| Regulatory Readiness | Products should be assessed against the destination market’s current rules before production. Requirements may cover ingredients, labeling, emissions, packaging, advertising, notification, and age restrictions. | Market-specific compliance checklist, legal review, product dossiers, notification records where applicable, and change-control procedures. | 20% | 0–5 |
| European Union Product Fit | For nicotine-containing products covered by the EU Tobacco Products Directive, commonly applied limits include a maximum nicotine concentration of 20 mg/mL, a maximum tank or cartridge capacity of 2 mL, and a maximum refill-container capacity of 10 mL. | Technical specifications, capacity measurements, nicotine-strength records, packaging artwork, and applicable submission documentation. | 8% | 0–5 |
| United States Market Readiness | Products marketed in the United States generally require authorization under the applicable tobacco-product framework. Marketing authorization is product-specific and is not guaranteed by general manufacturing certification. | Product authorization status, submission history where relevant, ingredient information, manufacturing records, and regulatory correspondence. | 8% | 0–5 |
| Quality Management System | A documented quality system should control incoming materials, production processes, testing, nonconformities, corrective actions, and release decisions. | Current quality certificates, audit reports, standard operating procedures, batch-release records, and corrective-action logs. | 12% | 0–5 |
| Independent Product Testing | Testing should be performed by qualified laboratories using methods appropriate to the product and destination market. Testing may include nicotine content, emissions, contaminants, electrical safety, battery performance, and packaging. | Recent third-party laboratory reports, method details, sample identification, detection limits, and laboratory accreditation information. | 12% | 0–5 |
| Battery and Electrical Safety | Battery-powered products should be evaluated for overcharge, short-circuit, abnormal charging, overheating, mechanical stress, and transport-related risks using applicable electrical and transport requirements. | Battery specifications, protection-circuit data, safety test reports, transport test documentation, and incident-response procedures. | 10% | 0–5 |
| Nicotine and E-Liquid Control | The manufacturer should control raw-material identity, purity, concentration, flavoring documentation, contamination risks, and batch traceability from receipt through finished-product release. | Certificates of analysis, supplier qualification records, formulation controls, stability data, and batch traceability samples. | 10% | 0–5 |
| Consistency and Defect Control | A reliable partner should define measurable acceptance criteria for leakage, coil performance, draw activation, fill volume, labeling, packaging, and device functionality. | Inspection plans, sampling standards, historical defect data, warranty analysis, and documented root-cause investigations. | 8% | 0–5 |
| Production Capacity and Lead Time | Capacity should be evaluated against forecast demand, seasonal peaks, minimum order quantities, sampling time, production time, and release time—not only advertised monthly output. | Capacity plan, production schedule, confirmed lead-time ranges, minimum order quantities, and contingency arrangements. | 7% | 0–5 |
| Supply-Chain Resilience | Critical components should have qualified suppliers, documented alternatives, safety-stock policies, and formal change notification to reduce disruption and unauthorized substitutions. | Bill of materials, supplier approval process, component change-control policy, continuity plan, and inventory strategy. | 5% | 0–5 |
| Packaging, Labeling and Traceability | Packaging should support child-resistant requirements where applicable, required warnings, ingredient or nicotine disclosures, batch identification, authenticity controls, and recycling or disposal information required by the market. | Approved artwork, packaging test records, barcode or serial-number system, batch coding examples, and market-specific label review. | 6% | 0–5 |
| Customization and Product Development | The supplier should be able to adapt specifications, packaging, formulations, hardware, firmware, and documentation without weakening safety or regulatory controls. | Development workflow, prototype records, engineering-change process, tooling ownership terms, and sample approval procedure. | 5% | 0–5 |
| Commercial Transparency | A dependable quotation should separate product cost, tooling, testing, packaging, logistics, taxes, payment terms, warranty coverage, and costs caused by specification changes. | Itemized quotation, sample invoice, warranty terms, payment schedule, tooling agreement, and total landed-cost calculation. | 4% | 0–5 |
| After-Sales and Recall Support | The manufacturer should maintain complaint handling, incident escalation, corrective-action, recall, customer communication, and record-retention procedures. | Service-level agreement, complaint-response targets, recall procedure, warranty claims process, and post-market monitoring reports. | 5% | 0–5 |