Quality control for Amazon sellers in China: the Perfect is the enemy of the Good

This case of our quality control inspection in China describes a typical mistake that Amazon sellers make when dealing with suppliers.

It so happened that I’m a huge fan of skateboarding. I’ve been skating since I was 13, and it is still my favorite hobby. I have owned dozens of different boards, spent days in board shops, even worked with an e-board factory as a tester of their newest models. So, I’m very well aware of the differences between top-notch quality boards and their cheap copies.

The main quality issues are:

• Over-dried wood or cracks between the layers, resulting in low durability (intense skating would destroy such board within 1-2 weeks if not on the first day)
• Twisted shape caused by inappropriate storage conditions making it uncomfortable for riding and doing tricks.
• Soft tail, resulting in a very poor pop when jumping.

This leads us to the topic of this post:

Quality requirements beyond reason

A recent case from our quality control inspection in China will be a perfect example. The product we were checking was a balance board – a device used for equilibrium, coordination and injury prevention training.

The quality of a balance board is defined by the same aforementioned factors. During the course of our inspection only four boards had cracks and other serious defects. All other boards had nice symmetrical shape, fine smooth polishing, tightly fitted plywood layers, clean logo, good flexibility – but the batch was still rejected by the customer because of the following cosmetic defects:

• Small scratches on the bottom side of the boards.
• Minor white lines around the curved parts of the boards.
• Single 0.01 mm paint dots on the surface of the boards.

A sports tool is not a luxury accessory. Most of the high-quality boards I bought for myself also had some minor scratches, dots or slight painting imperfections. Who cares about those minor scratches when more of them will surely appear during the first days of use?

By no means I’m trying to underestimate the importance of the product appearance. But “the perfect is the enemy of the good”. Instead of trying to pursue “perfection” you should ask yourself: “What characteristics of the product add real value for the customer?”.

Getting the answer to this question will save you a lot of time, money and effort.

Just contact us in case of any complications with Chinese suppliers. We will provide all the necessary assistance