6domains
Capability domains assessed — not a generic checklist
Buyer-side LED lighting quality & sourcing · Guangzhou, China
We make sure the LED lighting you buy from China is what you ordered.
Steve LightVerified is a buyer-side quality assurance and technical procurement company for the lighting industry. We assess the factory, lock the lifetime chain, witness every gate, and hand you the evidence — so what ships is what you paid for.
48 h delivery ·
No cost, no obligation ·
Red flags R1–R9 included
SAR-2609-14 · Supplier Assessment Report
Zhongshan · Die-cast & Assembly
A · STRATEGIC
Scale, full capability
B · CRAFTSMAN
Use for engineering orders
C · COMPLIANT
Transactional only
D · EXIT
Do not place orders
C14.5
C24.0
C34.2
C43.8
C53.1
C63.4
MODULE A 4.2 · MODULE B 3.2
2 RED FLAGS · 1 CONDITION
4gates
Witnessed per order, from golden sample to container seal
2hours
Drive time from our desk to the factories you buy from
12months
Report validity, with a re-audit discount
01 / The problem
Three ways a Chinese order goes wrong — all three are predictable.
None of them is about price. They are about information you cannot see from Europe.
Failure mode 01
The certificates are real. The capability is not.
ISO 9001, CE, RoHS — a factory can hold all of them and still run no incoming inspection, no EMC pre-compliance and no bin-level traceability. Paper proves a management system exists on the day of the audit. It says nothing about whether this plant can build your luminaire repeatably.
We assess six capability domains with evidence →
Failure mode 02
One component changed. The whole batch fails.
The sample you approved had a branded LED, an engineered driver and a proper thermal pad. Production used "equivalent" parts at 70% of the cost. Nobody told you, because nothing in the purchase order said they could not. The difference only shows up at month 18, on a roof.
We lock the lifetime chain and freeze the baseline →
Failure mode 03
It failed. Six suppliers, six versions of the truth.
The luminaire flickers. The assembler blames the driver. The driver maker says it was built to your specification. The module house blames the bin. Everyone is partly right, nobody is accountable — and your claim dies without evidence.
We preserve evidence in 48 h and name the cause →
02 / Services
Five ways to work with us. Pick the one that matches your situation.
Four services you can buy today — plus one project-level engagement for buyers who need several factories to answer to a single chain of responsibility.
01 / SAYou are about to order
Supplier Assessment
"Before you place the next order, know exactly what you are buying."
02 / MPSYou have a project
Managed Project Sourcing
"Your specification, actually built into the goods — and provable at every gate."
03 / FASomething already failed
Failure Analysis
"When the goods fail, find out why — before you argue about who pays."
04 / RTPYou want continuity
Retained Technical Procurement
"A technical procurement department in China, without hiring one."
05 / CPP · FLAGSHIP ENGAGEMENT
Consolidated Project Procurement
One project, many factories, one chain of accountability. Luminaires, drivers, control gear, cable and connectors, emergency units and mounting hardware — every factory runs its own gates, then one consolidated inspection before the container closes. You contract each factory directly, as always.
Multi-supplier, single responsibility chain
Each plant gated individually
Merged container & unified documents
From USD 50k project value
03 / How we work
Four gates. Nothing ships on a promise.
Every managed order passes the same four checkpoints, each one producing a signed, photographed report. Approval to ship is earned at the gate, not assumed at the order.
GATE 1 · GVR
Golden Sample
The approved sample is torn down and verified against the specification — light engine, driver, capacitors, TIM, thermal path. What is approved is documented, not remembered.
OUTPUT: Golden Sample Verification Report
GATE 2 · FAI
First Article Inspection
First units off the real production line: dimensions, build configuration, torque, thermal baseline. This is where the locked configuration is frozen into a baseline that later batches must match.
OUTPUT: FAI Report + frozen baseline
GATE 3 · MPS-A
Mid-line Inspection
During the run: BOM comparison, incoming-material records, bin labels, in-process testing. Catches substitution while there is still time to correct the batch.
OUTPUT: Mid-line & Pre-shipment Report
GATE 4 · MPS-B / CLS
Pre-shipment & Loading
AQL sampling to ISO 2859-1, functional and photometric checks, then supervision of stuffing: container number, seal number, quantity, condition. The seal in the record is the seal that left.
OUTPUT: Pre-shipment Report + Loading Record
Then: the complete traceable file arrives 5 days after shipment — specification, every gate, photographs and shipping records. Yours to keep for 24 months.
See a sample deliverable →
04 / Resources
We live inside the supply chain we buy from.
We are based in Guangzhou. The factories, the test labs and the component makers you buy from are within a two-hour drive. When your order needs a gate visit, we drive — we don't fly in.
2-hour radius
Cluster covered by car
Reachable, not default
CLUSTER
The factories
Die-casting and extrusion, optical injection moulding, driver assembly, module houses — Zhongshan, Guzhen, Henglan, Foshan, Dongguan, Shenzhen. See the map →
LABS
The test labs
CNAS / ISO 17025 laboratories, EMC chambers, integrating spheres and goniophotometers for photometric, IP and safety testing. We don't test in-house — we place your test at the right lab, and pass it through at cost. See the labs →
UPSTREAM
The component chain
LED packaging, driver power supplies, thermal management, connectors and cable, surface finishing, tooling. Knowing the real capacity, MOQ and delivery behaviour of each layer is what makes a BOM credible. Walk the chain →
What proximity buys you: surprise audits become possible (+20–30%), alternative suppliers can be put on the table within 48 hours, and a failed batch can be re-checked on site the same week. You cannot surprise-audit a place someone has to fly to. The full conversion →
05 / Where we stand
We are paid by buyers. Never by the factory.
This is not a values statement, it is a structural one. Our only source of income is the buyer — so a factory that pays us has nothing to buy. Every report we issue carries this line in its header, so you can hand it straight to the supplier and they can see exactly who we work for.
It also means we will sometimes tell you a factory is fine — and that you should place the order. A consultant who needs to justify a fee will always find a problem. We would rather keep a client for ten years.
✕
We don't take supplier commissions or referral fees, in any form.
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We don't touch your money. You contract and pay each factory directly.
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We don't act as a trading company and we don't add margin to goods.
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We don't sub-contract your tests with a markup. Lab fees are passed through at cost.
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We don't issue certifications and we don't do BSCI / Sedex social audits.
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We don't sign on your behalf or manage your payments.
06 / What you receive
Reports with a verdict, not a tick list.
A factory audit can be a description of a building — or a decision about whether to place an order and how to place it. Ours are the second kind. Here is what the documents actually look like.
SAR-YYMM-XXRedacted
Supplier Assessment Report
Quadrant verdict · six capability scores · R1–R9 red flags · risk-equivalent control.
AQC-YYMM-XXRedacted
Aligned Quote Comparison
Configuration alignment first, price second · deviation register · indicative landed cost.
OAP-YYMM-XXRedacted
Order Archive Pack
14-index document set · photograph index · traceability summary · 24-month retention.
Delivered 5 days after shipment. Yours to keep, yours to hand to your insurer, your customer or your lawyer.
Request a redacted sample →
07 / Insights
Written for buyers, not for search engines.
Most content about Chinese suppliers tells you what to check. Very little tells you how to judge what you find — which is the only part that requires engineering. That is what we write about.
Red flags & verdicts
R1–R9: nine red flags in a Chinese LED factory audit
A certificate that cannot be verified. A brand swap nobody announced. Mixed bins in one order. What each flag means, and which ones should end the conversation.
8 min read
Components & lifetime
LM-80 is not a lifetime — read it together with Tc
A 50,000-hour figure is a laboratory extrapolation at a controlled case temperature. If your luminaire runs hotter, the number on the datasheet is not the number on the roof.
6 min read
Procurement mechanics
Why "the same driver" is not the same driver
A 40 W driver is a specification; an engineered, certified series is a product. The gap between them is where flicker, DALI faults and month-18 failures live.
7 min read
Monthly LED sourcing risk note — one email, no marketing.
Subscribe →
08 / Start here
Get a free Supplier Fact Sheet.
Give us a factory name. Within 48 hours you receive a factual one-pager on that supplier — no cost, no obligation, no sales call unless you ask for one.
- 01Public registration and corporate status
- 02Customs export footprint and main markets
- 03Litigation, penalties and administrative records
- 04Certificate verification against the issuing body database
- 05Any R1–R9 red flag visible from desk research
This is the same desk research that opens every paid assessment. You are not getting a teaser — you are getting the first working document.