Role of Pre-shipment Inspection in Industrial Services to provide impartial inspection services of the products. This improves the reliability of products, quality consistency, and cost-effective inspection, meets customer requirements, and reduces the chance of rejections of products by the end user. These are the key Role of Pre-shipment Inspection in Industrial services. Pre-shipment Inspection Agency in India (i.e OSS Certification) is generally an Accredited Inspection agency that provides Third-Party Inspection services as per the requirements of the industry or regulatory body.
The Third-Party Inspection agency after performing the Pre-shipment inspection provides the pre-shipment inspection certificate or Pre-shipment inspection report to its clients. Which depends on the Pre-shipment Inspection Agreements terms & conditions between Buyer – supplier and Third-Party Inspection Agency. When the Industry used Third-Party Inspection Agency services, then they can understand the importance of Pre-shipment Inspection in terms of cost-effectiveness, Product Quality Consistency, and reduction of rejections of products by the end user.
Pre-shipment Inspection Procedure
The Third-Party Inspection Agencies (i.e., OSS Certification) are generally ISO 17020 Accredited Inspection agencies having the set standard pre-shipment Inspection Procedure to maintain the compliance requirement. But it is not necessary to have the accreditation before performing the Third-Party Inspection. For Example – when the Certification performs Management System Certification i.e ISO 9001 Certification, in this case, accreditation of ISO 17021-1 is a mandatory requirement for CAB. But in the case of Pre-shipment Inspection, as when the requirements of Buyers or any regulatory Body, then it becomes mandatory. In the case of ISO Certification, it is a mandatory requirement for accreditation before performing any Certification activities (i.e ISO 9001 Certification, ISO 45001 Certification, ISO 27001 Certification, etc so on.).
In any case, to perform the Third-Party Inspection (I.e Pre-shipment Inspection), the Inspection Agency must have some standard Pre-shipment Inspection procedure or methods of pre-shipment inspection. Pre-shipment Inspection procedures or methods of pre-shipment inspection are generally having some level of flexibility to customize to meet the Inspection requirements of its client. The Pre-shipment Inspection procedure is given below (But Not Limited to)
- Receipt of Pre-shipment Inspection Call (From Client)
- Request for Product Details, Date of Inspection, Place of Inspection, and inspection specification /Requirement of checkpoints (if any)
- Review of Feasibility of Pre-shipment Inspection (considering the factors – Resource availability, availability of Competency, Time of Inspection, place of inspection, etc, so on)
- Providing Pre-shipment inspection Fee and other Terms & Conditions to a client for review and acceptance.
- Pre-shipment Agreement sign-up between Third-Party Inspection Agency and Client.
- Performing the Inspection
- Pre-shipment Inspection Report preparation and submission to the client along with pre-shipment Inspection Certificate (If required). Unless stated in the Pre-shipment Inspection Agreement
These are the general pre-shipment Inspection procedure that is being followed by Pre-shipment Inspection in India. If the client has some specific requirement, which can be also added to inspection procedures. This can be the case–to–case customized (by adding the requirements), but the above-said procedure must be followed at least. We have experienced during the initial receipt of the Pre-shipment Inspection call, the Clients ask – how long the pre-delivery inspection takes.
So, to clarify the understanding of how long pre-delivery inspection takes, it all depends on the conditions of the Agreement i.e., inspection contract terms & conditions. We have observed in the past several years of Third-Party Inspection Experience, generally, the pre-delivery inspection takes on time as per the agreed date and Time. In some cases of unexpected events there is a slight change in pre-delivery inspection take, but with prior consent from the Client.
Methods of Pre-shipment Inspection
The methods of pre-shipment inspection are derived from Inspection requirements including the type of Product to be inspected or any other specific requirement. But as general practices of pre-shipment inspection in India, the following methods of Pre-shipment inspections are followed (unless any specific requirements of Inspection are stated by the client).
- Verification of PO and match the Quantity (product-wise)
- Review of Raw Material report
- Random Sampling
- Verification of Instruments & its calibration Status
- Inspection of Product (Visual, Dimensional)
- Functional Test (if required)
- Environmental Test (If required)
- Marking and Labelling
- Packing
- Pre-shipment Inspection Report Preparation
- Issue of Pre-shipment Inspection Certificate (if any requirements)
The above-explained points are the general methods of pre-shipment inspection (pre-shipment inspection in India) that are being into practice by Third-Party Inspection agencies. But it is not limited to the methods of pre-shipment inspection and can be customized as per the client’s requirements.
Benefits of pre-shipment inspection
Considering the current business requirement, the role of Third-Party Inspection plays an important role in the supply chain. So, the importance of Pre-shipment Inspection has to be considered as one of the key supply chain parts for Industrial Services. Considering the importance of Pre-shipment inspection, there are several benefits of pre-shipment inspection for Industrial services, buying houses, Clients, Suppliers, etc, so on. The most prominent benefits of Pre-shipment Inspection are
- Cost of Inspection reduced (Indirectly reduced overall overhead cost of Product)
- Enhance the Timely Delivery of Products
- Enhance the Product Quality Consistency
- Reduce the chance of Rejection of products as end-user
- Meets the supply chain requirement
- On-time Delivery
- Enhance the reliability of the product
- Enhancement of Customer Satisfaction
These are the most prominent benefits of pre-shipment inspection.
Pre-shipment Inspection Report
The Pre-shipment Inspection report are having the Following Inspections
- Date of Inspection
- Place of Inspection
- Name of Product, Product Number
- Client PO # and order Qty
- Sample Qty inspected and Sampling method applied
- Inspection Observation (Visual, Dimensional, functional, etc)
- Photographs of Each stage of Inspection
- Final Remarks of Inspection observation by Inspector
The above blog content could be helpful for the organization to understand the importance of Pre-shipment Inspection along with the Role of Pre-shipment Inspection in Industrial services. In the current economic condition, the Cost and Quality of products provide the industry with further enhanced customer satisfaction and enhance new business opportunities. It is a very wise decision of the industry to adopt Third-Party Inspection services to further reduce the cost of overheads, improve supply consistency, and keep the customer satisfied in the context of Cost, Quality, and Delivery.