Sourcing
Running a Sourcing Trip to India: What to Look At on a Factory Visit
A factory visit is your one chance to check whether the supplier who answered your emails is the supplier who will actually make your goods. Spend it watching real work in progress, not looking at the showroom: see cloth on the loom, samples being cut, and finished pieces being packed, and ask who does each stage and where. The single most useful judgement you can form is whether the people run the factory or the factory runs the people.
Most buyers plan a sourcing trip too loosely and come home with a folder of brochures and no clear decision. This guide gives you a structure: what to prepare, what to look at on the floor, and the questions that are far easier to answer in person than over email.
Before you go
Do the paper work first, so the visit tests what you already suspect rather than starting from zero.
- Send a short brief ahead: the products, the fabrics, rough volumes, and your target markets. A supplier who prepares relevant samples for your arrival is showing you how they will handle your account.
- Ask for a counter sample of one real item before you fly, if time allows. Handling it first means the visit is spent confirming, not discovering.
- Agree who you will meet. You want time with the people who run production and quality, not only the sales contact.
- Fix the logistics of the trip itself. India's home textile work is spread across clusters, so a realistic route rarely covers more than two or three suppliers a day without the visits becoming shallow.
Take a printed checklist and a notebook. Photos are useful where the factory allows them, but a written note of what you saw at each stage is what you will actually rely on afterwards.
What to look at on the factory floor
Ask to walk the process in the order the cloth moves, from yarn or greige through to the packed carton. A vertically integrated maker can show you most stages under its own control; a trading house or a converter will point to partners for some of them, which is not wrong but is something you should know before you order.
| Stage | What to look for | What a weak answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Weaving or knitting | Looms or knitting machines running, loom widths that suit your products, tidy warping | "We can arrange that" for a stage they do not do in house |
| Cutting and making | Skilled operators, consistent seams, work moving steadily rather than piling up | A silent, empty floor on a working day |
| Finishing | Washing, quilting, embroidery or printing done to a visible standard | Vague answers about where finishing happens |
| Quality control | Inspection points between stages, not only at the end | Checking only the finished piece |
| Packing | Clean packing area, correct folding, cartons made up to a spec | Goods packed loose or without a labelling system |
The width of the looms matters more than buyers expect. Wide bedding made in one piece needs a wide loom, and a factory that weaves narrow has to seam the cloth. H & J Exim weaves to 136 inches, which lets wide runs be made seamless, and seeing the loom confirms the claim in a way a line in a quotation cannot. If you are unsure what a construction needs, our capabilities page sets out the machinery and techniques in one place.
Sampling, colour and how approvals really work
The sampling room tells you as much as the loom. Ask to see lab dips, strike-offs and counter samples in progress, and ask how long each takes.
A well-run maker will talk in specifics: counter samples in about a week on woven and about ten days on knitted, worked from an agreed specification, with samples chargeable and set against the first bulk order. Colour should be matched to a system you can both reference. H & J Exim matches to Pantone TCX and issues lab dips and strike-offs for approval, using AZO-free dyes. What you want to hear is a repeatable method, not a promise that colour will "come out right".
If you are considering a private label programme, use the visit to walk through the sampling and approval sequence step by step. The terms, minimums and sampling flow are far clearer once you have watched them happen.
Quality control and consistency
The difference between a good factory and an average one is where inspection sits. Ask where cloth and product are checked, and how often. Inspection only at the end catches faults too late to fix cheaply. Inspection between stages, at the loom, after making and before packing, is what keeps a repeat order matching the first.
Look for evidence that the factory can hold a standard across a run, not just produce one good sample:
- Are tolerances written down for size, weight and colour, or discussed only when something goes wrong?
- How are rejects handled, and is there a record of them?
- Who signs off a shipment before it is packed?
A supplier that answers these plainly is one you can hold to a specification later.
The commercial questions to raise in person
Some questions are simply better asked face to face, because you can read the answer.
- Minimums. How are they set, and can a minimum be split across sizes or colourways? At H & J Exim minimums start from 50 pieces, from 50 knitted and 100 woven, set per quality and per colourway rather than per size, so a run can be spread across sizes.
- Lead time. Bulk from 60 days FOB after sample approval is a normal shape for made-to-order home textiles. Ask what sits inside that window and what could move it.
- Terms. Confirm the shipping terms and port. H & J Exim ships FOB Nhava Sheva, with inland transport and export documentation handled, and CIF or CFR available on request.
- Fit. Ask which markets the supplier already ships to. A maker experienced in your region will understand its sizing and expectations without a long explanation.
Take the answers away and compare them against the other factories on your trip. Two suppliers quoting differently for what looks like the same sheet usually differ in ways a visit makes visible.
Leaving with a decision, not a folder
Before you leave each factory, write down three things: what they clearly do well, what they were vague about, and one thing you would test with a trial order. If a supplier is strong on the floor but slow to answer afterwards, weigh that too. Responsiveness during sampling predicts responsiveness during a problem. When you are ready to move a shortlisted maker to a trial, contact is the place to start the conversation.
Common questions
How many factories should I visit in one trip?
Fewer than you think. Two or three thorough visits a day, over a focused route, teaches you more than a dash between six. Depth beats coverage, because the point is to judge how each supplier actually works.
What if a supplier will not let me photograph the floor?
That alone is not a red flag. Many factories restrict photography for client confidentiality. What matters is whether they walk you through the process openly and answer questions about who does each stage.
Should I bring a technical person or an agent?
If you can, yes. A second set of eyes on making and finishing is valuable, and someone who knows construction will spot things you might miss. An independent view also helps you separate a good showroom from a good factory.
How soon after visiting should I place a trial order?
Once you have compared notes across the trip and confirmed a counter sample. A trial order tests in practice what the visit suggested, and is the sensible step before committing to a full container.