FOREIGN TRADE UNIVERSITY

Major: BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

MIDTERM INTERNSHIP REPORT

Title: “Testing, Inspection and Quality Assessment
of Consumer Goods at Bureau Veritas”

Full name: Lê Hưng Thịnh

Student code: 1601025146

Class: K55CLC1 – Business Administration

Supervising teacher: Ms. Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo

Days of Internship: 1 month

Ho Chi Minh City, June 2019

 APPENDIX

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................

CHAPTER I: GENERAL INTRRODUCTION ABOUT VIETNAM BUREAU

VERITAS ....................................................................................................................

1.1 Formational and development .................................................................................

1.2 Function, mission, administrative organization structure and human resource

management ...................................................................................................................

1.2.1 Function ................................................................................................................

1.2.2 Mission .................................................................................................................

1.2.3 Administrative organization structure ..................................................................

1.2.4. Overall assessment of the company's business situation in 2011-2013 ..............

1.3 Summary of internship process ...............................................................................

CHAPTER II: Testing, Inspection and Quality Assessment Professions of

Consumer Goods at Bureau Veritas ..........................................................................

2.1 Process of Testing, Inspection and Quality Assessment of Consumer Goods ........

2.2 General comments and Recommendations .............................................................

2.2.1 Strengths ...............................................................................................................

2.2.2 Weaknesses ...........................................................................................................

2.2.3 Solutions ...............................................................................................................

CHAPTER III: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION AND

STRATEGIES FOR UPCOMING YEARS ..............................................................

3.1 Business development orientation ...........................................................................

3.2 Strategies .................................................................................................................

 LIST OF TABLES AND CHARTS

Chart 1.1: Model of departments at Bureau Veritas company

( Ref: Administration - Human Resources Department of Bureau Veritas

Vietnam)

Table 1.2: Personnel structure of Bureau Veritas

(Ref: Administration - Human Resources Department)

Table 1.3: Business results of Bureau Veritas in the period of 2011-2013

(Ref: Accounting Department of Bureau Veritas Vietnam)

Chart 2.1: Process of testing and inspecting exporting goods at Bureau Veritas

(Ref: Sales-Marketing Department of Bureau Veritas Vietnam)

Table 2.2: Statistical results of the testing and inspection in the last 6 months of

2014 at Bureau Veritas Vietnam Lab.

(Ref: Human Resources Department of Bureau Veritas Vietnam)

 INTRODUCTION

Since Vietnam proudly became the 150th member of WTO (one of the
prerequisites to let our country gradually liberalize commercial activities, remove
trade barriers and transform into a more dynamic and exalted economy rather than a
closed one), import and export have always been playing an important role in the
development of the country's economy, contributing to affirm our position in the
world market. It is a great opportunity for our business to show the world that our
products are both good at quality and features

However, nowadays, consumers are becoming more and more fastidious as

ever. They realize that how important does quality of a product or service that really
catches their eyes. Therefore, we must emphasize the quality and afford every demand
that our customers desire if we want to keep our domestic products, especially
exported goods, competed well with other regions all over the world.

Bureau Veritas Vietnam – one of the leading association that are specializing in
this aspect – is an astonishing place that inspire me to choose this completely new and
strange but motivative title: “Testing, Inspection and Quality Assessment of
Consumer Goods at Bureau Veritas”. This report will mainly focus on real
observation about testing, inspecting and assessing quality of Vietnamese exporting
goods, namely: interior goods (such as tables, chairs, beds or cabinets); food products
(seafood, agricultural products or cakes); textile products (clothes, shoes or trims) and
so on.

During internship, I have given a lot of enthusiast help from the all departments
in Bureau Veritas (including the department that I am working in: the Physical Testing
Lab), advice from the supervising teacher: Miss Nguyễn Thị Thu Thảo, references
from previous course students and other colleagues. I want to give many warm thanks
for all the support to accomplish this report as well as enjoy the most precious
internship period.
CHAPTER I: GENERAL INTRRODUCTION ABOUT VIETNAM BUREAU

VERITAS

1.1 Formational and development

In 1828, Bureau Veritas was firstly formed with the official logo which meant
"Truth", with the mission to help customers improve their operational ability through
ensuring their products, facilities and operations complied with standard regulations
on quality, health, safety, environment and social responsibility.
Over 180 years of operation, the operation network of Bureau Veritas has over
900 offices and laboratories in more than 140 countries. Nearly 40,000 employees
serve more than 370,000 customers worldwide, becoming a leading incorporation in
the field of "Quality assessment, conformity and certification".
The first office of Bureau Veritas in Vietnam was formed in 1988 with 100%
foreign capital under license No. 2042 / GP issued by the Ministry of Planning and
Investment of March 6, 1988. The company’s mission is testing, inspecting and
assessing the quality of consumer goods, especially export products.

Current company name: Bureau Veritas Limited Liability Company.

External name: Bureau Veritas Consumer Product Services Limited

Head office: Lot C7-C9, Cat Lai industrial zone, Thanh My Loi ward, District
2, Ho Chi Minh City

Phone: (+84) -8-37421604

Fax: (+84) -8-37421603

Tax code: 0304046704

Bureau Veritas Vietnam specializes in the following industries:

- Food

- Textiles, clothing and shoes

- Testing chemical products (washing powder, soap, ...)

- Furniture, household items and jewelry

- Toys and products for children

 - Inspection and evaluation of factories

With relentless efforts, in 1996, Bureau Veritas Vietnam was awarded a

certificate of conformity with international quality standard ISO 9001 for all of its
activities in the world.
On April 22, 2015, Bureau Veritas Consumer Products Services Vietnam
officially opened a new office and testing laboratory in Hanoi. That is the second
testing laboratory in Vietnam, after the first one established 10 years ago in Ho Chi
Minh City. This modern Testing Department provides testing, inspection and
assessing services for textile and candle products.
By the end of May 2015, the laboratory was fully developed to apply testing
services for northern Vietnamese exporters to meet the high standards of the US and
European markets. The products are fabrics, garments, textiles, accessories and
candles. Testing includes requirements for product durability, color fastness, cleansing
ability and product’s safety. Analytical chemistry capabilities include pH,
formaldehyde, lead content, heavy metals and phthalates.
And in the near future, this laboratory will be further developed to test the
restricted substances (RSL - Restricted Substances List) to serve the European market,
as well expanding inspection to potential segments such as electricity, electronics,
leather or products from fur and feather.

1.2 Function, mission, administrative organization structure and human resource

management

1.2.1 Function

In international sales contracts, discrepancies about goods quality between the

seller and the buyer often occur due to some inevitable disadvantages such as
geographic location, language barrier or quality terms in the contract which are not
mentioned in detailed. Besides, also due to some subjective reasons, it can be for a
fraud and dishonest seller, who provides poor quality or fake goods to customers. This
has made importers feeling dissatisfied and insecure when in transaction.
 Prior to the above situation, Bureau Veritas was established to ensure the safety
of the two transaction parties in international trading, by carrying out the operations
related to inspection and verification of consumer goods quality before exporting. As
a result, it helps reinforce the security of transactions that sellers or buyers cannot
directly track their orders themselves, ensure the quality of export shipments in
accordance with the regulations available on the contract and standards for both
parties’ countries.

1.2.2 Mission

With its prestige, Bureau Veritas is entrusted by many customers around the
world to become an objective and independent third party to conduct a test and quality
inspection of goods:

- In the production process: The company's inspectors will directly come to the
exporting country’s factory in accordance with the agreement from the customer to
test and verify whether the production process meets the requirements which have
been agreed in the international trade contract.

- After production: The inspectors will choose one random sample from the
shipment to inspect and verify whether the quality of the shipment meets all the
requirements needs.

- Re-assessing the loss of import and export shipments: After the shipment is
imported, to be clearly, the buyer will ask Bureau Veritas to participate in the process
of assessing the loss of the shipment. In addition, the company will verify whether the
shipment of the exporting country meets the all requirements from the importing
country mentioned in the contract.

1.2.3 Administrative organization structure

Chart 1.1: Model of departments at Bureau Veritas company

 CEO

Administration
Sales - - Customer
Accountant Inspection Assessment Care
Marketing Human Services
Resource

Each department holds its own position and role in the company, specifically:

Sales - Marketing Department: Be responsible for contacting companies,

factories to find potential customers, meet customers to inform them of the company's
services for business development. In addition, people from this department also help
answer customer questions about the company's services, collect information about
customer needs, provide accurate quotes for customers, plan customer expansion,
manage customer’s information and report the business situation to management
levels.

Accounting Department: Observe sales and expenses in order to ensure that the
company achieves its sales and profit targets and supervise the financial and
accounting activities of other departments to support the main activities of those
departments.

Administration - Human Resources Department: Be responsible for building

and implementing: deploying recruitment and calculating salaries at the company in
accordance with regulations. They also urge and guide other departments to evaluate
performances of employees, also monitor and update the use of personnel and comply
with labor regulations.

Inspection Department: Execute the inspection for production process and

quality of the consignments during production process at the factories. Besides, they
carry out the inspection for export and import consignments according to customers'
requests.

- Testing Department - Laboratory: Perform chemical tests on the product by

testing methods stored in the trained performance profile. They check products, note
records, evaluate results after testing according to customers' standards or
requirements. Based on the evaluation results, reports are to be prepared to be
delivered to customers.

- Customer Care Department: Be responsible for contacting customers /

factories to receive, process and resolve issues related to inspection (booking,
quotation, payment, inspection schedule) goods, complaints, complaints, etc.) in
accordance with customer's prescribed procedures and requirements.

Table 1.2: Personnel structure of Bureau Veritas

2012 2013 2014

Number of Employees (Person) 245 355 415

Age (%) ≥ 35 22.4% 21.7% 20.68%

< 35 77.6% 78.3% 79.32%

Gender (%) Male 49.67% 47.85% 46.85%

Female 50.33% 52.15% 53.15%

Based on Table 1.2, the company's personnel situation in the period from 2012
to 2014 has remarkably changed. We can see that the company's staff has increased
steadily over the years. Specifically, the number of employees in the company is 245
employees in 2012 and increased to 355 employees the following year. By 2014, the
number had reached 415 employees, nearly twice as much as 2012. This could be
explained by the mid of 2003 and early 2014, the company started to sign contracts
with great and potential cooperation from Japan and Korea. The consignments
exported to these two markets require inspection documents from Bureau Veritas. The
expansion of this testing market requires the company to strengthen recruitment to
meet the requirements of both expertise and language to ensure the accuracy and
prestige of the company in these two big markets.
 Basically, the company has a stable human resource situation in terms of
gender, age, and education level. This helps the administration go smoothly. With a
clear, specific and public management policy, the company has created a friendly and
dynamic working environment, stimulating the development and contribution of any
individuals. It is significant that there is no discrimination between men and women,
between office workers and lab workers. Positive contributions and dedicative efforts
are properly recognized by the company and there are fair rewards for these
individuals.

The current number of employees has met the work that the company has set
up for each department. However, this number will keep increasing steadily over the
following years, which is expected to increase three to four times due to the opening
of a new laboratory in Hanoi in 2015 and a representative office in Can Tho, Hansae
.Because of the rapid and strong growth of personnel, there is a need for the leaders to
manage plans and projects so that reasonable allocation of personnel in each
department and strict control will become nourishing.

1.2.4. Overall assessment of the company's business situation in 2011-2013

Table 1.3: Business results of Bureau Veritas in the period of 2011-2013

Unit: thousand $

Value Comparison
2012/2011 2013/2012
Absolutely Relatively Absolutely Relatively
2011 2012 2013 (%) (%) (%) (%)
Total
revenue 213,4 245,6 246,5 32,2 13,11 0,9 0,37
Cost 56,42 67,7 68.45 11,28 16,66 0,75 1,096

Profit
before tax 156,98 177,9 178,05 20,92 11,76 0,15 0,08
 In general, from 2011 to 2013, the company's total revenue increased unevenly.
Specifically, in 2011, total revenue reached 213.4 thousand USD. By 2012, total
revenue increased by 245.6 thousand USD, 32.2 thousand USD higher than in 2011,
an increase of 13.11%. The main reason is that by the end of 2012, the company
expanded cooperation with many potential new partners in the two markets of Japan
and Korea. In addition, considering the overall economy, we realize that in 2012,
Vietnam's economy has partly overcome the economic crisis in 2011. Therefore, that
leads to the higher revenue growth rate compared to the same period in 2011. By
2013, total revenue increased to 245.6 thousand USD. This increase reflects the efforts
of the company in long-term and prestigious relationships when cooperating with
customers and their development projects are implemented thoroughly and effectively.
However, considering the relative revenue growth rate, this period only accounted for
0.37%, lower than the relative rate from 2011 to 2013.

1.3 Summary of internship process

I went to the company to and start observing all the departments to form the
organizational structure of the company such as: exporting goods testing process,
quality inspection process at factories, .... Besides, I have the opportunity to see the
assessment reports, the responsibility binding contracts and meetings between Bureau
Veritas and their customers.

The accountant department has supported me a lot in terms of revenue figures,

performance evaluation results from the company and other useful references. I was
also guided devotedly to visit the laboratory in the company, where I can see all the
process of testing directly.

At present, I am playing a role as an assistant in both HR and Inspection

Department, where I can show my skill of handling documents and teamwork with
members in each department. My three main objectives are assisting physical testing,
typing inspection documents and posting recruitment information on job websites.
 CHAPTER II: Testing, Inspection and Quality Assessment Professions of
Consumer Goods at Bureau Veritas

2.1 Process of Testing, Inspection and Quality Assessment of Consumer Goods

In international transactions between buyers and sellers in different countries,

there have been many discrepancies between sellers and buyers about the quality of
import and export consignments, especially inferior and consuming products, which
do meet the standards agreed in international sales contracts. So, an objective third
party should be considered by the buyer and seller to resolve the disputes, or
particularly, be responsibe with retesting and reinspecting those consignments to
provide fair transaction between export-import companies from different countries.
Bureau Veritas will play the role as that third company to perform these activities.
Services that the company provided include Conformity Assessment in accordance
with European regulatory guidelines association and international regulations. The
process of testing and quality inspection of exporting goods is described as follows:

Chart 2.1: Process of testing and inspecting exporting goods at Bureau

Veritas

Collecting Notifying
Choosing Testing Sample Data Results and
Inspection
samples Assignment Dissection Report and Resolving
Concluding Disputes

- Stage 1 - Preparation

As agreed in the Contract between the exporting and importing countries,

Bureau Veritas becomes the third party to perform quality inspection of the export
consignments prepared for shipment.

After the production process is accomplished, in accordance with the agreed

date on the contract, the executives from labs who are in charge of receiving the
sample will come to the production factory to randomly choose the percentage of the
consignments regulated in "Test request form" and "Sampling Form", and then
transport them to the sample warehouse of Bureau Veritas company. The sampling
procedures are described as follows:

+ Take a photo of the SKU number located on the product’s carton

+ Open the carton and take the sample out of the carton

+ Take a photo of a product

+ Do sampling as required in the Test Request Form. (Sampling tools must be

carefully prepared and cleaned so as to prevent cross-contamination.)

+ Fill in the sampling information into the Datasheet.

Now, the specimen maintenance technicians will receive the samples and
report to the testing specifiers. Due to each consignments’ features, the specifiers will
conduct testing plan by appropriate methods. The specifiers will be directly guiding,
commanding and observing the activities in the lab.

After the testing method is determined, the technicians will prepare the
appropriate chemicals and machineries as planned. At the moment, the exterior
technicians will be responsible for dissecting the samples to make testing more
detailed and easier.

Stage 2 - Inspection

After preparation, the laboratory technicians under the guide of the team and
department leader will carry out testing based on the criteria specified in the Contract.

During this period, the reporters are responsible for clearly, detailedly and
specifically recording any experimental phases, parameters, indicators and comparing
the final results with the required standards agreed in the Contract.

According to the assessment from the headquarter of Bureau Veritas, the

laboratory in Vietnam has achieved the results in the last 6 months of 2014 as follows:

Table 2.2: Statistical results of the testing and inspection in the last 6 months of

2014 at Bureau Veritas Vietnam Lab.

 Unit: percent(%)

Month At due Comparing to Report’s Comparing to

Target (95%) Accuracy Target (99%)
7 96.52 1.52 100 1
8 94.12 (0.88) 99.68 0.68
9 96.45 1.45 99.89 0.89
10 98.74 3.74 99.45 0.45
11 96.26 1.26 100 1
12 97.56 2.56 99.72 0.72

The lab’s executives are very careful with each product evaluation criteria. As
a result, the report results not only meet the required deadlines but also the high
accuracy rate.

After the inspection period ends, the reporters will report the results to the
composition department to verify the consignments’ features and return the final result
to the Customer Service department.

Stage 3- Notifying results and troubleshooting from customers:

The Customer Service department will notify the result to customers via direct
documents and directly answer questions and resolve complaints at customer’s
disposal.

2.2 General comments and Recommendations

2.2.1 Strengths

The company's processes are being employed really well under the criteria set
by the Bureau Veritas for its member companies. The departments have carefully
followed the procedures and guidelines for the work set up with different evaluation
criteria. Leaders, and even employees, are to aim at the same goals set by the
company. Employees have proven their roles in contributing to aim at creating
precious added value for customers. This contribution is expressed from their
qualified and hard work

Since formation and establishment, Bureau Veritas Vietnam has always been
well-known for its expertise, supporting customers to comply with regulations related
to quality, health and safety, environment and social responsibility. Depending on the
standards of each import market, the Vietnam laboratory has different quality
evaluation criteria appropriate with that region ( EU,USA, Canada, Japan and so on).

With high expertise, modern testing equipment and machineries, Bureau

Veritas gradually affirms its brand in not only Vietnamese but also international
market. Not only domestic customers but also many foreign partners believe in the
ability of Bureau Veritas Vietnam.

2.2.2 Weaknesses

The quality management system is applied thoroughly and effectively, helping

the company not only maintain but also promote the quality of service. However,
there are still some small errors in the administrative stage described as follows:

- Customer Service department is responsible for quotatiing for customers. For

each testing and inspecting service, there will be different quotes and discounts.
Therefore, dealing with an overload of customer, Customer Care Services has
sometimes suffered from a false quotation with relatively low error rate. However, this
error has led to customer dissatisfaction and negative feedback somehow.

- Due to the large number of invoices, the accounting team of the Accounting
department has relatively sometimes made a mistake of giving the customer's invoice
to the another customer. This also causes dissatisfaction on the part of the customer.
Although the problem has been resolved, it also has a negative effect on the company
image.

These errors come from the excessive workload and the skills of the staff are
not enough proficient to deal with such pressure in the work of their department.
2.2.3 Solutions

In order to withstand the image of Bureau Veritas, the company needs to

organize courses on "Ethical Rules" for employees. Practical courses should have
taken place and are effective lessons for many executives rather than books.

Improving labor productivity requires workers to have a solid background and

high workmanship. So, the company should pay more attention to the training of
human resources, training courses for any employees. .

In order to ensure that the quality inspection process is not bribery or at fraud,
the company should plan to set up a team of supervisors to examined the factories and
company monthly. This should help limit these false activities during testing or
inspection, ensuring its image in the world market.

The company should have new policies in redistributing personnel in the

company. Instead of using manual manpower, the company should bring more
modern machineries, more advanced management software, reduce staffing costs and
bulky machines.

CHAPTER III: BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT ORIENTATION AND

STRATEGIES FOR UPCOMING YEARS ..............................................................

3.1 Business development orientation ...........................................................................

3.2 Strategies .................................................................................................................