Most supplier failures are visible before the first deposit if you know where to look. This is the vetting workflow used by sourcing desks: four stages, each with a kill criterion, designed so that the expensive discovery happens on your schedule, not after your money has shipped.
Stage 1: Paper check (day 1–3)
Business licence, export history, and the factory-versus-trader question. Ask directly whether they manufacture or trade; both are workable, but the answer changes which promises are real. Verify the licence number against the public registry, and ask for two customer references in your market.
Stage 2: Capability check (week 1–2)
Ask for three things that test honesty: the plating supplier’s name, a recent EN 1811 or equivalent test report, and photos of the setting bench with a dated newspaper. A factory that answers all three has nothing structural to hide; a factory that dodges one has a reason.
Stage 3: Sample round (week 2–5)
Order paid samples from two to three finalists, not one. Evaluate against a written rubric, plating weight, stone setting tightness, clasp cycles, finish consistency, not against a vibe. The sample round also measures responsiveness, which predicts production communication better than any sales deck.
Stage 4: Trial order (week 5–12)
Smallest viable quantity, third-party inspection before balance payment, and a written change-control clause on materials. The trial order’s purpose is information: how the factory handles a mid-line problem matters more than whether the samples were pretty.
Kill criteria at each stage
- Stage 1: Licence unverifiable or references declined
- Stage 2: Plating supplier unnamed or test reports refused
- Stage 3: Sample quality below rubric line or silence over a week
- Stage 4: Inspection failed without a credible rework plan
After the trial
Move the relationship onto a quarterly review: defect rates, on-time performance, and price stability. Suppliers maintain the accounts that measure them; be the account that measures, and you will be the account that gets the capacity when it is short.
