The latest CV-19 pandemic has propelled number of the customers across the globe looking to shift production base out of China and at the same time they have ever challenging demand to line up their shop floors with extensive collection of products at competitive prices. This has made tough situation further worse and even though customers were looking to make this shift for a long time but it is much imperative, especially now. Since this is a race against time but this present situation has also paved a way for other Asia Pacific countries like India, Vietnam, Bangladesh & Sri Lanka to step up &fill in the gaps left due to this evident shift.

Art of Sourcing clearly understands present & futures needs of our customers & is already geared up to provide world class & customised services for our customers. A glimpse of our services prepared by our technical team on the Basic Operational Guidelines laid out by the management for the most crucial processes involved in product sourcing.

Product Development

• Working our way through CAD’s our Product Development team ensures that the product initial layouts are well prepared & all changes incorporated well before going into physical product development process.
• Once CAD’s are approved we ask vendors to prepare temporary moulds (Wherever applicable).
• For Textiles most of our vendors are equipped to produce samples on the separate sampling looms. Also, smaller Hanks & cloth dyeing machines are used to ensure that the samples colours are matching to given pantones.
• Sampling inspections are conducted onsite by both AOS-QA’s & MD’s to ensure that the quality & designs are at par with the customer requests.
• If approved Sample Inspection reports along with Hi-Resolution photos are sent for Customer’s review & approval. Only once the approvals are achieved that the samples are allowed to be dispatched. In case of rejected samples a new schedule is sent to customer to update their records.
• Sample log: Physical sample log is maintained by retaining signed sample at the factory (Gold Seal sample) & another signed/stamped set of approved samples to (AOS office) for all future references.
• All reports retaining period up to one year. After one year the sample reports are discarded from the system.
• RFQ’s are updated with any deviation of data from the design to the ERP system so that all employees monitoring should have most accurate data. Also the information is immediately shared with customers as well.

Production follow up

• PPM – Pre-Production meetings are mandatory for all new orders. Conducted in presence of the AOS – QA & MD team in order to document all product data including measurements/weights/material breakdown and uploaded in AOS database. For repeat orders old PPM sheets are referred before the production is commenced.
• Defect Classification Guides – Are general guidelines which are established between the Factory QC & AOS-QA’s to ensure to record the approved upper & lower product variation levels. At the same time Critical defects are classified to ensure that those are immediately rejected by any visiting AOS-QA in case these are observed during inspections.
• Production Planning: All important dates of inspections / process completions are documented through WIP sheets. These WIP sheets are important for all inspections & shipment planning. AOS – Production co-ordinator is responsible to update these onto the database and then sharing the details with the concerned MD/QA & Team leaders.
• Review meetings: All respective Team leaders are required to hold meetings with logistics manager & concerned MD’s in order to ensure their respective shipments are well planned & logged in to the report since a minimum 3 weeks shipment planning of each order nearing production is mandatory. A copy of the daily shipment planning report is sent to the top managements review by the EOD.
  • MD’s & TL’s are required to check & match the Invoices of released shipments with the official Sales contract & customer PO in order to avoid any mistakes final Invoice submission.
  • MD’s are required to follow their shipments until the goods are onboard the planned vessel.
  • Logistics teams are involved in submission of all documents to customer’s respective forwarders & logistics teams. Also incharge of informing last minute Invoice changes to customer’s logistics team and maintain transparency.
• Logistics: Our trained logistics teams are involved in the follow up of all shipments until the time goods are finally delivered at POD/POA.
• Product Inspections: All orders routed through AOS go through internal Inline/Midline & Final random Inspection or as specified by the customers. The inspection reports are shared with customers before each dispatch and shipment is only released post receiving the customer approvals.
• Third Party Inspections: AOS also provides third party inspection services at nominal inspection charges. All reports are documented and our teams ensure the ready availability of these report for respective customers so they can access these online at any given time.