Every factory looks capable on a tour. What separates them is whether the records behind the tour exist, and 24 questions will tell you more than a day of walking.
The 6 Areas Your Questions Should Cover
| Area | What to ask about | What a good answer looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Furnace and batch | Fuel, campaign schedule, cullet ratio, colour changes. | Specific figures and a schedule you can plan against. |
| Forming | Machine types, process per design, cavity numbering. | A clear reason why your bottle runs the way it does. |
| Cold end | Gauges fitted, polariscope checks, reject handling. | Data you can see for last month, not a description. |
| Tooling | Mould shop, maintenance records, spares held. | Records per set, and named spares for running jobs. |
| Testing | Pressure, thermal shock, food contact, who tests. | In-house equipment plus named external laboratories. |
| Records | Traceability from pallet back to line and shift. | A lot code that resolves to a date, a line and a cavity. |
The Questions That Reveal the System
Ask what happens when something goes wrong. Who has authority to stop a line, what triggers that decision, and how a cavity out of tolerance gets caught.
Then ask where last month's rejects went. A factory with a real system answers immediately and shows you the record. SGSBOTTLE runs cold-end gauging and polariscope checks on all 14 lines in Shandong and Xuzhou, and the data exists per line and per shift.
What to Ask About Your Own Order
Six questions are specific to you. Which base and which line will run your design. What cavity count your tooling covers. Which campaign window your colour falls into.
Then who holds your moulds, what spares exist for them, and what your lot code will resolve to. A 750 ml (25 oz) programme with all six answered has a supply chain you can audit later.
Ask for records, not assurances. SGSBOTTLE keeps line and shift data across 14 lines in Shandong and Xuzhou.
Records Beat Certificates
A certificate confirms that a system was assessed on a date. Your audit asks whether it runs today, on the line that will make your bottles, under the people you met.
Ask for both. Certificates get you through your own compliance process, and records tell you whether a 330 ml (11 oz) order will arrive the way the certificate implies.
What to Take Away With You
Four things, and none of them are photographs. Cold-end data for a recent month. A mould maintenance record for a running job. A completed inspection report. And a lot code traced back to its line and shift.
If a factory can produce all four while you wait, its system is real. SGSBOTTLE provides them for glass from 14 lines in Shandong and Xuzhou, during the audit rather than afterwards.
What Goes on Your Enquiry
Your format in ml and oz, your annual volume, the standards your market requires, and whether you plan to audit in person or remotely. SGSBOTTLE comes back with the base, the line, the records available and an audit date.