It can be difficult to know whether your supplier is truly able to meet your requirements without actually seeing the facility that will be manufacturing your product. And rather than personally visiting, many importers choose to hire a professional auditing firm to conduct a factory audit in South Korea. An audit also helps importers narrow down their list of potential suppliers during the sourcing process because it can reveal deficiencies in a supplier’s manufacturing capabilities and other issues.
A professional audit of a supplier’s facility gives you transparency in a number of key areas, depending on audit type, such as:
Even in developed countries, like South Korea, you may find you’re working with a factory that isn’t legitimate, or has product quality problems or other issues. Strikes and protests due to poor working conditions in large, Korean conglomerates called “chaebol” are not uncommon. And it’s much easier to be confident in the supplier you’re working with after investigating with an audit.
AQF conducts factory audit services in South Korea and elsewhere in Asia. Our local team of Western-managed QC staff has professional experience auditing factories in different industries, including electronics, automotive parts and cosmetics and others.
You benefit from having a detailed report complete with our findings, any issues found and clear, relevant photos. For audits related to social compliance, we can also create a detailed corrective action plan (CAP) outlining violations and our recommended improvements to address with your supplier.
If you’re concerned about a certain aspect of your supplier’s manufacturing process, whether it’s about their quality management systems or labor practices, we’ll conduct our factory audit using the applicable framework. No matter where they’re manufacturing, experienced importers know the value in auditing their supplier’s factory. The result from a factory audit in South Korea is a useful indicator of whether a supplier is worth your time and money.
You guys are quite efficient in making sure that you are in constant communication with our vendors to set up a time and day to have inspections handled... InTouch definitely pushed to make sure that inspections would be done in a timely manner. Any corrective actions that had to take place were executed well before the exit factory date.
Ron Eclarinal
Director of Production, Betabrand
Since InTouch does a more detailed inspection than what we had depended on with the factories, the quality of the products has improved. Where before when we might find 25 AQL defects, now it's down to three or four,because the factory knows that we want that cut back and InTouch is going to find it.
Deb Choate
Administrative Assistant, Linstol
InTouch’s auditing reduced the level of risk, whether known or unknown, to our company. From the audit findings provided by InTouch, we were much more equipped to make the correct business decision with regard to an acceptable level of risk. The InTouch audit secured our decision making process.
Jerry Davis
Vice President of Purchasing, MJS Packaging
One of our customers had been through multiple suppliers year after year and had been let down with returns and rejections. With InTouch as our eyes and ears on the ground, we retained that business for 5 years without one single rejection or complaint.
Nick Rivera
Director of Operations, MMI Textiles
The speed that we get the reports is always good. We had an experience with some other inspectors where we had to wait an extra day to get the reports. Getting the report as soon as we can is very important, so we can make a decision and give feedback back to the factory.
Denis O'Mahony
Operations and Engineering Manager, Juku Gear
From beginning to end, InTouch is so easy to work with. The inspection report is literally there the next morning when I come into work. It really makes my job easier.
Nicole Thoma
Inside Sales Specialist, MJS Packaging