A Pre-Shipment
Inspection (PSI) is a quality control procedure carried out at
a supplier’s premises by either your QC department or an
independent quality control agency contracted to you. It’s a commonplace check
within the consumer goods industry in particular and helps importers, traders,
wholesalers, and retailers guarantee the quality of goods before they
are shipped. It guards against any nasty surprises, and means you know your
goods are in working order long before you take delivery — pretty useful if
your supplier is halfway around the world.
You might have
heard this type of check called a final random inspection (FRI) or finished
quality control (FQC). In
reality, they are all the same thing; quality
inspections carried out once 100% of the order is manufactured and at
least 80% packed (although some buyers choose to wait until it’s 100% packed
before carrying out the test).
The Advantages of Pre-Shipment
Inspections
There are lots of
benefits to a PSI, but most people agree that guaranteeing the quality of goods
produced overseas, at the place where they were manufactured, is its trump
card.
This quality
control
procedure also saves a fair bit of time. Once the goods are in the country of
destination, correcting faults becomes costly and requires additional shipping
and time delays. Identifying any faults and errors in the batch before you ship
makes it easier for suppliers to rectify an issue there and then.
Pre-Shipment Inspection Standards
Whether you use
in-house staff or a third-party quality control agency, there is a single
standard for sampling procedures and acceptance criteria that the majority of
PSI inspectors follow.
Acceptance Quality Limit (AQL)
The so-called AQL
Table is widely used for consumer goods Pre-Shipment Inspections in INDIA(MORBI)
and throughout the world. This clever model uses statistical number crunching
to define the highest acceptable number of defects in a batch (i.e. how many
faults a buyer can tolerate) before it is rejected.
The AQL varies between industries, so it always provides a balanced, unbiased view. You can further tailor it to your needs based on your quality expectations.
The AQL varies between industries, so it always provides a balanced, unbiased view. You can further tailor it to your needs based on your quality expectations.
Sampling Plans
Inspectors won’t
test every item individually. Instead, they’ll use sampling plans by our own general method to determine how many samples they need to pick randomly to get an
accurate overview of the quality of the whole shipment. This means savings in
time and money for you — particularly useful if your inspection date is close
to shipping.
The general inspection level III is the most extensive check and samples a larger portion of the shipment compared to a general inspection Level I test at the lower end of the scale. Choosing your AQL general inspection level will depend on the quality risk you are facing and the type of products you are checking. For general consumer goods, we recommend at least a general inspection level II, while automotive or medical products should be tested at the general inspection level III.
The general inspection level III is the most extensive check and samples a larger portion of the shipment compared to a general inspection Level I test at the lower end of the scale. Choosing your AQL general inspection level will depend on the quality risk you are facing and the type of products you are checking. For general consumer goods, we recommend at least a general inspection level II, while automotive or medical products should be tested at the general inspection level III.
Defect Classification
Depending on the
needs of the buyer, PSI sampling can be used to verify different measures of
quality. One of the most commonly used within the consumer goods sourcing
industry is to classify the defects as either: critical, major or minor and define an acceptance
quality limit for each one of them.
Curious about
exactly what we check during a pre-shipment inspection? Stay tuned for the next
article in our series: Pre-Shipment Inspection Checklist,
Everything you need to know.
Still got questions? Check
out this helpful article from our specialist operations team and find out all
about pre-shipment
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