Note 01
Vetting a Chinese factory without flying there
A site visit confirms two things: that the building exists, and that it is clean on the day you arrive. Neither tells you whether your batch will be released against your specification. These twelve checks do, and all of them can be run from a desk.
The checks
Twelve questions, in the order that saves time
| Check | What to ask for | Answer that ends the conversation |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Licence scope | The business licence, and the product scope on it | “We can make anything” with no scope line to point at |
| 2. Export status | Whether they hold their own export rights or go through a trading company | An unclear answer about who appears on the shipping documents |
| 3. Release data | A COA from last month, with the assay method named | A COA with no batch number, no method, or a date older than the product |
| 4. Overage policy | How much overage is built in, and who pays for it | “Standard” with no number |
| 5. Allergen control | How they sequence a soy-free or chicken-free run | A cleaning claim with no changeover procedure behind it |
| 6. Label responsibility | Who writes the label copy, and who is accountable if a claim fails | “You send the artwork, we print it” said as if that ends the question |
| 7. Stability | Whether they hold stability data on the base, and for how long | “Our product lasts two years” with nothing on file |
| 8. Tooling ownership | Who owns the mould or die if one is made | “Ours, but you can use it” |
| 9. Capacity and calendar | The line the order will run on, and the dates it is free | A lead time quoted before they have seen your specification |
| 10. Audit history | The last third-party audit report and its date | “We are audited every year” with no report |
| 11. Insurance | Product liability cover, and the limit | Silence, or a certificate for a different legal entity |
| 12. The awkward question | Something they cannot do, asked plainly | Confidence about everything. A factory that has never said no has not understood the question |
Reading the answers
The pattern matters more than any single answer
One weak answer is normal. A trading company posing as a plant produces a specific pattern: fast replies, no documents, and a price that arrives before the specification does. A real plant produces the opposite pattern — slower first reply, a spec sheet and a COA attached, and questions back to you about dose and pack count.
Documents that exist take minutes to send. Documents that have to be created take days, and the delay is itself the answer. If a factory cannot send a COA for a product it already makes, before any order exists, that is not a paperwork problem — it means there is no release process to pull a number from.
The two documents are not the same thing, and buyers conflate them. A COA is per batch and already exists. A licence, an audit report and a liability certificate are per site and per entity, and they tend to be released once a factory believes there is a real order — which is a defensible position, as long as the scope and the numbers are legible when they arrive.
What a visit adds
The three things only a visit proves
- Scale against your order. Whether your 20,000 units is a Tuesday or the whole quarter.
- Changeover discipline. Whether the allergen procedure on paper is the one being run at 3pm on a Friday.
- Who you will actually deal with. The person answering email is rarely the person who owns the line.
None of those three is usually the reason an order fails. Batch release and label compliance are, and both are visible from a desk.
Questions
Asked about this note
What is the single strongest signal that a Chinese supplement factory is real?
Should I ask for a certificate or the certificate number?
Can I verify a Chinese factory without visiting?
Run the twelve on us
Send the list as it is. The reply comes back with the answers we hold and the ones we do not, in the same order you asked.