| Business Legitimacy | Confirm the supplier’s registered business scope, operating address, legal representative, and years in operation. | Current Chinese business license, registration information, factory address, and independently verified contact details. | Legal business information is consistent across official documents, audit records, and commercial correspondence. | Unverifiable address, inconsistent company information, or refusal to provide basic registration documents. | 15% |
| Quality Management System | Assess whether the supplier uses documented procedures for incoming inspection, process control, final inspection, calibration, and corrective action. | Quality manual, inspection procedures, internal audit records, calibration certificates, nonconformance reports, and corrective-action records. | A documented and actively used quality system aligned with ISO 9001 principles. | Documents exist only for review, inspection records are incomplete, or corrective actions lack root-cause analysis. | 20% |
| Product Conformity | Check whether materials, dimensions, performance, labeling, packaging, and tolerances meet the approved specification. | Approved samples, product drawings, technical data sheets, inspection reports, batch records, and sample-to-production comparison results. | Mass-production samples match the approved reference sample and all critical characteristics are measurable. | Uncontrolled substitutions, unclear tolerances, or differences between sample quality and production quality. | 20% |
| Material Traceability | Determine whether raw materials and components can be traced from supplier receipt through production and shipment. | Lot numbers, material certificates, supplier records, production batch records, and shipment traceability documents. | Each production batch can be linked to its raw-material lot and final inspection record. | Materials are purchased without records or batch identification is missing after production. | 10% |
| Regulatory Compliance | Verify compliance requirements applicable to the destination market, product category, materials, chemicals, labeling, and packaging. | Relevant declarations, third-party test reports, safety data, restricted-substance statements, and product labels. | Required compliance evidence is current, product-specific, and issued for the actual manufacturing site or product model. | Generic certificates, expired reports, mismatched model numbers, or documents issued for another factory. | 15% |
| Factory Capability | Evaluate production equipment, capacity, process stability, maintenance controls, staffing, and the supplier’s ability to scale orders. | Factory audit, equipment list, production-flow chart, maintenance records, capacity calculation, and verified production video or visit. | Declared capacity is supported by equipment, labor, operating hours, and historical production records. | Trading activity is presented as manufacturing capability, excessive subcontracting, or capacity claims lack evidence. | 10% |
| Inspection and Testing | Confirm that the supplier has suitable instruments and defined acceptance criteria for critical product characteristics. | Inspection plans, sampling standards, test-method documents, equipment calibration records, and pre-shipment inspection results. | Inspection results are recorded by batch, instruments are calibrated, and critical defects have clearly defined limits. | Visual inspection only, missing sampling plans, or unavailable calibration evidence. | 10% |
| Delivery Reliability | Review lead time, on-time delivery history, order planning, inventory management, and communication during delays. | Anonymized delivery-performance records, production schedules, order confirmations, and documented delay-resolution procedures. | Delivery performance is measured consistently and delay causes are communicated with recovery actions. | Repeated unexplained delays, uncertain lead times, or dependence on a single undocumented subcontractor. | 5% |
| Commercial and After-Sales Support | Assess quotation clarity, payment terms, warranty coverage, complaint handling, spare-part availability, and response time. | Formal quotation, purchase agreement, warranty terms, service-level commitments, complaint log, and replacement policy. | Responsibilities, acceptance criteria, warranty conditions, and remedy procedures are written before purchase. | Verbal promises only, unclear warranty exclusions, or refusal to define responsibility for defects. | 5% |
| Total Evaluation Weight | 100% |