Video-Monitored Self-Inspections in COVID-19 Affected Areas

The exceptional situation currently facing the household goods and toys supply chain is forcing companies around the globe to adapt to a reality that is changing by the day.
At API, we’re continuously looking for new technical solutions to support our clients, adopting all necessary measures to help minimize the impact on your shipments while keeping our employees, your teams, and those of your suppliers safe.
While some areas are returning to activity, others remain unreachable and access to many factories is still limited for safety reasons. However, this doesn’t mean that we cannot support you in monitoring the quality of your goods. Traditional inspections may for now be limited in some areas, but we can bring you our support and expertise via video-monitored self-inspections.

Video-monitored self-inspections

Video-monitored self-inspection can easily be put in place for your reliable factories, with monitoring via a video call with one of our technicians who will provide guidance throughout the process.
This solution brings additional support to your brand to help control the quality of your goods in these extraordinary times. Some of the main benefits include:

• Support in ensuring self-inspection controls are made thoroughly
• Verification of the proper methods of implementation and efforts put in place to conduct an adequate inspection and truthful declaration

While this tool can help confirm the correct self-inspection is carried out, the absence of our technicians on-site brings certain limitations: 

• Some verifications may not be fully under the control of API (Ex. counting of quantities, random carton selection…)
• Some points cannot be validated remotely, or on-site verifications reported accurately (Ex. bulk shading or humidity/moisture level, appearance checks, assembly, function checks…)
• The factory/vendor’s history with the brand is essential to determine the feasibility of this solution – not advised for one-off / short-term suppliers

At API, the health, safety, and security of our teams, customers, partners, and factories is key. We remain at your disposal and continue to look for risk-free solutions, and we thank you once again for your support during this crisis.

Interested in knowing more about our video-monitored self-inspections?