Quality and inspection
Rework at origin.
When an inspection fails before shipment you have options you will not have later. Knowing in advance which defects are reworkable and which are terminal makes that decision in hours rather than days.
Usually fixable.
Sorting and regrading. Removing out-of-specification units from a lot is labour, which in Indonesia is available.
Repacking and relabelling. Cartons, inner packs and labels can be redone at origin far more cheaply than in a European warehouse.
Cosmetic finishing. Sanding, refinishing, polishing and cleaning on craft and furniture goods.
Re-drying, on some agricultural products, though it costs quality and it has limits.
Missing documents, if the omission is caught before shipment. Afterwards several of them cannot be issued at all.
Usually not fixable.
Wrong material or wrong species. It is a different product and it has to be remade.
Structural or dimensional faults outside tolerance, on anything made rather than sorted.
Contamination, microbiological or chemical. A failed residue or pathogen result is not a sorting problem.
Mould toxins in an agricultural lot, which are not removable at any economic cost.
Anything already thermally processed and sealed. A canned or retorted product is finished.
How to decide quickly.
Have the rule agreed before it happens. A contract that says what occurs on a failed inspection turns a crisis into a procedure.
Get the numbers: how many units, what the defect is, and what rework would cost in time and money.
Weigh the sailing. Missing it usually costs more than the rework, and shipping a failed lot to meet it costs more than both.
Re-inspect after rework, on the same terms as the first inspection. Rework accepted on trust is where the second failure comes from.
Who pays.
The supplier, where the goods did not meet an agreed specification. This is exactly why the specification has to be measurable.
You, where the problem is a change you requested late or a specification that was ambiguous.
Shared, in practice, on a continuing relationship where the fault is genuinely mixed. Agreeing that quickly is worth more than winning the argument.
Questions buyers ask.
Should I ever ship a failed lot?
Sometimes, at an agreed discount, where the defect is cosmetic and your customer will accept it. Never where the failure is a safety or a regulatory one, because that problem gets larger rather than smaller.
Who pays for re-inspection?
Whoever caused the failure, agreed in the contract in advance. Leaving it open means the argument happens while a sailing deadline runs.
How long does rework take?
Sorting and repacking can be days with enough people, and remaking is a production cycle. Get the estimate in hours and weigh it against the sailing rather than against your patience.
Read next.
Inspecting before it sails
The five moments worth inspecting, what a report has to contain, and the mistake that makes an inspection worthless.
When the shipment is wrong
The first forty-eight hours decide what you can recover. What to do in order, and what destroys a claim.
What an export contract should say
Twelve clauses that decide what happens when something goes wrong, and the three buyers leave out and regret.
Writing a defect list
Critical, major and minor, defined for your product. The document everybody skips and the one that decides disputes.
Inspect at the factory or the port
Where you inspect decides what you can still fix. The trade-off between catching problems early and catching them all.
What quality costs
Inspection, testing and audits look like overhead until you price the alternative.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.