If you're going to the Hong Kong Toy Fair, chances are that you will be visiting some of your suppliers' factories. This will enable you to see their manufacturing operations firsthand, but don't stop there. If you know what to look for, you can detect potential quality control problems that may impact toy safety—even if you're not a safety expert.

Factory audits have always offered a first line of defense against toy safety troubles. Today, however, there is even more reason to be a safety sleuth when you're visiting a plant. The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 not only tightened the screws on substrate lead, lead paint and phthalates, but also assigned responsibility for safety compliance to the importer of record. This has effectively forced everyone in the supply chain to become a watchdog or face potential penalties. Moreover, non-compliant merchandise can no longer be returned; it instead must be destroyed. This is a powerful bottom-line incentive to screen for safety.

Even on general factory visits, much can be accomplished with a few simple strategies for ferreting out safety-related quality assurance problems. Here are some tips for what to look for.

1. Be sure the factory's quality manager is present when you meet with factory management. Ask him to give you a brief description of the current safety regulations that apply to his products and to explain the quality program the plant has in place for ensuring compliance. Coming from you, the buyer, this will put the vendor on notice that you expect proactive adherence to safety rules.

2. Check the plant's receiving inspection procedures for raw materials. In particular, because of the new CPSIA lead paint thresholds, look at the paint storage area and be sure that each can is marked to indicate whether it has been accepted, rejected or is awaiting inspection. Also, ask for sample test reports on paint shipments, along with an explanation of how those reports are evaluated. You don't need to know the requirements yourself; the point is to make the vendor prove that he understands them.

3. Investigate the supplier's processes for evaluating subcontractors and their products, particularly moldings. Be sure the quality manager has visited the subcontractor's facility and reviewed their quality assurance program. Pay special attention to the colorants and plasticizers used for plastics, since lead and phthalates can be involved.

4. Keep an eye out for loose tools on the assembly line. All metal instruments should be tied to the operator or the bench to be sure that they can't get lost or fall into the toy. If a knife used to trim the flash on a plastic piece is lying loose, for example, that may not only be a risk in itself, but also a symptom of a deeper problem.

5. Take stock of the factory's needle control system. In a soft toy factory where sewing is involved, every needle that is distributed should be recorded and accounted for at the end of the day to be sure that none have been left in a product. For the same reason, operators should also be required to take all of the pieces of a broken needle to the supervisor. To check, ask to see both the control records and the broken needle records. Be sure they are up-to-date and include needle-issued records for the day you visit.

6. Look at inline inspection processes for finding defective products. Toys are usually tested at several points along the assembly line to check for problems, such as improper assembly and loose parts, before the casing is closed. For soft toys, for example, there is usually a metal detector to find broken needles. Ask to see the gauge that indicates the detector is functioning properly as well as an actual metal check on a toy (the detector usually beeps and ejects items that fail the test). For electronics and other hard toys, ask to see how they check for electrical faults to ensure that a toy or batteries cannot overheat or explode.

7. Eyeball inspection procedures for finished goods. What sorts of inspections are conducted by the supplier's quality team in the finished goods area? Regardless of third-party testing or certification, the factory should be testing its own products for quality assurance. Ask to see the sampling plan for testing each batch of finished products before shipment, and—as with all of these suggestions—personally check to confirm that the plan is being followed.

8. Be sure that rejected products are segregated. Products that don't make the grade, either on the assembly line or at the finished goods inspection, should be set aside in a box or crate that is clearly labeled to indicate that the contents are defective. You should be able to see these containers at various checkpoints on the line, in the finished goods area, and in holding areas for items waiting to go into storage.

And don't worry about the language barrier. In cases where labels are written in Chinese, simply ask the factory to explain what the labels mean.

In the end, all that's required is to keep your eyes open and your antennae up for procedures that may signal weak quality controls. If you encounter red flags, summon an outside expert to do a comprehensive quality systems audit. If you have identified obvious shortcomings, there are undoubtedly others that need to be addressed. Spotting safety issues early—before finished merchandise moves through the supply chain—will save everyone a lot of headaches later on.