Last updated: November 2, 2026
Door Factory Audit Checklist: 100-Point Supplier Scorecard
Quick answer: Audit a door factory in eight blocks worth 100 points — legal identity & capacity (10), materials & moisture control (15), fire/acoustic evidence (20, if ratings are in your spec), production process (15), finish quality (10), packing & export control (10), commercial discipline (10) and after-sales (10). Score 85+ and still run a trial order; treat any falsified certificate, certificate held by a different company, or refusal of third-party pre-shipment inspection as an automatic fail regardless of total points. The weighting below is our working framework for comparing factories — a disciplined checklist, not an official standard.
The 100-point scorecard
| Block | Points | Pass looks like | Typical failure |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Legal identity & export record | 10 | Business licence, factory (not trading office) at the audited address, export history consistent across documents and references | Certificate holder name ≠ factory legal name; “factory tour” lands in a showroom |
| 2. Materials & moisture control | 15 | Named core/veneer/board suppliers; kiln or conditioning records; moisture meters in use with a written shipping-moisture target agreed for your climate | “Dry enough” as the whole answer; no meter on the floor |
| 3. Fire / acoustic evidence (if rated doors are specified) | 20 | Current certificate/listing in the factory’s own name; scope covers your sizes, glazing, frames; labels traceable; surveillance/audit regime explained | Expired or borrowed certificates; a single test report stretched to every size and glass area |
| 4. Production process control | 15 | CNC machining for hardware prep, pressing parameters recorded, sanding/finish lines with dust control, work-in-progress labelled by project | Hand-cut hardware recesses on “precision” doors; unlabelled mixed piles |
| 5. Finish & dimensional QC | 10 | Written tolerances for size, squareness, flatness/bow; adhesion and film checks on finishes; signed retained samples per project | QC = one person glancing at finished doors under poor light |
| 6. Packing & export control | 10 | Documented pack spec (protection, bundle/crate, moisture barriers), packing list by SKU with packed dims and weights, loading photos per container | Doors film-wrapped loose for ocean freight; no packed CBM until the truck arrives |
| 7. Commercial discipline | 10 | Quotation states spec baseline, inclusions/exclusions, Incoterms, lead time logic and validity; change requests quoted in writing | One-line price per door with no spec — the cheapest quote is usually a different door |
| 8. After-sales & spares | 10 | Claim window and evidence requirements in the contract; spare hardware/seals policy; named contact for site issues | “No problem, my friend” as the entire warranty process |
Scoring bands: 85–100 approve for a trial order; 70–84 approve only with a written corrective-action list and re-check on the weak blocks; 55–69 sample order only, no bulk commitment; below 55, walk away. Any automatic-fail item in the red-flag list overrides the arithmetic.
Evidence to request before you visit
- Business licence and the exact legal name that will appear on invoices and certificates.
- For rated doors: certificate/listing + the scope/assessment pages, not the cover page alone. Check holder, factory address, product scope, sizes and expiry. Verify the number in the issuer’s public directory where one exists.
- Board and emissions documentation relevant to your market (for example formaldehyde class declarations for panels), plus FSC/PEFC chain-of-custody scope if certified timber is specified — verify codes in the schemes’ databases.
- A real door schedule from a past project (redacted) and one matching packing list. Factories that run projects can produce these in minutes.
- Two export references you may actually contact, ideally including one that had a problem and can describe how it was resolved.
On the factory floor: what to measure, not just look at
- Moisture: ask them to pin-meter several leaves and components in front of you and compare with the written shipping target you agreed for your destination climate. No target, no points.
- Dimensions: bring a tape and square. Sample finished leaves for width/height/thickness, diagonal difference and bow against the factory’s own stated tolerances.
- Core honesty: ask to see a cut section or a rejected leaf opened up. The core you are paying for should be visible somewhere in the building, not only described.
- Finish: raking-light inspection for orange-peel and sanding marks; ask how adhesion is checked (cross-cut/tape tests are a good sign) and how colour batches are approved and retained.
- Hardware prep: mortises and drilling by CNC/template with jigs, and fire-door machining only within the certification scope.
- Packing line: edge and corner protection, separation between faces, carton/crate strength appropriate to LCL vs FCL, labels tying each pack to the door schedule line and room number, and a loading plan before the container arrives (see our 20ft loading worked examples).
Remote (video) audits: how to make them harder to stage
A video audit can screen factories, but schedule it to your checklist: start at the gate sign, walk one unbroken route through raw material storage → machining → pressing → finishing → packing, zoom into machine plates and work-in-progress labels you choose at random, and have them meter moisture and measure a leaf you pick from the rack. Pre-recorded “factory videos” score zero. Remote screening narrows the list; it does not replace a visit or a qualified third-party inspection for a first bulk order. If you do travel, our one-day Foshan audit agenda sequences the same checks.
Automatic-fail red flags
- Certificates in another company’s name, edited PDFs, or a rating claimed beyond the tested size/glazing scope.
- Refusal of your third-party pre-shipment inspection, or pressure to wire the balance before inspection access.
- No moisture control, yet promising “no warping, guaranteed” for a different climate zone.
- Golden samples that cannot be matched to a production batch, retained-sample shelf, or any paper trail.
- Price far below the field with no spec baseline. In doors, unexplained cheapness is a different core, thinner board, or missing frame/hardware scope — find which before it finds you (see quotation red flags).
From audit to trial order: samples, PSI and the contract
- Seal the sample properly. Approve a full-size door (not only a colour chip), label and retain duplicates at both ends, and reference the signed sample ID in the order. Our sample order checklist covers the sign-off fields.
- Write the spec into the contract — construction, dimensions/tolerances, moisture target, finish system, hardware brands/models, rating evidence, packing spec, labelling by door schedule. Attach our contract clause list as your starting draft and agree inspection levels and acceptable quality limits (AQL) and the claim window explicitly.
- Inspect before shipment. For a first order, book independent pre-shipment inspection against the sealed sample and contract spec — dimensions sample, moisture spot checks, finish, hardware function, pack count and loading supervision for at least the first container.
- Scale in steps. Trial container → performance review against the scorecard’s weak blocks → volume. Audit again when the factory, ownership or key lines change, and at least annually on running projects.
Use this scorecard on us. Jusen’s factory is in Shunde, Foshan; we welcome scheduled audits and third-party inspection. For planning, buyers commonly allow roughly 7–15 days for an approval sample after drawings are confirmed, 1–5 sample sets, and around 25–45 days for standard bulk production after sample approval; fire-rated, glazed or highly customised schedules can take longer. Treat these as typical China export planning ranges and confirm the production slot for your order before deposit. Download the one-page scorecard and bring it to the floor: B2B door sourcing hub · OEM programme · Book a factory audit
FAQs
Is a video audit enough before a first bulk order?
It is a screening tool. Combine it with documentary verification, a sealed full-size sample and independent pre-shipment inspection; visit in person before placing programme-level volume.
What is a good moisture content for export wooden doors?
There is no single world number: the right shipping moisture tracks the equilibrium moisture of the destination and building conditions. What matters is that the factory states a target in the contract, controls drying/conditioning to it, and lets you verify readings before packing.
How do I verify a fire door certificate?
Match five fields: certificate holder = contracting factory, factory address, product construction, size/glazing/frame scope, and validity/surveillance status. Then confirm the number with the issuing body’s directory or helpdesk where available.
What AQL should I use for doors?
The levels must be agreed contractually by defect class (critical/major/minor) and sampling plan — importing a generic number from consumer goods is a common mistake. Define what counts as critical (wrong rating, wrong size, warp beyond tolerance) with zero acceptance.
How many doors should a trial order be?
Enough to run the real production route — typically a mixed container or a full representative batch of your main SKUs — so machining, finishing and packing are all exercised, not a hand-made one-off.
