Supplier Scorecard for Packaging Buyers
Two or three suppliers have quoted and one is getting the sample budget. This page gives you the axes to score them on.
For sourcing buyers holding two or three packaging quotes and deciding which supplier gets the sample budget. Scores the axes a quote cannot show: what a document proves, what only a sample settles, and who answers a spec question in writing.
What to Score a Packaging Supplier On
Five axes decide a packaging shortlist. Mark each one as evidence you have seen, a claim you have been given, or a question nobody answered. The third of those carries the most weight.
Zhypacking is a paper packaging factory in Xiamen, and our position is straightforward: we would rather be scored on the same form as everyone else than be chosen for replying first.
| Does the supplier make this structure in-house? | A factory that brokers your box out is adding a handover you cannot inspect. Ask which machines run your structure and who owns them. |
|---|---|
| Is tooling broken out from unit price? | A die, a foil plate, an emboss die or a printing plate is a one-off, from about USD 50 each here, and a printed-and-finished box can carry several.A supplier who buries them in unit price is not comparable to one who lists them. |
| Can you get a sample before bulk? | Sampling costs USD 4 to 20 at Zhypacking depending on structure and finish, and takes 7 days. A supplier who cannot sample before a production run is asking you to approve on trust. |
| What happens when a spec changes mid-run? | Ask who signs off, whether the run stops, and who carries the cost. The answer tells you how the factory is organised. |
| Who answers when something goes wrong? | Not a name – a function. Ask which role releases a shipment and which role signs a spec change. |
What to Send So the Scores Compare
Score against one brief or the scores mean nothing. Send all three suppliers the same structure, the same quantity against their own minimum, the same print method and the same finishing.
Quantity is the one people vary without noticing. Our minimum is 200 pcs; if another supplier quotes 500, you are comparing two different orders.
Three Mistakes That Make a Scorecard Useless
Scoring on reply speed.
A same-day quote with no tooling line is not better than a two-day quote that breaks out the costs. Speed measures sales capacity, not production capacity.
Accepting a lump sum.
If you cannot see which part of the price is one-off, you cannot forecast a reorder – and the reorder is where the real cost difference shows up.
Reading factory photos as ownership.
Photos prove a factory exists. They do not prove the supplier owns it. Ask which of the machines in the photo runs your job.
What Zhypacking Can Put on the Table
Some axes are answered by a document, and some are only answered by a sample. Both matter, and it is worth knowing which is which before you ask.
Documents we hold and can share, each within the scope it covers: FSC, ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and BSCI. We also hold ISO 8317, a product conformity certificate for child-resistant paper packaging; it belongs to that context and we cite it there.
A certificate proves a system was audited on a date. It does not prove your specific run passed inspection.
Only a sample answers these: how the lid fits, how the print sits on the board you chose, whether the finish reads the way it did on screen.
Sampling is 7 days; production is 15 to 30 working days once specification, artwork and sample requirements are confirmed.
On the tooling axis: a die, a foil plate, an emboss die and a printing plate are each quoted as their own line here, from about USD 50 each. A job that is printed, foiled and die-cut carries several.
You will see them itemised rather than folded into a unit price, which is the whole point of the axis.
On the manufacturing axis: one production site at No. 603 Tonglong 2nd Road, Tong’an District, Xiamen, about 3,000 square metres, about 180 staff and about 300 machines, running since 2006. Rigid box forming, folding and gluing, and offset printing run on our own floor; photographs and video of each line are available on request.
Ask any supplier for footage of the operation your job actually needs; footage of a factory in general answers a different question.
On the mid-run change axis: what to ask any supplier, including us, is who decides that a unit is out of spec, whether the run stops while that decision is made, and what gets written down. Our quality control page sets out the checks from sample approval to pre-shipment inspection; put the same three questions to us against it.
Ask for the finding, the affected quantity, the agreed disposition and the recheck evidence to be recorded before shipment. A supplier who agrees to that in writing has told you more than a procedure diagram would.
On the accountability axis: ask which function releases a shipment and which function approves a spec change, and get it in writing. We answer this by role, not by name; a supplier who answers with a person has told you less than they think.
What we publish: the board ranges we run (white card 200–450 gsm, kraft board 250–450 gsm in E, B and EB flute, greyboard 1.0–3.0 mm, kraft bag paper 80–200 gsm) and the sectors we have packed for: chocolate and confectionery, cosmetics and beauty brands in the EU and US, perfume, wine paper tubes.
Finished dimensions, handle load, ECT and tube liners are quoted per job rather than listed here.
Where to Go Next
If the axes are set and you now need the brief itself, the quote checklist lists the inputs that make the replies comparable.
If the schedule is what separates your shortlist, sample and lead time sets out the two clocks and which fees are charged once.
If it is the inspection evidence you are scoring, quality control describes what we check and what you can ask to see.
If what you are scoring is whether this factory makes your product at all, our product range answers that, and about the factory covers the Xiamen site, the operating profile and which documents exist.
Run the Same Brief Past Us
Send the shortlist brief you are giving the other suppliers, and we will answer the same five axes for ourselves: which a document settles, which need a sample, and what is still open on our side.
That third mark is the point. A supplier who leaves nothing open has not read the brief.