Supply Chain Services

Suppliers often present themselves in the internet or at trade fairs as serious, successful companies. Still, all that glitter is not gold. We analyze suppliers for you in regard if they have a valid export license.

Moreover, we help you to define technical specifications, quality requirements, and necessary standards for the targeted sales regions.

Field return data are important sources for product improvements or design adjustments. We analyze the data collected and can therefore draw conclusions about the origin of the defect.

We offer factory audits to analyze the following criteria:

• Corporate structure
• Quality system
• Production capacity
• Social compliance

The audit report evaluates the result and identifies the supplier's capabilities in various areas.

The audit reports can be used to select the most suitable suppliers for the planned procurement process. Weak points what can danger the procurement process can be detected early and improvements can be implemented to avoid impact on the ongoing project. For example a too small production capacity or technically not up-to-date production sites.

In this evaluation phase, we also request the available licenses and certificates. If no documents are available, this could already be an exclusion criterion.

In this step, test samples are analyzed with regard to their design, function, and quality before production begins. The essential question is:

Does the product satisfy the users expectations and are the specifications met?

Our objective is to identify and eliminate problems before actual production. We offer the following product test for this purpose:

• Usability
• Performance, function, and product design
• Reliability and endurance tests

We offer these tests to you with the corresponding certification in our worldwide test laboratories. Because "Made in Germany" test quality opens markets and provides trust.

There are various legal requirements to be fulfilled depending on the targeted sales countries for the product. For example such as CE, UL, NOM, INMETRO, CSA, FCC, RoHS, or REACH.

The VDE Testing and Certification Institute offers a wide range of certification and testing services to be compliant to these legal requirements. That is way you qualify your product for your planned sales market and get another competitive advantage.

If the supplier provides complete test reports from recognized test institutes, we can offer you a document check. This includes checking that the product in question is the same that has been previously tested and that the standards mentioned in the test reports are still valid. The most critical requirements from the report can be compared to the corresponding product using short tests. This helps to prevent product recalls and reputation losses. In doing so, we minimize your financial risk. If the supplier is unable to submit proper test reports, we can perform the testing and certification according to the relevant standards in our accredited test laboratories.

If the order quantity is large enough for continuous production, we recommend to audit the production lines and the production process. This enables for an early improvement, in case that problems are found in here.
During the production inspection, our inspectors check the following items:

• Work instructions
• Test routines
• Components
• Safety tests
• Process quality check
• Required improvements from step 3. (review of function and reliability)

Samples will be checked for function, appearance, workmanship and performance. This can be done against a reference sample what is provided in the beginning.

An important process step for a successful supply chain management is the outgoing goods inspection or pre-shipment inspection (PSI). Once the complete lot has been produced and packaged, the inspector randomly picks a pre-defined number of samples, usually according to ISO 2859 AQL, and checks the quality of the products. A typical PSI covers the function test, performance test, workmanship, artwork / labeling, appearance, accessories, software and other product-specific details.

A container loading supervision can be done as an additional service what can help to prevent damage caused by improper loading of the merchandise into the container. Then the container can be additionally sealed by the inspector and shipping can begin.