Luggage Factory Audit Checklist: Eight Things to Point the Camera At
A video audit is worth booking when you know what to point the camera at. Ask for the forming shop, the die storage, and the inspection bench, in that order. A supplier who can walk you through those three live is running production. One who sends a finished product reel is showing you a warehouse.
Here is the checklist we would use if we were the ones evaluating a factory, including the parts that do not flatter us.
What a video audit shows, and what it cannot
It shows equipment, work in progress, and how people answer questions they were not prepped for. That is a lot.
It does not show batch consistency, subcontracting, or what happens in week six of a run. No camera catches those. If a supplier passes the video and you are still nervous, the answer is a paid third party inspection at pre-shipment, not a longer video.
Book 40 minutes. Anything shorter turns into a highlight reel, and anything longer stops being a live walk and starts being a presentation.
Eight things to ask the camera to point at
1. The forming shop. Presses, shears, brakes. Ask what tonnage the biggest press is and what it is running today. A trading company will pan past this room or not have it.
2. Die storage. Racked dies with customer marks on them are the single hardest thing to fake. Ask how many are live and how many belong to buyers who left.
3. The shell process. There are two, and a factory should tell you which one your case would run. Ours are one piece die casting and sheet assembly. Brand programs usually take die casting because it puts fewer screw holes in the shell and holds a cleaner curve.
4. Extrusion and the lock cavity. On a frame case the lock cavity is milled into the extrusion when the die is cut. Ask to see that operation. It is also the reason a lock change after die sign off means a second die.
5. The inspection bench. Ask what gets pulled and at what rate, then ask to see the record from yesterday rather than the blank form.
6. Hardware sourcing. Ask who makes the trolley handle and the lock. We buy handles from Jiangshun, Sunsen, and Boluo Jingxiang. A factory that cannot name its handle supplier is buying on price that month.
7. Finished goods and cartons. Look at whose brands are boxed. It tells you the tier the factory actually serves, faster than any capability deck.
8. The bit they did not plan to show. Ask to turn left instead of right once. What happens next is the real result of the audit.
What buyers ask us before they book
We cleaned the bot traffic out of our own inquiry forms and were left with 2,424 real messages. Requests for a catalog or documentation came up 142 times, and requests tied to samples 102 times, but only a handful asked to see the line.
One buyer put it plainly.
Can you send real photos or videos of aluminum luggage samples you produced before?
That is the right instinct and the wrong ask. Photos of finished product can be filmed anywhere. Ask instead for the machine that made it, with the operator standing next to it.
Read the machines, not the tour
Equipment tells you what a factory can hold to. A shop with presses, shears, and CNC on site controls its own timing. A shop with assembly benches only is dependent on somebody else for every part that matters, which shows up as a two week delay the first time a spec changes mid run.
Ask three questions about any machine on camera. What is it, what is it running now, and who runs it when that operator is off. The third question is the one that separates a real line from a staged one.
What we show, and what we do not
We are a 49,600 sq m (534,000 sq ft) plant in Houjie, Dongguan, with about 250 people across design, engineering, testing, production, and sales, operating since 1993. Forming, extrusion work, assembly, and inspection are all on site and all available on a live call.
We do not stage a walkthrough. If the line is running someone else’s order that day, you will see someone else’s order, with their branding out of frame.
We also do not claim to be the right plant for every program. If your private label run is well under 300 pieces and needs a new die, the tooling will not amortize and a supplier running an existing profile will quote you better than we will. We say that on the first call rather than after the audit.
Patent numbers are the one credential you can check without asking us anything. Ours are listed with their status, including two that expired in June 2025, and any of them can be searched through the China National Intellectual Property Administration public bulletin without an account, as of August 2026.
If a live walk would help your decision, tell us which stations you want to see and we will set the call around your list rather than ours.
If the program includes a kids size, the audit file is not the document a US importer needs. That is a Children’s Product Certificate, and kids luggage CPSIA testing explains who issues it.
An audit tells you what a factory can do. It does not tell you what arrives in the container. That is what an AQL inspection does and does not decide.
An audit covers process. It does not cover the commercial terms, and those are set out in which payment structure puts the risk where.
An audit tells you what a factory can do. Whether you reach it through an intermediary is a separate question, covered in agent or direct factory.
Frequently asked questions
Can you send real photos or videos of aluminum luggage samples you produced before?
Yes, and ask for line footage rather than finished product. A finished product reel can be filmed anywhere. Footage of the forming and assembly area with machines running is much harder to borrow.
Do you customize from customer’s drawings and specs?
Yes. Send a 3D file or a dimensioned 2D drawing with the closure type marked. We come back with a feasibility note before quoting. The field that most often needs changing is the corner radius, because an extrusion cannot hold a tighter radius than its wall thickness allows.
Could you provide more information on quality control processes?
Ask for the inspection points and who signs off at each one, then ask to see yesterday’s record rather than the blank form. A process description is easy to write and hard to verify.
What is your MOQ for this type of product, and do you support small test batches?
300 pieces on stock 5052 running existing molds, and we quote below that. Under 300 on new tooling the die cost will not amortize and another supplier will serve you better.
What is the estimated production lead time after deposit and sample approval?
45 days for bulk on a confirmed sample. Sampling before that runs 7 to 15 days.
Do you hold any relevant certifications (ISO, BSCI, REACH)?
Audit and test reports are released on request at first inquiry. Ask us, and every other supplier, for the issuing body, the report number, and the covered product.
Written by James
James works at aluvox.com in Houjie, Dongguan. The inquiry figures in this article come from the company’s own form records, pulled in August 2026.
