Inspection

Who inspects

A third-party inspection company with its own inspectors in Guangdong, not the factory and not Elje. The inspector is booked in the Project Plan and named before you order. Firms that work in Foshan include QIMA, V-Trust, Tetra, HQTS, SGS, Bureau Veritas and Intertek. We will name the ones we use once the partner agreements are signed.

When

• Pre-shipment inspection, the default: when the order is finished and at least 80% packed, before the balance is paid.
• During production, for custom joinery: at 20 to 60% complete, to catch carcass or finish errors while they are cheap to fix.
• Before production, where it matters: board, veneer and stone slabs checked against the spec before cutting.
• Container loading check, for consolidated orders: counts, stowage, protection and the seal number.

What is checked

• Quantity: every line on the order, packed and unpacked.
• Against the drawings and the golden sample: sizes, colour, finish, materials, hardware and labels.
• Workmanship: chips, scratches, gaps, glue, alignment and consistency between units.
• Dimensions: product sizes against your drawings, and carton sizes and weights for the freight.
• Function: doors and drawers open and close, soft-close works, hinges adjust, taps operate.
• Packing and marking: carton strength, corner protection, and every carton labelled to the room it goes in.
• On-site tests: a carton drop test, colour against the golden sample under standard light, and a moisture reading on timber.
• Compliance marks: WaterMark and WELS markings on tapware and sanitary ware where they apply.

How strict

For mass-produced lines the inspector samples to ISO 2859-1 at general level II, with zero critical defects allowed, 2.5 for major and 4.0 for minor. A custom kitchen is often fewer than 50 pieces, so for joinery we ask for every piece to be checked, not a sample.

A sample report

A redacted report from a real Elje order will replace this outline once the first order has been inspected.

What happens when it fails

• The balance stays with the escrow partner. Nothing is released.
• You, Elje and the factory get the report the same day.
• The factory reworks or replaces the failed items, and the inspector goes back.
• We ask the factory to pay for a re-inspection after a fail. That is a term we are negotiating into every protection agreement, not yet a promise.
• A pending result, such as a spec question, comes to you to decide before anything moves.

What it costs

Published rates for all-inclusive inspection in Guangdong run from about US$240 to US$310 per man-day, with travel and the report included. The big certification bodies charge more and can add travel and VAT. One factory is usually one man-day. The inspector's fee is passed on at cost, shown on the Project Plan, and paid by you or by the factory where it agrees.

Questions