As Operations Manager at a Danish-owned whitefish processor in Vietnam (2014–2024), I was the person audits were aimed at. That changes how I assess factories for you: I know what a clean report can hide, and what a messy-looking plant can still deliver.
Pre-production, during-production, pre-shipment and container-loading checks — scoped to the failure points that actually cost you money, coordinated and interpreted for you, not just photographed.
Before you commit volume: capacity, certifications, raw-material chain, cold-chain integrity, and the operational tells no certificate shows. Delivered as a written assessment you can act on.
Private label or custom-spec production: I shortlist Vietnamese processors that genuinely run your product form, verify their lines in person, and manage the sampling loop until you approve.
Health certificates, certificates of origin, packing documentation — reviewed against destination-market requirements before the container leaves, when errors are still cheap to fix.
Inspection firms work per checklist. A supplier's own QC works for the supplier. I work under a disclosed-agent arrangement: you know what I earn, factories know who I represent, and my only asset is being right about them.
It starts with a short call. You describe the product and the destination market; I tell you plainly whether I can help, and what I would check first. Engagements run per-project (one factory, one shipment, one assessment) or as an ongoing sourcing partnership — the model to fit is something we work out together, not a fixed rate card.
alan@viet.zone About Alan