He walked past the showroom
Every factory tour starts with a wall of glowing panels. He looked at them for perhaps ninety seconds, said they were nice, and asked where the burn-in room was.Buyers who have done this before know the showroom is the one room where nothing can go wrong.
Room one: the burn-in room
He wanted to know how many units were running and for how long. Then he asked what happens to a panel that fails at hour sixty.That question matters more than the number of chambers. It shows whether the process ends in a documented decision or in somebody eyeballing a screen and saying 'that one looks fine'.
Room two: the calibration bench
He asked to see the colour report for a batch that had already shipped, then asked to see the same serial number in the production record.Being able to walk from a paper report to a panel and back is the difference between a quality system and a quality claim.
Room three: the spare parts store
The longest stop. He counted the power boards on the shelf and asked which panel revisions they fit.A supplier with two years of boards in stock is planning to support the product. A supplier with an empty shelf is planning to sell the next model.
The sentence that decided the order
He said he could not tell by looking whether our panels were better than the three other factories he had visited that week. What he could judge was whether the process would produce the same result on the next order.He placed a trial order of thirty-six panels and asked for the colour report and burn-in record with the shipment.
If you cannot visit
Ask for the same three things: a burn-in record with rejection reasons, a colour report per serial number, and a photographed spare parts shelf with part numbers.A supplier who produces these in a day is organised. One who needs a week is improvising, and it will show on your third order.