Miscellaneous goods trading firms

Background

A, a miscellaneous goods trading firm importing products from Chinese manufacturers, struggled most with the issue of defects. Checking for defects upon the arrival of goods led to steep personnel costs, and the process itself was time-consuming. That being said, simply bringing products to market without inspecting them would lead to a major problem in the event of defects. Inspections are made locally in the country of manufacture, where personnel costs are lower, allowing for stopping defects before they reach the destination country. This cuts down on time and expenses, but the client was unable to successfully achieve such a system on its own.

Proposals

We operate a distribution and processing center in North Waigaoqiao in Shanghai, with a permanent roster of approximately 230 veteran inspection personnel. There, manufacturers’ products are shipped for integrated inspection. Needle-detection devices are used to check for the presence of needles in sewn articles, and if a product cannot immediately be determined as a defect, photographs are taken and immediately sent to the Japanese client for follow-up. We also created a system for generating reports on defects and notifying the client of which lots for which manufacturers exhibit defective trends, allowing the upstream manufacturers to be briefed accordingly and make revisions.

Providing services that go beyond mere inspections

Instead of merely inspecting inventory, we conduct buyer consolidation in which single containers are stocked with cargo from multiple manufacturers and scaled to demand from Japanese consumers. This allowed for lading freight in containers in the most optimized and efficient way, reducing shipment costs on a per-product basis.