U.S. quality containment for international suppliers
Parts on hold at your U.S. customer? Get local containment, sorting and rework.
Your parts are held at a U.S. plant and your quality team is overseas. RELY Contract Manufacturing sorts, inspects, contains and reworks the material to approved criteria, controls the nonconforming inventory and reports results by lot to your team and your customer.
RELY responds to urgent sortation and containment inquiries within one business hour. Start timing depends on the criteria, quantity, location and inspection method.
Containment cell · RELY floor
Proof · Case Study No. 17 · Tier 1 automotive program
Sixteen global suppliers. One containment owner.
For a Tier 1 automotive customer, RELY managed containment for parts from 16 suppliers based in Asia, Europe and North America, across two U.S. production facilities.
- 4.4M+
- Parts sorted in 2025
- 16
- Global suppliers under active management
- 30
- SKUs in the documented 2025 program
- 223
- Shipments billed to the responsible supplier
Source: RELY Case Study No. 17. Figures cover this program in calendar 2025. Scope and timing for a new issue are set during scoping.
At a glance
A U.S. quality team for suppliers based abroad.
RELY Contract Manufacturing provides U.S. quality containment for international suppliers: third-party part sorting, inspection, containment of suspect inventory, rework and reclamation, and lot-level reporting when parts are held or rejected at a U.S. customer.
Supplier quality and account teams outside the United States call RELY when a U.S. customer has placed a hold, issued an NCR or asked for third-party inspection, and nobody from the supplier can be on site in time. RELY runs the agreed work locally. Your team and your customer keep the acceptance criteria, disposition and release decisions.
- Serves
- International suppliers and their U.S. customers, including automotive and industrial OEMs and Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers
- What RELY does
- Sorting, inspection, containment and rework to approved criteria
- Where
- On site at customer plants in Wisconsin and the Midwest, or at RELY’s 52,000 sq ft facility in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, where material from anywhere in the U.S. can be shipped
- Urgent line
- +1 262.853.1634, response within one business hour for urgent sortation and containment
- Billing
- RELY can bill the responsible supplier directly where the customer’s commercial process allows
- Credentials
- ISO 9001:2015 certified
When suppliers call RELY
Your customer needs action. Your team is an ocean away.
Six situations bring international suppliers to RELY. In most of them, the U.S. customer has already set the deadline.
01 · Shipment on hold
Your customer rejected or held a lot.
Parts failed incoming inspection or faulted in-line equipment, and the customer wants the suspect material sorted before it will accept more.
First moveAgree the criteria and approver, then sort and separate good, reject and uncertain parts by lot.
02 · No one on site
You need a local team this week.
Flying in your own inspectors takes days you do not have. The customer wants a named U.S. contact running the work.
First moveShare the location and customer contact. RELY confirms site access or a move to RELY.
03 · Third-party inspection required
The customer wants independent eyes.
A controlled shipping requirement, including Level 2, calls for inspection by a party other than the supplier, with the customer’s reporting format and exit criteria.
First moveRELY reviews the notice and runs the containment to it, with records the customer can audit.
04 · Material still in transit
More parts are on the way.
The next shipment is already on the water or in the air, and it carries the same risk as the lot that failed.
First moveReview whether the shipment can be redirected for inspection before delivery, with the customer’s authorization and carrier coordination.
05 · Recoverable inventory
Rework could save the parts.
The defect can be corrected, and scrapping or shipping the lot back overseas costs more than fixing it locally.
First moveRework under approved instructions, then verify against the agreed acceptance criteria.
06 · Evidence for the 8D
You need data for the corrective action.
Your engineers need defect counts, failure modes and samples to find root cause and answer the customer.
First moveLot-level results by failure mode, with photos and good and bad samples.
How the work runs
From the first call to a documented release.
A containment is a control system with clear ownership. This is how RELY runs one for a supplier working from another time zone.
- 01 · Call
Review the issue
Part number, suspected defect, quantity, location and the customer’s deadline. An NCR or photos help, but you can call before the package is ready.
- 02 · Plan
Agree the scope
Criteria, work location, customer access, reporting, disposition authority and billing. Start timing is confirmed once requirements and resources are reviewed.
- 03 · Contain
Run and document
Written work instruction, trained operators, material identification, segregation and inspection records. Anything outside the criteria is escalated, not guessed.
- 04 · Report
Results to both teams
Lot-level results on the agreed cadence to your team and designated customer contacts. Release follows the approvals set for the program.
One example: a sort of roughly 100,000 parts for a Midwest manufacturer was completed in under three days. The incumbent provider had quoted 12 to 14 weeks. Timing on any program depends on the criteria, quantity and inspection method.
Case Study No. 17 · Tier 1 automotive supplier
Suppliers on three continents. Two U.S. plants. One owner.
- Starting problem
- Parts from 16 suppliers in Asia, Europe and North America were failing incoming inspection or faulting in-line equipment at two of a Tier 1 customer’s U.S. facilities. No one was dedicated to sorting, holding material and working the suppliers.
- What RELY owned
- Supplier communication and RMA coordination, custody of nonconforming inventory once copied on a supplier NCR, and trucking between RELY and both facilities.
- What RELY did
- Visual, dimensional, electrical and functional inspection; in-transit interception of product by ocean, air or ground; multi-stage reclamation and rework; daily and weekly reports with lot-level traceability by failure mode, with photos for supplier corrective action.
- Result
- In 2025: 4.4M+ parts sorted across 30 SKUs, with 5 to 7 supplier sorts running at once and supplier NCRs answered in 4 hours on average.
- Why it matters
- 223 shipments of containment work were billed to the supplier responsible. What started as a two-week on-site proof of concept now runs 99% at RELY.
Source: RELY Case Study No. 17. RELY was engaged by the Tier 1 customer; the case does not imply a direct contract with each supplier. Figures cover calendar 2025 for this program only.
Scope and responsibility
One local operation. Records both teams can use.
Agree the inspection instruction and revision, defect codes, lot identification, quantity reconciliation, photo requirements and reporting schedule before the work starts. RELY can manage the defined local containment operation and report the results to the authorized supplier and customer contacts.
The containment you contracted.
- Work instructions, operator training and supervision
- Sorting, inspection, rework and material control within the agreed scope
- Custody and segregation of nonconforming material once received
- Transportation between the customer and RELY when included in scope
- Reporting to your team and designated customer contacts
The decisions that belong to the product owner.
- Acceptance criteria and boundary samples
- Disposition and release of held or rejected material
- Deviations and customer acceptance
- Root cause and corrective action
- Billing authorization between supplier and customer
Customer acceptance, deviations, disposition approvals and containment exit decisions remain with the responsible parties. Approvals are program-specific. Some U.S. customers must approve the containment provider or grant site access before work begins, and approval for one customer does not carry to another. RELY’s quality management system is certified to ISO 9001:2015.
Parts on hold?
Call with the part number, the suspected defect and where the material sits in the U.S. RELY responds to urgent sortation and containment inquiries within one business hour.
Call +1 262.853.1634Questions international suppliers ask
Short answers. Full answers in the FAQ.
Can we contact RELY directly from outside the United States?
Yes. Call +1 262.853.1634 for an urgent containment, or email info@relycm.com with your company, contact details and where the affected parts are. RELY is in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, on U.S. Central Time, and will review the scope, your U.S. customer’s involvement and the commercial arrangement with you.
Can RELY work inside our U.S. customer’s plant?
Yes, with the customer’s authorization. RELY’s on-site sorting teams cover Wisconsin and the Midwest. Material held anywhere in the U.S. can be shipped to RELY’s facility in Menomonee Falls for sorting and rework. Site access, safety requirements and equipment are confirmed before work begins.
Full answer: where RELY sortsDo we need a completed NCR before contacting RELY?
No. RELY needs the part number, suspected defect, quantity and location to build a response plan. The sort itself runs to acceptance criteria or reference samples approved by you or your customer, so that approval comes before any part is dispositioned.
Full answer: what RELY needs to start an urgent sortCan RELY stop suspect parts that are already in transit?
RELY coordinated in-transit interception in the program documented in Case Study No. 17. For a new shipment, feasibility depends on its location, carrier, shipping documents, receiving arrangements and the customer’s authorization. Share those details so RELY can review the available options.
Can the responsible supplier pay for the containment?
Yes, where the customer’s commercial process allows it. RELY can bill the responsible supplier directly. In Case Study No. 17, 223 shipments were billed to the responsible supplier in 2025. Billing responsibility and scope are agreed before work begins, and the customer keeps its criteria and disposition decisions either way.
Full answer: supplier-funded containmentCan RELY provide inspection reports and defect photos?
Yes. Reporting is set with the program and can include lot-level results, inspected and rejected quantities, failure modes, photos, and good and bad samples for your corrective action. RELY sends it on the cadence you and your customer agree.
Does RELY decide whether our customer must accept the parts?
No. RELY performs the agreed inspection or rework and reports the results. Customer acceptance, deviations and release of held material follow the customer’s approval process.
How quickly can work begin?
RELY responds to urgent sortation and containment inquiries within one business hour. The start date depends on the criteria, quantity, location, customer access and inspection method. As one example, a sort of roughly 100,000 parts for a Midwest manufacturer was completed in under three days.
Tell us what is on hold and where it is.
You do not need a complete RFQ package to begin. Send what you have. An NCR, drawing, defect photos or inspection criteria help if you have them.
- Company and contact
- Part number
- Suspected defect
- Quantity and U.S. location
- Customer deadline
RELY is in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, on U.S. Central Time. Business hours: Monday to Friday, 7 AM to 6 PM. General: +1 262.276.0050 · info@relycm.com