A clean showroom and a binder of certificates tell you a factory can pass an audit. They do not tell you how it behaves at 2 a.m. on a Friday when a line is behind. That is what we are actually there to learn.
The desk work comes first: a valid business licence, the scope of any ISO 9001 or ISO 14001 certificate (and whether it actually covers the process you need), customer references, and capacity that matches the volumes you are discussing. A certificate whose scope excludes your process is a flag, not a credential.
This is where an audit earns its keep. We look for evidence that quality is a system, not a person:
We ask to see the last few nonconformance reports and what corrective action followed. We ask how engineering changes are controlled and communicated. We ask what happens when a shipment is late — whether they ship anyway and inspect later. The answers, and how readily they come, say more than any score.
A factory that cannot produce records on request, that routes every question through one person, that has no quarantine area, or that is visibly running far above its sustainable capacity is telling you something. We would rather hear it before the purchase order than after the first field return.
We audit and qualify suppliers in person, against your standards, and give you the photos and findings — not a rubber stamp.
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