salaries and transportation expenses, but you are also paying with your managers’ supervision time. Will inspectors be trained, supervised, and audited? The cost of NOT having in-country training and supervision can be quite high.

So, why should you consider an independent third-party quality control company? Here’s a list of key reasons:

• You might have multiple orders at the same time and not enough QC inspectors to manage all assignments.
• For some locations, it might be cheaper to use a third party quality inspector local to the area rather than paying to fly someone from another location.
• It is important to rotate quality control inspectors in order to avoid too much acquaintance with the factory representatives.
• It is often better to have an independent quality inspector in front of your factory, as you want to keep a good relationship with them when there are quality issues.
• Sometimes it is good to double-check the performance of your internal inspectors.
• Because of the expertise needed on some specific products, quality control companies tend to have more technical expertise than buying offices.
• Outsourcing support functions like accounting, hiring, controlling, shipping, etc. have become very common and allow importers to increase performance and save on costs.
• Whatever your business situation is (low season vs. high season, for example), the usage of an inspection company is scalable. You can use one as much (or little) as you need. If you have no QC to be done, there is no need to pay the inspector’s salary, social insurance, housing fund, or his manager’s salary.

You can see that the advantages of having a trusted third-party quality control inspection firm on hand are many.

While you may not have to use them frequently, having a reliable partner available in a time of need can save you considerable time and money. Think about what’s most important to you and your colleagues and choose the route from which you’ll get the best results in the long run!

Price vs. Quality: What You Need to Know