Factory audits and supplier verification in China

Factory audits — because a good website is not a factory

Everything you know about a Chinese supplier before you visit comes from that supplier: the photographs, the certificates, the claimed capacity, the client list. All of it can be true. Some of it usually is not. The only way to find out is for someone to be in the building.

State register check by USCCOn-site visit by our own staffCertificates traced to the issuerWritten report with photographs

Verification and audit are not the same thing

They get used interchangeably and they answer completely different questions. Most buyers do the first and assume they have done the second.

Level one

Register verification

A desk check in the Chinese national register by USCC: does the company exist, when was it registered, what is it licensed to do, who is the legal representative. Minutes of work, and it filters out outright fraud.

Level two

On-site audit

Someone walks the floor. Machines, staff, storage, quality control, documentation. This is the only step that answers whether the factory can actually make your product to your standard, repeatedly.

What people skip

The second one

Because it costs money and takes days, and because the register check felt like due diligence. The register says a company is real. It says nothing about whether it is any good.

What an audit actually looks at

Agreed with you in advance — a general audit and an audit for a regulated product are different jobs.

Legal standingRegistration, licensed scope, capital, legal representative, any restrictions

Manufacturing or tradingWhether they make it or buy it from someone who does

Equipment and capacityWhat is on the floor, and whether the claimed output is physically possible

Quality systemsIncoming material checks, in-line control, final inspection, rejection handling

CertificatesTraced to the issuing body and matched to this legal entity, not an affiliate

Working conditionsBecause a European buyer is answerable for its supply chain, not only its price

Sub-contractingWhether your order will quietly be made somewhere you have never seen

DocumentationWhat the factory can actually supply for your import: test reports, declarations, origin

What an audit cannot promise you

An audit is a snapshot of one day. It is a very good snapshot, and it is still a snapshot.

A good factory can have a bad batch — which is why inspection before each shipment exists as a separate step

Capacity can be committed elsewhere — a factory that can make your order may already have sold that month to someone else

Conditions change — ownership, key staff and equipment move, and a two-year-old audit is history rather than information

We are not a certification body — where a formal social or quality certification is required, that is a job for an accredited auditor and we will say so

How this fits togetherAn audit decides whether to work with a factory at all. Inspection before shipment decides whether this particular batch ships. They are different jobs and doing only one of them is the usual reason a supply relationship goes wrong in year two.

Common questions

What is the difference between verification and an audit?

Verification is a desk check: we confirm in the Chinese state register that the company exists, when it was registered, what it is licensed to do and who signs for it. That takes minutes and filters out fraud. An audit is a visit: someone stands in the building and looks at machines, staff, storage, quality control and paperwork. Verification tells you the company is real; only an audit tells you it can make your product.

Do you visit the factory in person?

Yes. Our staff are based in China, so an audit is a working trip rather than a project that has to be commissioned from abroad. For a factory near Guangzhou or Yiwu we can usually be there within days.

Can you audit a supplier we found ourselves?

That is the most common request we get. You keep your factory relationship; we go and look, and tell you what we saw. If we think the factory is fine, we say so — an audit that always finds problems is selling fear, not information.

How do you check that certificates are genuine?

By asking who issued them and confirming with the issuing body, and by checking that the certificate names the company you are dealing with rather than an affiliate or a former partner. Borrowed and expired certificates are common enough that this is a routine step rather than a suspicion.

What do we get at the end?

A written report with photographs: what the factory actually produces, the equipment, the scale, the quality control it runs, the documentation it holds, and our view on whether it fits your product. If we would not place your order there, the report says that plainly and explains why.

Which factory should we look at?

Describe the product and the volume. We come back with a workable structure, a quote including landed cost, and an honest lead time — or with the reasons we would not take it on.

+852 6214 4877 — fastest way to reach us

@silentium_trade

info@silentium-trade.com

Phone

+86 136 0045 3256 — China office

Working hours

Mon–Fri, 09:00–18:00 China time (UTC+8) — mornings in Europe, afternoons in the Gulf

Working languages

English · Chinese

EU entity

SIA DEXTRO · VAT LV44103144015 · EORI LV44103144015 — verifiable in the Latvian register and VIES

China entity

Hainan Silent International Trade Co., Ltd · USCC 91460204MADNWQ6808

Factory audits — because a good website is not a factory

Verification and audit are not the same thing

Register verification

On-site audit

The second one

What an audit actually looks at

What an audit cannot promise you

Related

Common questions

Which factory should we look at?