You're about to place a $30,000 purchase order with a factory you've never visited.
The samples were good. The price is right. The sales rep is responsive. So what could go wrong?
A lot — and almost all of it is discoverable before you pay a deposit, if you know what to check. Below are the five checks our team runs on every factory audit in China, illustrated with photos from a real visit to an outdoor-furniture factory in Foshan.
Print the checklist at the end. Or better — have someone run it for you.
1. The gate test: is this business real?
The factory gate in Foshan. Before anything else, we confirm the business licence, the registered address, and the export history — then verify them against what's physically in front of us.
How we check it: Business licence number vs. the national enterprise credit system. Export customs records. Then: does the name on the gate match the name on the contract?
🚩 Red flag: The “factory” is reluctant to share its licence, or the address on paper is an office building with no production lines.
Cost of skipping: You contract with a trading company posing as a factory. Your order gets subcontracted to an unknown workshop. When defects appear, nobody takes responsibility.
2. The capacity check: can they actually make your order?
A production line in full swing. Headcount, skill level, and line organisation tell us more than any sales deck: can this factory deliver 5,000 units on your timeline — or will your order quietly go elsewhere?
How we check it: Count workers on the line. Ask what else is in production. Compare open capacity against your PO quantity and deadline. Check whether key processes are in-house or outsourced.
🚩 Red flag: A 20-person workshop accepting a 10,000-unit order with a 30-day lead time. The maths doesn't work — which means subcontracting.
Cost of skipping: Six-week delays. Quality that varies unit to unit. A launch date you can't hit.
3. The workmanship check: where the defects hide
A weld joint, up close. On outdoor furniture this is where 90% of rust complaints begin. We check weld consistency across random units — not just the perfect sample they mailed you.
Weave tension on a rattan chair. Uneven tension looks fine in the showroom and loosens within months on a customer's patio. We measure it against the sealed golden sample, mid-production, while rework is still cheap.
How we check it: AQL random sampling during production (not after). Measurements, function tests, and finish checks against the golden sample selected at the showroom stage.
🚩 Red flag: The factory resists mid-production inspections, or “the line is too busy for visitors this week.”
Cost of skipping: You find the defect when the container lands in Brisbane. Rework in Australia costs 5–10x what it costs at the factory — if rework is even possible.
4. The materials check: what becomes a warranty claim
Powder-coated aluminium frames awaiting weaving. Raw-material checks catch what becomes a warranty claim: thin coating, wrong alloy, poor weld prep. Invisible in the finished product — until it isn't.
How we check it: Verify material specs against your requirements. Check coating thickness, material certificates, and storage conditions (rusty raw stock = rusty finished goods).
🚩 Red flag: No material certificates available, or the “stainless steel” is magnetic. (It happens more than you'd think.)
Cost of skipping: A product that passes visual inspection and fails in the field — six months of Australian sun and salt air will find every shortcut.
5. The loading check: the last 5% that causes 50% of damage
Container loading under supervision. Wrong carton count, bad stacking, no moisture protection — the last 5% of the job causes a disproportionate share of damage claims.
How we check it: Carton count vs. packing list. Stacking plan. Moisture protection. Container condition (holes, rust, smells). Photographed, documented, signed off.
🚩 Red flag: "Don't worry, our forwarder handles loading." Nobody you know watches it happen.
Cost of skipping: Perfect product, loaded badly, arrives broken — and a blame game between factory and forwarder where you pay either way.
The printable checklist
Here's the one-page version our team carries on every visit. Print it, or send it to whoever visits factories on your behalf:
TASMAN GLOBAL — FACTORY AUDIT CHECKLIST
☐ Business licence verified against national registry
☐ Registered address matches physical premises
☐ Export history / customs records confirmed
☐ Key production processes done in-house (list outsourced ones)
☐ Worker headcount supports my order quantity + timeline
☐ Golden sample selected, sealed, and photographed
☐ Mid-production inspection access agreed in writing
☐ AQL sampling plan agreed (Level II)
☐ Material certificates collected and match spec
☐ Raw-material storage inspected
☐ Packing list format agreed; carton markings specified
☐ Container loading supervision agreed (who watches, what they photograph)
⬇ Download the PDF checklist (email gate — name + email → PDF download)
Don't want to fly to Foshan?
That's what we're for. Our factory background check runs all five of these — business verification, capacity assessment, workmanship sampling, materials review, and loading supervision — with a written photo report in 5 business days.
Part 1 of this series: We Walked This Factory So You Don't Have To
Coming next: same process, different factory — inside a kitchen-appliance plant.