Finding and checking suppliers
What to look at on a factory visit.
A visit exists to establish that the company makes the thing, at the scale you need, in a way that will still work in six months. Most of that is visible in an hour to somebody who knows what to look at, and almost none of it is in the presentation they prepared.
The three things that tell you most.
Work in progress on the floor. A producer who makes what they sell has partly finished goods everywhere, in the state you would expect for the process. A trader has a showroom and a warehouse.
The same product in production for somebody else. Seeing your category being made for another customer tells you the capability is routine rather than aspirational, and it is the single most reassuring thing on a visit.
Who answers technical questions. If the owner has to fetch somebody from the floor to answer a question about moisture or glue, that is a good sign. If nobody can answer it, that is the answer.
What to look at, in order.
Walk the process from raw material to packing rather than being shown the highlights. The order matters, because problems compound downstream and you want to see where they start.
- 01
Raw material storage
How it is kept, whether it is dry, whether there is enough of it for your order. On timber and agricultural goods this is where quality is already decided.
- 02
The process itself
Machinery, or hands, and whether either is idle. A floor with no work on it during working hours needs an explanation, and there is often a legitimate one.
- 03
Their own quality control
Is anybody measuring anything? A moisture meter that is used, records that are filled in, a reject pile that exists. Absence of a reject pile is not a good sign.
- 04
Finished goods and packing
How things are stored while they wait, and how they are packed. A great deal of Indonesian transit damage originates here rather than at sea.
- 05
The people
How many, whether the numbers match the capacity they claimed, and whether the place looks like people work there every day.
Questions worth asking on the floor.
Ask what they cannot do. A producer who says yes to everything has either not understood or is not answering. The useful reply names a constraint, and knowing the constraint is what lets you design an order around it.
Ask what their last rejection was and why. The answer tells you whether quality problems are discussed or hidden, and a producer who talks openly about a failure is usually the safer one.
Ask to see the paperwork for a shipment that already went to your market. Not a certificate on a wall, an actual file for an actual container. It is the fastest way to establish whether they have done this before.
Questions buyers ask.
Should I announce the visit?
Yes, and give a window rather than a precise day where you can. An unannounced visit to a small Indonesian workshop often finds nobody senior there and teaches you little. What matters is that the date is yours rather than one they proposed a month out.
Do I need an interpreter?
Usually. Export offices work in English and floors generally do not, and the useful conversations are on the floor. Somebody who can ask a machine operator a direct question is worth more on a factory visit than a fluent office contact.
How many factories can I see in a week?
Fewer than you think, particularly across islands. Within one cluster four or five in a week is realistic. That is why a trip is a poor screening tool and a good confirmation tool: screen from your desk and travel to decide.
Read next.
How to verify an Indonesian supplier
Two public government registries, the cross-check between them that catches most problems before a deposit moves, and the part only a visit can answer.
Finding a producer in Indonesia
Six routes to real producers, what each is good for and blind to, and the five-step funnel from a list of names to a first order.
Inspecting before it sails
The five moments worth inspecting, what a report has to contain, and the mistake that makes an inspection worthless.
How importers lose money in Indonesia
Six recurring patterns, from credentials that are not export documents to borrowed registrations, and the five checks that catch them.
Jepara furniture
The only Indonesian furniture origin with a registered geographical indication. How the workshop structure works and what it means for an order.
Cirebon rattan
The north coast cluster that processes and weaves most of Indonesia's rattan. What the export policy means for a buyer here.
Where meaning gets lost
Many disputes start as a specification agreed in a second language. What survives translation and what does not.
What a factory audit can and cannot tell you
An audit is a snapshot of a place on a day. What that establishes, what it cannot reach, and how buyers over-read it.
What a sourcing agent actually does
Nine jobs an agent performs, three they cannot, and the one question that tells you whose side they are on.
Trade fairs and sourcing trips
A stand costs money, which filters some noise and not all of it. How to work a fair and use the week around it.
Using a B2B platform without getting burned
A directory produces candidates and cannot verify them. What the badges audit, and the checks to run yourself.
What social auditing can establish
What a social audit examines, what it cannot see, and why chain-wide claims need chain-wide evidence.
Planning a sourcing trip
The country is enormous and production is scattered. How to plan a trip worth the flights.
Foreign bodies
Glass, metal, stone and plastic in food. What a factory should do and what to check.
Checking for child labour
An audit day tells you what the site looked like that day. What genuinely reduces the risk.
Sourcing from Indonesia?
Tell us the product, the quantity and the destination. We come back with what it involves before anyone talks about money.
Sources
- 1Online Single Submission, business licensing and NIB. Ministry of Investment / BKPM, Republic of Indonesia. Checked 3 August 2026.