Pre-shipment inspection: what actually gets checked

Quantity. Cartons are counted and a number of them opened to confirm the pieces per carton, which is how a shortage is caught before it becomes a claim from the other side of the world.

Packing, labelling and artwork. Carton construction and sealing, inner packing, the retail box if there is one, the labels and their placement, barcodes scanned rather than eyeballed, and any market-specific marking the goods must carry. This is where a very large share of real failures are found, and it is the part buyers brief least.

Workmanship and appearance, compared against the approved sample. Colour, finish, fit, moulding faults, scratches, alignment — judged against a physical reference, which is why the reference has to exist and has to be the one the factory also holds.

Measurements and weight. Key dimensions from the specification, the weight of the unit and of the packed carton, and the carton dimensions — which also feed the volume that decides your freight cost.

Function, as far as a site visit allows. Whatever can be powered up, cycled, plugged in or operated with the equipment available on the day. It is not laboratory testing and it never proves compliance: a function check on a bench and a safety test in an accredited lab answer different questions.

Carton and transit checks where they are agreed — a drop test on a packed carton, a barcode verification, a moisture or humidity check on materials that care. These are usually optional extras, which means they happen only if you ask for them by name.

The single highest-value hour in this whole process is the one spent writing the inspection brief, and it happens before production, not the week of shipment. Four documents carry it.

The approved sample. A physical unit, agreed by both sides, held by the factory and referred to in the purchase order — with a photograph and a description in the file so that "the approved sample" cannot quietly become a different object. Without it, "matches the sample" means nothing, because there is no sample.

The specification and the defect list. What the product is, and what counts as critical, major and minor. An inspector cannot record a fault nobody has defined as a fault; they can note it as an observation, which is exactly the status that lets it be argued about later.

The packing and artwork specification. Carton size and construction, pieces per carton, inner packing, label content and placement, the artwork files with version numbers. Artwork versions are worth being pedantic about: the commonest packing failure is a correct product in last month's box.

The scope, in writing, in the booking. Which checks are in and which are out, the sampling plan and the level, whether a drop test or a barcode verification is included, and who the report is addressed to. An inspection company will inspect exactly what was ordered — and "a standard inspection" is not a scope, it is a hope.

And be explicit that the inspector reports to you and not to the factory. Their access, their transport and their lunch are usually arranged by the supplier, which is normal; the reporting line must not be.

A report is usually a result, a set of findings by defect class, the measurements taken, and a body of photographs. Read the photographs before the result. They are the part that cannot be summarised, and the thing you notice in a picture of the packing line is frequently more useful than the conclusion on page one.

There is a third possible result and buyers are routinely surprised by it: PENDING, or HELD. It means the inspector could not complete the inspection — production was not finished, the goods were not packed, the approved sample was not available, the quantity was short of what could be sampled properly. Pending is not a soft fail and it is not a pass; it means you have paid for a visit and still do not know, and the usual cause is the inspection being booked too early.

When to book it is therefore a condition rather than a date: enough of the lot finished AND packed that a sample can be drawn across the whole order rather than across the first pallet made — and early enough that there is still time to act on the result. This page does not publish the percentage every inspection company quotes; the condition is what matters, and a percentage invites you to satisfy the number rather than the requirement.

Decide the consequences of a fail before you book, not after you read. Who pays for the re-inspection, whether sorting is done at the supplier's cost, how many attempts are allowed, and what happens to the shipping schedule. A failed inspection with no agreed consequence is a negotiation conducted under time pressure, which is the worst circumstance in which to have one.

And know what the report is a snapshot of: the cartons that existed on that day, at that place. It is not a guarantee about what is loaded. Where that risk matters, container loading supervision is a separate service that watches the goods go in and the container get sealed, and it answers a different question from the inspection.

Everything above describes a commercial inspection — you buy it, you scope it, you own the report. Several importing countries run a parallel system that is a legal condition of entry, carried out before shipment by a body their standards authority has appointed, and producing a certificate rather than a quality report.

Kenya's programme is a clear published example. The Kenya Bureau of Standards operates Pre-Export Verification of Conformity, described as "a conformity assessment program applied to products at the respective exporting countries", under Legal Notice 78 of 28 April 2020, under which goods from listed countries "shall undergo mandatory certification in the country of origin or supply" before they are shipped. Compliant consignments receive a Certificate of Conformity.

And the consequence of skipping it is published, not vague. KEBS states that products subject to mandatory inspection that arrive at the port of entry without a Certificate of Conformity are subjected to destination inspection "at a penalty fee equivalent to 15% of the customs value", and are admitted only after satisfactory inspection or test. That is a number worth knowing before a container sails, and it is not the kind of cost a supplier will volunteer.

Several other markets operate their own versions under their own names and their own legal instruments. This page deliberately does not list them: the product schedules and the appointed agents change by legal notice, and a list in a guide is out of date the first time one is amended. Check the standards authority of the destination market itself, by name, before you ship — and do it at quotation stage, because a conformity certificate has to be obtained BEFORE export and cannot be bought retrospectively.

Two practical consequences. First, a mandatory conformity certificate is not a substitute for your own quality inspection — it verifies compliance with the destination's standards, not that the goods match your purchase order. Second, the timing interacts: both happen before shipment, both need finished goods, and running them as one visit where the appointed agent allows it saves a week that a container schedule will otherwise eat.