A factory audit is the only point in the relationship where you see the operation before your money is committed. This checklist is built for plastic toy moulding, and it separates what you can verify from documents in advance from what only an in-person visit reveals.
Request these before you travel
- Business licence and export registration. Confirm the legal entity name matches the quotation and the bank account, not just the trading name.
- Client references in your category. Two references, with contactable buyers, for programmes of similar size.
- Test reports for current production. Not samples, not a portfolio of best results. Ask which SKU each report belongs to.
- Tooling list with cavity counts and steel grades. A factory that cannot say which tool is in which press will not give you a reliable lead time.
The 12 points to verify on site
- Press to tool match. Every tool should be set up in a press of appropriate tonnage. A tool designed for a 120-tonne press running in an 80-tonne machine will flash, and the parts will vary.
- Material control. Resin stored dry and labelled, with lot traceability from the drying hopper to the finished box. Ask to see the drying temperature log for a hygroscopic material.
- Masterbatch control. Colour matched against a retained standard, with the ratio recorded. Colour drift is the most frequent quality complaint in moulded toys and it is almost always a process record failure.
- Regrind policy. What percentage of regrind is allowed, in which parts, and whether the regrind is from the same material only. A factory that cannot answer this is adding unknown resin to your parts.
- Gate and runner discipline. Cut gates finished by hand, not torn. A torn gate is a stress riser that fails the EN 71-1 or ASTM F963 torque test later.
- Assembly area. Lighting adequate for inspection work, and a documented sequence for sub-assembly. Where snap fits are used, a torque gauge on the bench.
- Incoming inspection. A function, not a shelf. Ask who rejects parts and what happens to rejected stock. If nothing is ever rejected, nothing is being inspected.
- Dimensional records. A CMM or a calibrated gauge setup with retention of first-article data. For toys, retained samples from the start, middle and end of each run.
- Decoration and printing. Solvent control, adhesion testing (tape or cross-hatch) on printed parts, and a documented cure for inks.
- Packing line. Correct carton marking, correct piece count, and a scale that is calibrated. Weight check catches a missing-parts error faster than counting.
- Traceability. A batch code that appears on the product or the inner box, and a record linking that batch to the material lot and the operator.
- Chemical safety. Ventilation at the moulding machines, solvent storage, and where the paint and thinner actually go at the end of the shift.
Four findings that should stop an order
- No traceability from material lot to finished carton. Without it, a recall cannot be scoped and the CPSIA tracking label is meaningless.
- Regrind from unknown sources entering food-contact or infant products.
- Decoration performed without adhesion or migration records on parts intended for children under three.
- Test reports that do not name the specific SKU and batch they belong to.
What an audit does not tell you
Capacity under load, engineering responsiveness, and whether a factory will prioritise your order when three buyers are waiting. Those come from the first two production runs, which is why the first order should be structured so that a problem is recoverable: split shipments, retention of the balance, and a documented corrective-action process rather than a verbal promise.
Related reading
Our toy manufacturing programmes are run under this audit scope, and the sourcing guides cover tooling cost, MOQ negotiation and quotation reading.
