Sector · Sourcing in China

Inspecting a Chinese factory without getting on the plane

Two of these cases are the reason this company exists: an inspection done in China with the specialist still in Europe. The other six are Chinese customs, which adopted the same idea faster than the importers did.

The expensive part of buying from China has never been the goods. It is the trip: the engineer who has to be physically present for the factory acceptance test, the auditor who cannot sign off on what he has not seen, the week of flights and hotels attached to a decision that takes two hours.

During the lockdowns, two companies proved the trip is separable from the inspection. TÜV SÜD put RealWear headsets on its staff at a Chinese valve factory making parts for nuclear and thermal plants, and German specialists in electrical engineering, non-destructive testing, leak-tightness and welding checked critical components against digital manuals from Germany. The third-party assessment finished on schedule and seven intercontinental flights of more than ten hours each did not happen. CEC Mining Systems does most of its steel fabrication in China and moved regulatory audit, quality inspection, NDT and factory acceptance testing onto the same kind of link, reporting a 50 percent cut in FAT cost. That figure comes from the software vendor's press release, and we say so.

The buyer on the fair floor

At the 139th Canton Fair, an Indian buyer tried 49-gram translation glasses while examining a sample and said the practical part was not having to look down at a phone: he could study the product and talk to the seller at the same time. That is a trial on a show floor, not a buyer's daily routine, and no order came out of the article.

Chinese customs got there first

Six of these eight cases are customs offices, and they moved faster than the importers. Shanghai built what it calls the first intelligent sea-cargo inspection platform in Chinese customs, with the yard officer, the back-office officer and the specialist working on one image, and reports field working time down about 50 percent. Yiwu inspected a batch bound for South America with AI glasses doing multilingual translation and product identification from a photo, and reports field efficiency up nearly 20 percent. In Hangzhou an officer asked her glasses whether the medicine in front of her was restricted, and the system flagged a suspected class-two psychotropic within seconds.

Read those percentages carefully: they belong to whole platforms, not to the glasses alone, and most of the reports do not even name the device. One case here, Yizhuang, is filed as an announcement precisely because its own verb is 探索, to explore, and no result ever followed.

Cited cases

Who
TUV SUD, inspecting a Chinese manufacturer and distributor of electronic valves for nuclear and thermal power plants
What they did
During a lockdown period, the manufacturer needed an independent quality assessment to meet regulatory requirements for selling in France and the United Kingdom. TUV SUD staff in China used RealWear AR glasses (model HMT-1) with oculavis's SHARE app to call in German specialists (electrical engineering, non-destructive testing, leak tightness, welding) who checked critical components against digital manuals and circuit diagrams.
What came out of it
TUV SUD (telling its own case) reports that the third-party assessment finished within the required deadline, avoiding seven intercontinental flights of more than ten hours each; the source gives no figure for cost avoided.
www.manufacturingtomorrow.com
Who
CEC Mining Systems, a North American maker of solid-liquid separation equipment for mining, with field engineers in North America
What they did
Most of CEC's steel fabrication is done in China and, before the pandemic, quality assurance, regulatory audit and factory acceptance testing (FAT) were done in person. With the travel restrictions of 2020, the field engineers began connecting with the workers on the Chinese shop floor to carry out regulatory audit, quality inspection, non-destructive testing (NDT) and FAT. The device described in the post is the RealWear HMT-1 running Librestream's Onsight.
What came out of it
A case told by the software vendor itself: Librestream says, in its release of 10/11/2020 (prnewswire.com/news-releases/librestream-extends-free-service-program-that-enabled-over-1500-individuals-to-safely-inspect-diagnose-and-train-despite-covid-19-301169253.html), that CEC achieved a 50 percent saving in FAT cost and began building the tool into new lines of business, with a statement from Cameron Stockman, CEC's director of operations and business development. That release covers only the software; the RealWear HMT-1 is named in Librestream's post of 07/07/2021, which is this case's source. Neither page names the Chinese factory or the city.
librestream.com
Who
Ravi Lakhwani, an Indian buyer at the 139th Canton Fair, and Kiki, from Nigeria, in the same report
What they did
Foreign buyers tried LLVision's 49-gram translation glasses on the floor of the 139th Canton Fair, identified in the report as the Leion Hey2: the exhibitor's speech in Chinese is transcribed, translated and shown as a caption on the lens while the buyer examines the sample. The same report hears, from the other side of the conversation, a hardware exhibitor from Zhejiang. The same article also records Kevin Kelly and Professor Johann Luhn testing the device at a forum, off the fair floor, which is why those two mentions are not part of this case.
What came out of it
Lakhwani, quoted directly: '最方便的是不用低头看手机，我可以一边看产品样品，一边和对方直接交流' (the handiest part is not having to look down at a phone, I can look at the product sample and talk to the other side at the same time). The source shows trial use during the fair, not a buyer's daily routine, and carries no closed order and no negotiation figure. The llvision-hiar catalogue entry confirms the model: Leion Hey2, 49 g, no camera.
news.qq.com
Who
Shanghai Customs
What they did
Shanghai Customs launched what it describes as the first intelligent sea-cargo inspection platform in Chinese customs. The inspection flow was broken into 12 standardised units, with AI in risk prediction beforehand, support during and processing afterwards; in the field, the text says that 'Shanghai Customs officers use AR glasses and the inspection assistant to identify the cargo' (上海海关关员使用AR眼镜和查验助手识别货物), with the yard officer, the back-office officer and the specialist working on the same image.
What came out of it
The report says the field officer's working time fell about 50 percent against the traditional mode (关员现场作业时长较传统模式减少约五成). The figure belongs to the whole platform, not to the glasses on their own, and the source names neither manufacturer nor model.
www.chinanews.com.cn
Who
Yiwu Customs, under Hangzhou Customs
What they did
On 17/07/2026, at the Yiwu international hub port, officers inspected a batch of small commodities bound for South America using AI smart glasses: multilingual simultaneous translation covered the conversation and a photo of the item was matched by an AI agent that returned the product's name, use and material on the spot, which the report sums up as 'what you see is what you know' (所见即所知).
What came out of it
Chao Xinwen, the digital paper of Zhejiang's state media group, says field inspection efficiency rose nearly 20 percent (现场查验效率提升近两成). The source does not name the model of glasses. The same article records Qianjiang Customs with translation completed in under 10 seconds and an average 30 percent drop in clearance time per shipment (单票货物通关时间平均缩短30%) in the cross-border e-commerce zone, a figure it attributes to the AI toolset rather than to the device.
tidenews.com.cn
Who
Qianjiang Customs of Hangzhou, with officer Sun Wei
What they did
On 30/07/2026, during an international postal shipment inspection, the officer, wearing AI smart glasses (佩戴着AI智能眼镜), asked the device: '请帮我查询眼前药品的基本信息，并告诉我它是否属于禁限类药品？' (look up the basic information of the medicine in front of me and tell me whether it is a prohibited or restricted class). According to the source, the glasses extract the object's image through the photo function and match it against the back-office data model.
What came out of it
Xinhua reports that within seconds the system returned a preliminary judgement of suspected class-two psychotropic medication and sent the control alert to the officer, closing the passage by saying the batch's illegal entry was prevented (一批精神药品非法进境被成功阻止). The report gives no time saved, no shipment volume and no device model.
www.news.cn
Who
Yizhuang Customs, under Beijing Customs
What they did
Two bonded warehouses for integrated-circuit equipment spare parts, serving customers such as Applied Materials, ASML and Cotek, are at the stage customs itself calls exploration: '探索AR智能眼镜在现场查验场景应用，开启远程协作与指导，提升复杂场景的处理效率' (explore the application of AR smart glasses in field inspection scenarios, opening remote collaboration and guidance, raising handling efficiency in complex scenarios).
What came out of it
It enters as an announcement because the result never came: the source carries no date, no named officer, no item inspected and no figure at all for the glasses, and its verb is 探索, to explore. The article's only number, 7x24 service and emergency cargo release review compressed to minutes (将生产应急货物出库审核时间压缩到分钟级), belongs to the warehouse regime, not to the device. No later source found in this audit shows the glasses in use at this customs office.
www.sohu.com
Who
Four Chinese customs posts in the Tencent News survey: Zhengzhou (officers Han Zhaoshuo and Sun Haobo), Nanchang, Beijing and Fuzhou (postal post)
What they did
A photographic survey by Tencent News (18/07/2026) on AI entering Chinese customs work. This case rests only on the captions where the source writes glasses: in Zhengzhou, on 17/07, two officers ran a joint inspection of car parts exported to Europe with AR glasses ('关员韩兆硕（左）、孙皓博（右）应用AR眼镜开展出口欧洲的汽车零配件协同查检'); in Fuzhou, on 17/07, the officer at the postal post used AI glasses to identify medicine in inbound mail and estimate its value ('利用AI眼镜对药品进行产品识别并验估价格'); in Beijing, on 17/07, the aircraft inspection was done with AR glasses; in Nanchang, on 16/07, the officer boarding the aircraft connects to the command centre through AR glasses ('登临关员通过佩戴AR眼镜实时连线海关指挥中心'). Only the first two captions concern foreign-trade goods; the two airport ones are aircraft inspection, and stay here as a measure of the device's spread, not as a sourcing case.
What came out of it
The only figure in the source is Nanchang's: aircraft boarding supervision time fell 50 percent (压缩航空器登临监管时间50%). The other three posts appear with a date and, in Zhengzhou, the officers' names, without a figure. Two posts from the same survey were deliberately left out of this case because their captions do not say glasses: Tianjin (Xingang Customs), which patrols the port area through an AI and AR logistics platform, and Jingtang port (officers Jiang Wenxiang and Shao Dehua, on 10/07), which does ship draft survey with 'AR智能设备', AR equipment, without saying they are glasses. Yiwu Customs was also left out, appearing in this same survey and counted only once, in its own case, which is the one with a figure.
news.qq.com

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