You found a supplier, validated them, reviewed samples, and finalized the details of your product.  Now it’s time to place an order.  Read on to learn how to order like a pro!

Orders need to be clear, precise and articulate your product requirements specifically. Be that in the form of a detailed Purchase Order (PO) or a regular PO with a detailed specification attachment. Below highlights best practices for placing an order to receive exactly the products you want.

1. Forget “good quality”. Think “quantifiable quality”.

One might think a $5 t-shirt from Walmart is worse quality than a $100 t-shirt from Hugo Boss. After all they are both t-shirts, but the one that sells for 20 times more you’d expect has higher quality.

That’s up for debate, depending on what the quality expectations are.  Quantifying quality at the manufacturing level depends on whether the product meets the product criteria established before production. Assessing the product in an objective way against quality standards determines the quality level of the item.

The brand name shirt surely has a thorough and detailed list of manufacturing requirements, probably down to the sub-supplier level.  The factory’s own quality requirements pale in comparison to their big- name customer’s requirements.  The lower cost shirt selling at Walmart also was manufactured under strict standards, however the precision of the standards and difficulty to achieve them are less demanding.

In either case, the shirt must meet its respective production criteria to be deemed acceptable quality. “Good quality” is subjective. You need objectivity when it comes to ordering products.  If your demands are precise make your requirements exhaustively clear.

2. Making quality objective

To assess the product in an objective way, create detailed and measurable specifications for the item. If you use a sample product as a ‘golden sample’ make sure to document any small details that are particularly important to you. Samples are sometimes not produced in the same way or even by the same supplier as the mass production, so more detail and checking could save mistakes.

Using the t-shirt example again: both the cheap and expensive t-shirt will have some common visual criteria: logo/artwork placement, colors, material, dimensions and weight. All of these need to be measured and specified:

• Logo placement: precisely where on the t-shirt the logos or artwork should be placed, and which direction they should be displayed (yes, we have seen products coming off the line with artwork upside down).
• Colors: Blue comes in many shades; be specific. Dark blue? Not specific enough. Blue Pantone 280 U, clear.
• Material: “Heavy good quality cotton”, no. 300GSM 100% PIMA cotton, yes.
• Dimensions and weight: Are you talking centimeters, inches, grams, ounces? Specify.

The above is not an exhaustive list of how to specify the details for a t shirt. The point is to highlight the need to be specific about the attributes of a product, whatever it may be.

You can also use functional tests. There are several industry standards which define requirements for different product categories. It’s worth researching these for your product and including a requirement of what the result should be. When you inform the supplier consider providing the individual requirements rather than the name of the standard.  They get spooked out by unknown acronyms.

If there are particular attributes of your product which do not have industry standard tests, you can come up with your own tests. These should be simple enough to perform without specialized equipment so that the producer can implement the test themselves.

3. Approve a ‘golden’ sample

Anybody experienced with purchasing goods from China has come across a situation where a sample and mass production product did not match.

To greatly increase chances that your order WILL match your requirement exactly, get a final sample that meets your exact requirements before mass production. Once approved, this sample becomes the ‘golden sample’.  Always go through this step when you made customizations to the factory’s design or a new product entirely. You should approve 3 golden samples by putting tape on them with your signature. Send one back to the factory for their reference, keep one, and one can go to whoever is checking your product quality (like Checkpoint).

Only sign samples which perfectly match your requirements. The factory produces the order based on the golden sample. You’re responsible if the mass production matches an incorrect golden sample.  Also, it’s important to have the supplier go through the process of making the product correctly at least once.

4. Agree on the order requirements with your supplier

All criteria discussed above: visual quality requirements, functional requirements, and basic order requirements, such as quantity, must be in writing when you place your order.

This can be by way of a very detailed Purchase Order (PO) that also includes technical information or a shorter PO which references other specific documents that are attached in the same file when you submit the PO.

Do NOT assume that because a particular attribute or customization has been discussed in previous communication that the factory will remember to include it once you place the PO. You are responsible to make sure that everything is clear in the formal order documents. The salesperson that you are talking to is not the one on the production floor making the goods. They need to transmit the information, and they are not going to dig through email history to gather all the relevant details.

If you are dealing with a factory directly, you are talking to sales staff, not production staff. In many cases, your supplier is an independent agent/trading company who will then relay the order to a factory. Think of a restaurant with the servers and the kitchen staff. If you have a specific dietary requirement for your meal, you specify that when the server is taking your order. The server communicates that to the kitchen staff in a clear way and (usually) everyone is happy.

When submitting your order to the supplier it’s a good idea to review the details with them. It’s common that some clarification is necessary. There have been occasions when goods were produced that didn’t meet our client’s requirements because something wasn’t specified clearly in the order, so the supplier did not pay attention to it. By reviewing with them point by point, you can make sure that each requirement is clear. If any requirement is not included in the order, it should also be missing on the finished goods.

Checkpoint has developed a PO builder tool to support you in clearly defining the requirements to include with your PO. You can try it for free here.