Qualification is product-specific
A factory can be legitimate, experienced, and still be wrong for a particular program. Qualification must connect the supplier’s demonstrated capability to the exact product, process, volume, quality, documentation, and delivery requirements under consideration.
ANDSTALD maintains more than 14,000 factory records across more than 12 industries as sourcing intelligence. Those records accelerate research, but they are not a substitute for project-specific qualification. Every candidate still needs fresh evidence for the work at hand.
The evidence stack
A serious qualification process organizes evidence in layers and resolves contradictions before commercial commitment.
- Identity and ownership: legal entity, operating locations, export identity, beneficial ownership, and contracting authority.
- Capability: equipment, process flow, technical staff, materials, tolerances, comparable production, and subcontracted steps.
- Capacity: current utilization, bottlenecks, shift structure, maintenance, expansion claims, and realistic ramp timing.
- Quality: system certifications, incoming and in-process controls, calibration, traceability, testing, nonconformance, and corrective action.
- Commercial readiness: quotation completeness, cost assumptions, tooling control, payment terms, warranty, and change management.
- Delivery readiness: packaging validation, export documentation, logistics roles, milestones, and disruption communication.
Audit the claim, not just the facility
A factory audit is valuable when it tests the supplier’s claims against the program’s actual risks. A generic walkthrough can create confidence without answering the most important questions. The audit plan should focus on the process steps, controls, records, people, and failure modes that matter to the product.
Samples and first articles add another layer of evidence, but they must be produced under documented conditions. A good sample made outside the intended production process does not prove repeatable capability.
Make the decision traceable
The final qualification recommendation should show what is confirmed, what remains conditional, who owns each open item, and what evidence is required before release. That traceability gives Utah teams a stronger basis for negotiation, launch, and future supplier-performance management.