Asking if you need quality control from China is like asking if the Pope is Catholic! More than likely your factory will tell you they have their own quality control team and suggest it’s not necessary to do any further checks. However, at a bare-minimum pre-shipment quality checks are highly recommended.
There are three main considerations when carrying out pre-shipment quality checks:
1. The quality of the quality checks will strongly be determined by the person carrying out the work. A student may not always have the competency to carry out the task.
2. Have a definite and clear explanation of what the product should look like and how it should function. Clearly define what acceptable standards are and what is not.
3. If any product defects are found, what is the plan of action? From your contract with your supplier, this part should be clearly defined. Usually suppliers will not honor defective products once it leaves China. They would claim it could have gotten damaged during transportation. This is more reason to do pre-shipment checks.
