<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 14px; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; "><div>My experience with asian engineering products is that most small volume suppliers ( by their standards ) do not understand why we are obsessed with all this Quality stuff. After all look at some of the images we see of equipment they find acceptable to continue using.</div><div>But in my case they can produce items to a required standard and this can be achieved at a price if 'we' have our inspectors on site. When the old sub-contract a local representative ( on cost basis ) there becomes the issue of who is paying whom for the acceptance of our goods? Local inspectors I suspect have greater loyalty to the terms of payment from an local asian company who will give then regular payments rather than a 'small' purchaser from , in my case Australia. Subcontracting relies on my piece of paper and its terms makes someone else responsible.</div><div>Check on Google for the lastest supply problem and health problems with Chinese berries -- all having passed Chinese and Australian standards of food preparation. The ultimate responsibility was probably passed down to a farmer who still uses toilet waste for his fertiliser while a whole range of businessmen sit on their QA certificates.</div><div><br></div><div>The company I worked for made a lot of money correcting the cheaper from overseas items bought into the country with Q.A. And Inspection documents supporting the goods to be ' as per order'.</div><div><br></div><div>Some time ago in China I saw lightbulbs being assembled in a converted cow shed and I could hardly see the process as the shed had only one 40 watt lightbulb. They also had a pile of bicycle brake assembles laying on the ground. Another visit I was show around a major mining engineering workshop and there was a 250 mm bore very expensive roller bearing siting on the floor uncovered and with a layer of dust on and in the bearing. Their solution was we will wipe it over before installation and then have a bearing where we previously did not have a bearing = success!!!</div></body></html>