Twelve checks between a purchase order and a loaded container
This is not a certificate and not a quality-management standard. It is the written list we run our own export shipments through — and the same list you can hold us to.
Criteria
12 · 4 gates
Evidence law
3 conditions
Basis grade
A 8 · B 3 · C 1
Verdicts
Pass · Fail · Unclear
In one paragraph
What it is: a public set of twelve judgement checks for the stretch between a purchase order and a loaded container. It does not rate a factory and does not replace inspection.
How it is used: apply one evidence law first (revision, signature, traceable number), then read only the gate you are standing in. Every check is a yes/no question.
Where it stops: each check carries a basis grade. Grade A means the claim traces to a line in a real sample document; C means it is still awaiting one, and that is published rather than hidden.
01Three questions a buyer actually asks
Not the twelve chapters of a management system. Three questions, each answered by named checks you can point at.
Will my order ship on the date you quoted?
A date is either derived from time standards and a schedule, or it is a wish. These two checks separate the two.
Can material or a supplier change without telling me?
Substitution is the most common quiet failure in contract manufacturing. It is allowed here — but only with a notice, a re-validation and your confirmation.
If a supplier cannot answer these three with a document number, more meetings will not fix it. The rest of this page is the detail behind those three answers.
02Scope: what it covers, what it does not
Declaring what is out of scope matters more than declaring what is in it — it draws the boundary of both the judgement and the liability.
Covered
The stretch from purchase order to container loaded
Four moments: admission · order intake · production · release
The evidence form and deciding role at each moment
Not covered
Social-compliance and system audits (BSCI, SMETA, WRAP, RBA)
Payment collection, trade compliance, origin and duty
After-sales, claims and returns
Product safety certification itself (UL, CE, PSE testing and listing)
A third-party audit report can be cited as evidence for Z-01. This gate does not rewrite audit checklists and does not replace any statutory certification.
03Ten terms, so two people reach one answer
Whether a check is decidable depends on these words being fixed. Where meaning is loose, the fault is in this document, not in the reader.
Controlled document
A document with a number, a revision, three signatures (prepared / checked / approved) and issue control; revisions go through a change notice.Uncontrolled means every copy can claim to be the latest — which means none is in force.
Revision
Shown as A/0 (revision A, amendment 0). A new revision requires a change notice.Two documents both “in force” usually means the revision was never raised.
First article
Units produced before mass production with the final tooling, material and process, approved before the run starts.Its value is the timing, not the quantity. One made mid-run is none.
Sealed sample
A physical reference unit, signed off by the customer or engineering, carrying a number and a date.A comparison photo without a seal number proves “similar”, not “same revision”.
CR / MAJ / MIN
Critical / major / minor defect classification.All three columns filled is what makes a basis a basis. Blank is not zero.
Sampling plan
Batch-to-sample-size mapping plus acceptance and rejection numbers (Ac / Re), naming the standard and inspection level.“Per sampling standard” is not a plan: it does not answer how many, or how many fails.
Lot number
A number that traces a record back to this batch (commonly date + line + serial).Without it a record proves someone inspected that day, not that this batch passed.
Change notice / DCN
A form recording what changed, the effective date, the impact assessment and the re-validation result.Change is not the fault. Untraceable change is. Validation-free change moves risk to the customer.
Stop-line / stop-shipment authority
A written veto naming trigger conditions and scope, held by someone independent of production.Without it, the other eleven checks are recommendations.
Unclear
One of three verdicts: the evidence is insufficient to pass and insufficient to fail.It is not a resting state. It is a task that must leave with a person and a date.
04First, one law: what counts as evidence
All twelve checks rest on the same question — is the thing in your hand evidence at all. If this fails, none of the twelve can be judged.
Evidence law · all three conditions, or it is not evidence
A document counts only if it carries a revision, a signature and a traceable number. Missing any one, the verdict is Unclear — not Pass.
A revision — controlled document number plus revision (for example FY-WI-QA-F017 / A/0). Without one, every copy is “the latest”, which means none is in force.
Two signatures — the person who judged and the person who reviewed. One signature is a statement; two make it evidence.
A traceable number — a lot, report or shipment number that leads back to this batch. Without it, a record proves somebody inspected that day, not that this batch passed.
The three most common things that look like evidence and are not: photos with no date, inspection reports with no lot number, work instructions with no revision or signature. All three appear in the sample problem lists, and none of them is caused by people not trying.
05The twelve, at a glance
Locate your moment in this table, then read that check in full. The number is the anchor — it can be pasted into an email as is.
Within the past 12 months, was there an audit scoped to the same process as this order, with a conclusion other than “rejected”?
Passes
An audit report carrying a report number, audit date, auditor signature and a grade band. Older than 12 months, or a different product category, does not count.
Judged by
Purchasing + QA (two signatures)
Record
Report no. / audit date / auditor / grade band / processes covered
If it fails
Run an admission audit before quoting a date. A date promised on a plant nobody has audited is the customer's order resting on a report nobody read.
Basis
The sample audit report scores out of 100 across six weighted sections and bands the result in four levels. The sample plant scored 63.5, banded “acceptable”, still carrying four corrective items.
Is the quality lead independent of production, and does that person hold a written authority to stop the line or stop a shipment, naming the trigger conditions and the signatory?
Passes
An organisation chart showing QA does not report to production, plus an authorisation document stating triggers, scope and signatory.
Judged by
Authorised signatory (owner or plant manager) + QA lead
Record
Document no. / signatory / trigger conditions / authorised role
If it fails
Without this, the other eleven checks are decoration: nobody can stop the container at the last minute.
Basis
The sample audit scores “QA stop-shipment authority” as a separate line. The plant earned half credit: authority existed, but was conditional.
Is there a controlled inspection standard for this order: document number, revision, three signatures (prepared, checked, approved), and a revision history?
Passes
Cover page with all three signatures; revision history linked to change notices; revision identical to this order's specification.
Judged by
QA lead
Record
Doc no. / revision / the three names / date of last revision entry
If it fails
An electronic copy with no signatures, or another product's standard lightly edited, is judged Unclear. Production does not start.
Basis
The sample standard carries a document number, a revision, three signatures and a revision log — which is why this check can be graded A.
AOrder intake gatefrom PO to order confirmation · Sales · Production planning
This gate decides two things: whether to take the order, and whether a date can be promised.
Is the schedule derived from standard time per key process × quantity + buffer, and does a written schedule exist with start and end dates for each key process?
Passes
A schedule showing the derivation line, plus the key-process list, with the two agreeing.
Judged by
Production planning (countersigned by sales before commitment)
Record
Key processes / standard time each / quantity / buffer days / resulting date
If it fails
“It should be fine” does not pass. Neither does a date that matches last time's date.
Basis
The sample records the absence of measurable time standards — the cause is documented, but no instance of a derived schedule appears, so the check is graded B.
Have the requirements collapsed into one document?
Check
Are model, revision, destination-country access requirements and packaging artwork revision written on one document, with exactly one revision in force?
Passes
One specification carrying a revision and a date, plus dated written customer confirmation (email or signed sample).
Judged by
Sales + Engineering (sales closes the customer loop)
Record
Spec revision / confirming person / date / artwork revision
If it fails
“We said it in chat”, a verbal yes, or three revisions alive at once are all treated as none.
Basis
“Requirements still change after confirmation” appears in a sample meeting resolution — the failure is documented, the fix is not, so graded B.
Do defect classification (CR / MAJ / MIN), sampling plan and inspection method come from the same document, at the same revision as this order's specification?
Passes
One page holding all four: classification, sampling plan, inspection method, sealed-sample reference number.
Judged by
QA + customer, or the customer's third party
Record
Cited standard no. and revision / sampling plan (standard, inspection level, Ac / Re) / method / seal no.
If it fails
If the customer judges by AQL and the plant judges by eye, the dispute is settled before the goods are packed.
Basis
The sample inspection standard is a controlled form with classification, sampling and method on one page — directly corresponding to this check.
BProduction gatefrom line start to first output · Production · QA · Engineering
This gate decides whether work may start, and whether it may continue.
Does the pre-shipment inspection report cite what it judged against (document number and revision), with CR / MAJ / MIN columns filled — including zeros?
Passes
A report citing document number and revision, with numbers in every defect column, even 0.
Judged by
QA lead (release signature)
Record
Report no. / cited document and revision / CR, MAJ, MIN counts / release signatory
If it fails
Empty defect columns, or a bare “passed” with no basis, fail. Blank is not zero — blank means nobody judged.
Basis
“No defect standard” appears as a standalone finding in the sample problem list — this check is the direct translation of that line.
Do invoice, packing list, customs declaration and bill of lading agree on description, quantity, value, gross and net weight, and destination port — and agree with the goods?
Passes
One five-way reconciliation sheet, zero differences.
Judged by
Documentation (self-check before issuing, re-check before release)
Record
Each field per document, cell by cell; write 0 or the explanation
If it fails
Any mismatch fails. “The broker will fix it” is how this check usually dies.
Basis
Awaiting sample: none of the four sample documents contains a reconciliation record. Kept rather than deleted because the cost of a mismatch is far above the cost of checking.
07Three questions left open
These are undecided and published as undecided, on purpose. Argument is the evidence that a standard is alive — a standard with no open questions looks complete and gets cited by nobody.
Q1
Cosmetic judgement: by surface zone, or by defect count?
Both methods exist in the samples: one grades by visible surface (zone A scratch ≤ 3.0 mm, zone B ≤ 5.0 mm), the other counts defects by form (dots ≤ 0.5 mm, no more than three; lines ≤ 5 mm and ≤ 0.1 mm wide, no more than two). For the same scratch the two methods can reach opposite verdicts.
Not settled in this version. The inclination is zone for tolerance and count for quantity, but it needs a real dispute to settle it, and inventing one is worse than leaving it open.
Affects A-03, C-01
Q2
When does sampling tighten?
The sample standards say “per sampling standard” and stop there: no trigger for consecutive rejected lots, for a customer complaint, for a new supplier's first batch, or for a material change.
Without a tightening rule, the judgement half of this standard expires after the first batch — everyone samples at normal level until something breaks. This version writes no number, because a number I invented would be the first thing overturned in the next dispute.
Affects A-03, C-01
Q3
Who signs the final stop-shipment authority?
The sample audit scores “QA stop-shipment authority” separately, and the plant earned half: authority existed but was conditional. Z-02 requires written authority with triggers, and does not name whether the final signatory is the QA lead, the plant manager, or the owner.
Undecided, this standard has no teeth. Decided, it moves the customer's organisation chart. That is why it is published as an open question rather than written into the file.
Affects Z-02, C-01
08How to cite it
The value of this document is not how often it is used, but how often it is cited. That is why every check has a stable anchor.
When a thread argues about whether a report passes, paste the anchor instead of forwarding the whole page — every full forward loses the source once more:
gate.lightbdb.com/en/#C-01 → does the release report name its basis
gate.lightbdb.com/en/#Z-02 → who holds the written right to stop
Cite with the version number (this is v1.0). Checks change; anchors do not. A citation without a version may point at the wrong thing in six months.
For an email or a purchase order, use this line:
Per gate Export Shipment Gate v1.0, criterion C-01 (gate.lightbdb.com/en/#C-01)Copied
For a purchase order clause:
Pre-shipment release is evidenced against gate v1.0 criteria Z-02, C-01 and C-02 (gate.lightbdb.com/en/)Copied
For machines: criteria.en.json — all twelve with question, pass condition, grade, owner and record.
For retrieval by AI: llms.txt — a plain-text summary in both languages, no scripts, no styling.
For paper: the record sheet — one page, twelve rows, filled on the spot.
Disputes to simon@lightbdb.com, subject “gate dispute + number” (for example: gate dispute C-01). Each one enters the next revision log.
09How we use it ourselves
This is the part that makes it a commitment rather than a document.
We run our own export shipments through these twelve checks. Not as a certificate, and not as a substitute for your inspection — as a written list you can hold us to.
When we quote a date, it comes from A-01. When we say the material is unchanged, B-03 is the file that shows it. When something is wrong, Z-02 names the person who can stop the container. If you want to check us, the anchors are public and the version number is on every page.
What that does not mean: passing these checks is not your acceptance, and it is not a third-party certificate. It means we can show you the working, and you can audit the working.
10What it does not promise
A judgement framework anyone dares to use has to say up front where it is useless.
It does not guarantee your acceptance. It gives the basis for a judgement; the decision stays with you.
It does not replace third-party inspection or statutory certification. It answers what to look at, and whether what you hold is evidence.
It does not claim to fit every destination or category. This version is calibrated on consumer electrical appliances and lifestyle lighting.
It is not legal or compliance advice. Payment, duty and origin questions belong with a professional.
It does not rate a factory. It looks at this order, this batch, this moment.