By Nelson Bennett
Clothing companies that make the leap across the Pacific Ocean, outsourcing the production of their products to countries like China, will find labour costs can be a quarter what they are in Canada.
But in one case, the first container of garments almost arrived after 21 days at sea smelling of mould.
Fortunately for the manufacturer in this case, that potential disaster was averted when an overseas inspector realized that the clothing about to be shipped from China was damp.
“By performing a US$288-inspection, the client saved several hundreds of thousands of dollars,” said Benjamin Wilner, North American sales manager for AsiaInspection, an international quality-control service that specializes in Asia.
Wilner said he’s amazed at how many North American companies don’t bother to have the products they have outsourced to overseas manufacturers inspected prior to export. The results can be disastrous.
“A lot of people will say, ‘Oh, I’ll send all my production to China – production’s way cheaper – and I’m going to bank all my savings,’” said Darcy Mercier, vice-president of supply chain for Arc’teryx Equipment Inc. “If you go with that mentality, you’re probably going to have problems.”
Companies like Arc’teryx and Polartec – both of which make high-performance sportswear – have made quality control a top priority when outsourcing. Treya Klassen, director of Performance Textiles Polartec Canada and ANK Apparel, cites it as her number 1 challenge when doing business overseas.
“You’re far away, you’re making really expensive garments, you’re paying [manufacturers] up front, you’re completely exposed,” Klassen said. “So when that container arrives, you really want to make sure that what’s in it is what you ordered.”
Both Arc’teryx and ANK Apparel still maintain plants in the Lower Mainland, where the more demanding technical gear and fabrics are made. But both have found that the bulk of their production can be done more economically overseas.
Five years ago, ANK relocated one of its three garment-making plants from Vancouver to China. The move paid off right away. Within a year of going into production, Klassen said the company realized it needed to double its capacity and opened another plant in China. Each plant employs 400 workers.
While it is cheaper to make clothing in China, the tradeoff is that companies making higher-end goods must be extra vigilant when it comes to quality control.
“You’re never 100% sure what you’re going to get in a container,” Klassen said. “There’s just this different idea of what quality is.”
“Many Chinese manufacturers are fixated on short-term profits,” Wilner added. “They don’t hesitate to change something on the product without doing their due diligence on potential consequences and without even advising the clients.”
ANK’s answer to the quality-control challenge was to relocate three of its employees to China to keep an eye on the operations, although many of the company’s clients also use international inspection houses for added insurance.
Arc’teryx took a different route. Rather than opening its own plants in Asia, it sought out existing manufacturers with good reputations in China, Thailand and the Philippines. When it first started outsourcing in 2004, Arc’teryx used Intertek to oversee quality control, but now does it in house.
From Mercier’s experience, quality-control issues are usually the result of miscommunication.
“The factories will do exactly what you tell them to, so you have to tell them exactly what you want,” Mercier said.
Smaller companies may not be able to afford to contract out their production to the more established manufacturers, much less relocate their employees overseas. That’s where international inspection agencies like AsiaInspection and Intertek come in.
The larger inspection companies typically have dozens of labs and hundreds of inspectors scattered around the world. AsiaInspection’s auditors and inspectors throughout Asia specialize according to product category. Textiles account for about 40% of the products tested.
For each inspection, the company creates a custom inspection protocol for the product to be tested based on the client’s unique specifications. A tailored checklist is then sent to the inspector in the factory, who becomes the eyes and ears of the client 11,000 kilometres away.
“We really become an extension of their own company,” Wilner said.