Continuing my series on outsourcing to China, today I'd like to write a few words on defective product removal and destruction services - an essential part of the quality control process.
Sometimes only the best is good enough.
For many products quality control is not designed to remove all the defective products but to ensure that the vast majority of the production run is error free, and those errors that do exist in production are relatively minor.
In this case DRD services are not necessary for these products.
However for those cases where any error at all cannot be tolerated; for example high-end brand clothing, watches, etc.
or for machine parts and components where there is no tolerance for variation on safety, or practical grounds - you will need to make sure that you engage a local supplier who can undertake defective product removal and the destruction of those.
Defect removal and destruction is an intensive task, each individual item in a production run must be individually inspected and any item with the slightest flaw or variance from specification must be removed and contained.
Destruction is an optional part of defect removal and destruction, normally reserved for those high-end brands where the brand does not wish any of the items to be "leaked" back into the market place, either under their own label or as "copy" product which would tarnish and devalue the brand image.
One way to judge these services is Defect Removal Efficiency rating.
A higher rating indicates that more defective products are being removed, and hence less will be received in the final shipment.
If you choose the right partner to take care of your defect removal and destruction, you'll know that you are maximizing the value of your brand and can rest assured that your customers will remain your customers.