Last updated: October 2026
By Jack Lv, General Manager — 925 sterling silver and GRA moissanite manufacturing in Foshan since 2011
A remote factory audit can confirm that the factory exists at the stated address, that the production steps your product depends on are physically present on the floor, that the equipment in the quotation is real, and that the certificate numbers you were given are genuine. It cannot tell you how your own order will be made, so treat it as a screen before the order and inspect the goods themselves before they ship.
It is a screen, not a certificate: it removes the specific risk of paying a deposit to a factory that does not exist, or to a trading company presenting itself as a manufacturer. It also settles process — whether casting happens on site, and whether plating tanks, rectifiers and a thickness gauge are actually there.
A remote audit is a screen, not a certificate. Its real value is that it removes a specific and common risk: paying a deposit to a factory that does not exist, or to a trading company presenting itself as a manufacturer. Live footage on an active shop floor, matched against the address on the business licence, settles that question in an hour instead of a flight.
The second thing it settles is process. If you are buying cast silver rings, you want to know that casting happens on site rather than being subcontracted to a workshop nobody has seen. If plating quality is critical to your range, you want to see tanks, rectifiers and a thickness control method, not a description of one.
What a camera cannot do is measure your goods. It cannot weigh a band, read a plating thickness, or feel whether a stone seat is tight. Those are properties of pieces rather than of buildings, and they belong to your own pre-shipment inspection, not to a tour.
| Question you are trying to answer | Remote live audit | Pre-shipment or on-site inspection |
|---|---|---|
| Does the factory exist and operate at this address? | Yes, if you see live production footage and match the address to the business licence | Yes, confirmed again in person |
| Are the steps my product needs present here? | Yes, when each station is shown live and in production order | Yes |
| Is the equipment in the quotation real? | Partly, if each instrument is shown in use | Yes |
| Are the certificate numbers genuine? | Yes, because you look each number up on the issuer's own site | Yes |
| Will my order meet specification? | No | Yes, at the pre-shipment gate |
| Will the defect rate hold over a long run? | No | Only measured across repeated orders |
Announce the working day but not the hour, give a time window rather than an exact minute, and ask the call to begin at the station you name rather than at reception. Ask for a live walk of the floor, not a recorded file.
The value of a video audit depends almost entirely on how it is scheduled. A supplier who knows the date, the hour and the route can tidy the floor, move a machine into shot, or hand-pick the operator who will answer your questions. You do not need to be adversarial about this. You need to remove the supplier's ability to choose what you see.
Announce the working day but not the hour. Give a time window rather than an exact minute. Ask the call to begin at the station you name, not at reception, and ask the person holding the camera to walk the floor live rather than play a recorded file.
Walk the factory in the order in which defects are created and trapped, from melting through to packing. If the call can move through all of them without leaving the building, the process is genuinely under one roof — the single most useful thing a remote audit can establish.
Walk the factory in the order in which defects are created and trapped. If the call can move from melting to packing without leaving the building, the process is genuinely under one roof, which is the single most useful thing a remote audit can establish.
| Station | What to ask to see | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|
| Melting and alloying | The furnace, the crucible, the alloy being weighed, and the record kept for each silver lot | Whether the 925 alloy is made and recorded on site, or bought in without traceable documentation |
| Wax injection or forming | The wax tree before investment, or the die set if the line is stamped | Which forming technology is actually used for your product type |
| Stone setting | A setter working at a bench under a loupe or microscope, with loose stones and seated stones side by side | Whether setting is hand work on site, and how stone seats are checked as they are completed |
| Polishing | The polishing lathes, the compound in use, and work in progress at each stage | How the finish is produced and where burns or flat areas are corrected |
| Plating line | Tanks or barrels, the rectifier, and the method used to control thickness | Whether plating is in house, and whether thickness is controlled or simply claimed |
| QC bench | The XRF spectrometer, the electronic balance, calipers and gauges, and the loupe or microscope | Whether measurement is done with instruments or by eye |
| Packing area | The packing bench, the label printer, the bags and boxes in use, and order paperwork at the bench | Whether packing is clean, labelled and separated per order |
| Finished-goods warehouse | Racked and binned stock, order cartons, and how a named order is picked | Whether stock is traceable to an order or simply piled by model |
Take the choice away from the supplier: name the drawer, tray or carton and ask to see it live on camera, rather than accepting what was prepared in advance. Staged audits rarely fail on the tour; they fail on the sampling.
Staged audits rarely fail on the tour. They fail on the sampling, because the supplier chose what you looked at. Take that choice away and the call becomes evidence rather than reassurance.
Ask every supplier for the same set so the answers can be compared side by side, and verify each number at its source rather than through a link the supplier sends. A document you cannot look up independently is a claim, not evidence.
A remote audit should produce a document set as well as impressions. Ask every supplier for the same items so the answers can be compared side by side, and verify each number at its source rather than through a link the supplier sends you.
| Document | What it should show | How you verify it |
|---|---|---|
| Business licence | Registered legal name, registered address and business scope | Match the name to the entity on your contract and to the account you pay |
| Factory audit certificate | Audit body, certificate number and validity dates | Look the number up in the audit body's own online service. Nabest holds Intertek Verified Supplier certificate 483553466_T, valid from 2025-12-31 to 2026-12-30. |
| RoHS conformity certificate | The directive, the issuing laboratory, the date and the models covered | Check the number on the laboratory's site. Nabest holds HYC2025120053RV1 from Shenzhen HyCert, dated 2025-12-31, covering the 27 models listed on the certificate. |
| REACH SVHC test report | The size of the substance list screened and the result | Ask for the report number. Nabest holds BKC25020516BR from Shenzhen BKC Testing, dated 2025-02-27, screening 247 SVHC substances at below 0.1 percent. |
| Stone documentation | One report per stone rather than one per order | Nabest supplies GRA moissanite reports issued per stone, so the number of reports should match the number of stones. |
| Equipment list | Machine types and what each one measures | Ask to see each instrument running during the video call |
A third-party audit is a site inspection by a named body against a published standard, recorded in a report and a certificate number you can look up; it costs money and is scheduled in advance. Auditing yourself is cheaper and shows you the process, but it is not a certificate — and an audit describes a site, never the goods in your carton.
These are different products and they answer different questions. A third-party audit is a site inspection by a named body against a published standard; it is recorded in a report and a certificate number you can look up. It costs money, it is scheduled in advance, and it is written for a general reader. Your own video audit costs an hour and is tailored to your product, but it depends on your ability to interpret what you are shown.
One point of accuracy that matters when you read audit documents: an audit describes a site, not goods. It says the factory existed and met the audited standard on the day of the visit. It says nothing about the pieces in your carton.
| Comparison | Third-party audit | Your own video audit |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A site inspection by a named body against a published standard | A live walkthrough that you direct yourself |
| Evidence produced | A report and a certificate number the body can confirm | Your own notes and screenshots, plus a recording if the supplier agrees |
| Best used for | Qualifying a factory you have never worked with, and filling your compliance file | Confirming process detail and equipment before a first order |
| Limitation | It describes the site on the audit date, not your order | It depends on the supplier's cooperation and your own judgement |
| Cost and scheduling | Paid per audit and booked in advance | No direct cost beyond the call |
None is proof on its own, but a cluster is a reason to slow down: evasive answers about subcontracting, a floor that changes between calls, and documents that cannot be traced to their issuer. Write them down during the call, because they predict how the account will be run after the order.
Some signals are worth writing down during the call, because they predict how the account will be run after the order is placed. None of them is proof of a problem on its own, but a cluster of them is a reason to slow down.
Convert observations into conditions attached to gates: name the alloy and require an XRF check at incoming inspection, and state plating thickness in microns with control at the plating station. Our own gates are IQC, IPQC, FQC and OQC, with sampling quoted at 5 to 7 days and bulk production at 15 to 20 days.
An audit that does not change your paperwork has limited value. Write down what you saw and convert it into conditions. Name the alloy and require an XRF check at incoming material inspection. Require the plating thickness to be stated in microns and controlled at the plating station. Fix a weight tolerance in grams per piece on the specification sheet. Require the packing list to be separated per order, and require a photo set of the finished goods before dispatch.
Then attach each requirement to a gate. Nabest runs four inspection gates, IQC on incoming material, IPQC during production, FQC on finished goods and OQC before shipment, with sampling quoted at 5 to 7 days and bulk production at 15 to 20 days. Knowing where the gates sit lets you say which one a requirement belongs to, which is what turns a preference into something that is genuinely checked.
Yes, and it is the cheapest way to screen a new supplier. Use it to confirm the legal entity, the site, the production steps and the certificate numbers, then keep a paid third-party inspection or a pre-shipment check for the first order, when your money is actually exposed.
Yes. A recorded file can be edited, and it is normally shot on a tidy day. A live call lets you choose what happens next, ask for a second look at a bench, or ask for a specific carton to be opened, which is exactly what a prepared file cannot answer.
Write the numbers down during the call, then look them up on the issuing body's own website rather than clicking a link the supplier sends. Check three things: that a live record exists, that the company name on the record matches the entity you are contracting with, and that the models or samples covered include what you are buying.
Ask to see an XRF spectrometer for alloy verification, an electronic balance for weight, calipers and gauges for dimensions, and a loupe or microscope for setting and finish. Nabest lists those four groups as its standard inspection equipment, and each one should be shown in use rather than in a cupboard.
No. An audit qualifies the site on the date of the visit and tells you nothing about the pieces in your carton. Pair it with a video call before each new product line and an inspection of the goods before they leave, which is where product-level faults are actually caught.
Send your design, size and quantity — factory quote back within 24 hours. Reference: General enquiry