Regulatory laws and guidelines are an increasing challenge to importers throughout the world. How these affect you will vary based on your product type, component materials, where the product is being shipped, and the end-users in your market. Since the risk is high, it is imperative you stay up to date on all relevant regulatory laws affecting your products. Our partner staff can work with you to determine your exact requirements and propose a custom solution to best meet your needs. You will also be provided with monthly updates on regulatory matters to keep yourself informed.

Prop 65 is the 1986 voter-approved Safe Drinking Water & Toxic Enforcement Act that includes a list of chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer and/or reproductive toxicity. If a product contains a listed chemical, then the product must contain a “clear and reasonable” warning label informing consumers of the presence of the chemical and stating the chemical is known to cause cancer, congenital disabilities, or other reproductive harm.

Although companies with fewer than 10 employees are exempt, if they sell a violative product to a retailer with more than 10 employees, the retailer could receive a notice of violation. In these circumstances, retailers usually rely on clauses within their contacts with importers that require the importer to take responsibility for the violation.

A plaintiff may seek injunctive relief requiring a company caught selling a violative product to suspend sales, conduct a recall, or reformulate the product. Additionally, statutory penalties of up to $2,500 per violation per day can be imposed. Then there is also a more general California statute allowing most successful plaintiffs to recover their attorneys’ fees as well.

Many are now choosing to rely on 3rd party testing companies to verify that hazardous substances are not being used in their products.

The simplest way is to engage a 3rd party testing company. Some manufacturers self-test and/or rely on local testing labs for certifying their products. However, there is no guarantee these labs, or their equipment, are reliable. Nor is there any guarantee the results are accurate. In either case, the importer may be held responsible for the product. Owing to this risk, most companies opt to use a 3rd party testing lab. Our does a broad range of consumer goods for all regulatory testing requirements.

Package testing is mandated by regulations for some products such as; food, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, dangerous goods, etc. This may cover both the design qualification, periodic retesting, and control of the packaging processes. For unregulated products, testing may be required by a contract or governing specification. However, for most consumer goods, package testing is often a business decision involving risk management for factors such as:

• cost of packaging
  
  • cost of package testing
  • value of package contents
  • value of goodwill in your market
  • product liability exposure
  • other potential costs of inadequate packaging

We can assess your specific product and packaging requirements to help you determine whether package testing can improve your quality deliverables.

AQL is the acronym for Acceptable Quality Limit (or Level). This represents a statistical measurement of the maximum number and range of defects that is considered acceptable during a random sampling inspection of your goods. If the AQL is not achieved for a particular sampling of goods, you may accept shipment of the goods ‘as is’, demand a rework of the goods, renegotiate with you supplier, refuse the shipment, or choose another recourse based on your supplier agreement.  

Defects found during a standard random inspection are sometimes classified into three levels: critical, major and minor. Critical defects are those that render the product unsafe or hazardous for the end-user or that contravene mandatory regulations. Major defects can result in the product’s failure, reducing its marketability, usability or saleability. Lastly, minor defects do not affect the product’s marketability or use but represent workmanship defects that make the product fall short of defined quality standards. Different companies maintain different interpretations of each defect type. Our staff can work with you to determine the AQL standard that meets your requirements according to the level of risk you are willing to assume. This becomes the primary reference during a pre-shipment inspection.

It is important to note; the AQL inspection is only a report on the findings at the time of the inspection, and like all 3rd party QC companies, we do not make the decision as to whether your goods can be shipped or not. That is a decision only you can make in consultation with your supplier after reviewing the inspection report.

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a type of performance measurement that tracks and evaluates the output of manufacturers in various ways, including quality, delivery, satisfaction and others depending on customer requirements. This is not a standard service; however, we will consider doing so on a case-by-case basis. We do currently provide this service to some key customers, and we can discuss whether our approach fits your requirements.

Yes. There are myriad issues that may affect the quality and delivery time of your product. We provide Production Management and QC consulting services to augment our standard quality control services. If your supplier is cooperative with your efforts at improving quality in their facilities and processes, then our consulting staff can help identify and advise on issues in their total quality management and production process.

The type of quality control inspection you need largely depends on the quality goals you are trying to achieve, the relative importance of quality as it relates to your market, and whether there are any current production issues that need to be resolved.

We undertake many inspection types, and a conversation with one of our consultants will help resolve what will work best for you or a custom solution to best meet your exact requirements might be offered.

It may be possible to get an initial quality control inspection report on the same day. However, the verified report is not available until the next business day. It is not always possible to upload the report into our system from the supplier location, so the inspector may have to wait until they return to the local or home office to do so. Besides, while most of our inspectors throughout Asia have good English skills, we want a final review by a supervisor with good English language skills. This also allows for a final review for accuracy and internal audit purposes.

It is important to understand the role of a QC provider. Inspection companies only evaluate and report on findings. We do not decide if the production lot is acceptable, nor do we help the manufacturer resolve issues, unless that service has been arranged. An inspector’s sole responsibility is to ensure that proper procedures are followed for the relevant AQL inspections and report findings. If a supplier takes no remedial actions based on those findings, the same problems will occur repeatedly. We provide QC consulting and production management services that can help a supplier resolve production issues. Please contact us for more details.

There are many factors that can affect the timely completion of a quality control inspection order. Most common among these is production not being completed. We require production to be 100% complete and at least 80% packaged for shipping before we will complete the inspection. If this is not adhered to, the integrity of the inspection is compromised.

Other factors may include severe weather conditions, uncooperative factory staff, unexpected transportation issues, incorrect addresses supplied by the customer and/or factory and failure of the factory or supplier to communicate a delay in production to us. All these issues lead to frustration and delay. However, our Customer Service staff work hard to communicate directly with the factory or supplier on all matters surrounding the inspection date, locations, delays, etc., to minimize these issues.

Your coordinator is in constant communication with your supplier and our inspection team regarding your inspection schedule. So, in most cases, we will know in advance if the date needs to be changed. In some scenarios however, the supplier will not communicate in a timely manner. In this case, unless otherwise directed in advance by you, we cancel the inspection. A partial inspection fee, however, will be assessed and you have the right to recoup that cost from your supplier.

Typically, each inspector will work 8 hours per day, not counting meal breaks. How much time he spends at the factory depends on how many inspectors are working there, and whether the paperwork is completed at the factory, or the office. As an employer, we are bound by Chinese labor law, so there is a limit to the amount of time our staff can work each day without incurring additional charges. Many times, we have more than one inspector onsite, so typically the report will be completed while at the factory. At other times, the report will be completed later in the local, or home office. It is important to remember however that it is not only the inspector who is dealing with your inspection. Every report is reviewed and cleared by a supervisor and processed by your coordinator. Therefore, many hands are involved in a single inspection and report. However, we put forth our best effort at maximizing efficiency on your behalf. We have proved time and again that our pricing is worth every cent.

We have a dynamic inspector and auditor ethics, training and audit program. This includes periodic retraining and testing, unannounced visits to factories where quality control inspections, or factory audits, are being conducted, random interviews with suppliers, and random audits of inspector reports as well as periodic efficiency audits. Our inspectors’ program has resulted in developing a staff of inspectors that are working at the highest level possible.

Do you REALLY know who you are buying from? Do you REALLY know what their production capabilities are and whether they can produce what you expect? These are important questions when assessing a potential vendor. Asia is ripe with intermediaries, sub-contracting, materials and component swapping, fraudulent certifications and licensing, and sub-standard facilities, materials, and equipment. The only way to be sure who your supplier is and what their capabilities are is to do an onsite evaluation or audit. We have experienced professional staff that are ready to conduct your factory audit supplier evaluation. Contact us today for details on the broad range of audit and evaluation types we can provide for you.

Doing business in Asia can be a tricky and expensive effort if sufficient due diligence is not done on a supplier. How much is required may depend on your markets’ requirements, your personal commitment to social compliance, and other business needs? We provide supplier evaluations and factory audit services from a simple evaluation to complex technical and social compliance audits. Our staff can work with you to determine your exact requirements.

We provide inspection and QC related services throughout Asia and historically the most in China, Taiwan, Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Turkey.

Issues of bribery might surface from time to time. However, we are very proactive, with a zero-tolerance policy, concerning bribery and serious lapses in ethics. If you ever have any suspicions that a breach of trust has occurred, then we encourage you to contact your coordinator immediately, providing all details available to support your conclusions. Our quality assurance team will immediately launch a comprehensive investigation. It is a transparent process in which we keep you informed throughout. If it should prove true and resulted in a loss to you, we accept liability under the terms spelt out in your service agreement. We work very hard to avoid these issues with our robust ethics policy. We will happily provide additional information should it be requested.

Yes. Under the terms of our certification, we are legally bound to accept a certain amount of liability for substandard work on our part that results in a loss. The exact terms can be found in your service agreement. Please contact us for any specific questions regarding liability.

We have a dedicated compliance department that handles matters

We have a dedicated compliance department that handles matters related to ethics and bribery.  

Our robust ethics program includes the following features to assist in mitigating instances of bribery:

• Inspectors are full-time employees and paid fairly
• We have a zero-tolerance anti-bribery policy
• Initial and continuing ethics education
• Regular analysis of inspector AQL data
• Incentives for reporting violations
• Unannounced inspection audits
• Unannounced inspector audits
• Periodic rotation of inspectors
• Fully transparent investigations

If you wish to obtain a copy of our Ethics Policy, please contact us today.

elated to ethics and bribery.  

Our robust ethics program includes the following features to assist in mitigating instances of bribery:

Inspectors are full-time employees and paid fairly
We have a zero-tolerance anti-bribery policy
Initial and continuing ethics education
Regular analysis of inspector AQL data
Incentives for reporting violations
Unannounced inspection audits
Unannounced inspector audits
Periodic rotation of inspectors
Fully transparent investigations

If you wish to obtain a copy of our Ethics Policy, please contact us today.

We have published a Code of Ethics (now known as “the Code”) that provides clear direction to employees in all areas of their daily business activities. All employees, managers and executives are responsible for assuring that compliance remains a vital component of our business process. We ensure that the principles embodied in the Code are implemented throughout our internal Quality System processes, procedures, and audits. Supported by rich knowledge and experience in the field and benefiting from over 500 staff members. We are dedicated to helping our customers meet all their Quality, Safety and Ethical Standards to support their supply chain in the global marketplace. If you wish to obtain a copy of our Code of Ethics, please contact us.

To learn more about implementing a system of Ethics in your business visit us at https://itrunway.com/ethics-and-board-evaluations