Managing Quality: Driving Success
Through Excellence
By: Robert Swientek
Date: October 28, 2024
High-quality products are critical to business success. They drive repeat purchases, foster brand loyalty, enable premium pricing, secure prime retail shelf placement, and expand sales channels, all of which enhance corporate and brand reputations, ultimately boosting revenues and profits.
On the flip side, poor quality damages businesses. It leads to customer complaints, product rework, production interruptions, pricing discounts, and lost future sales, all of which erode profits. The American Society for Quality estimates that poor quality can cost companies 15% to 20% of their sales revenue.
Leading companies recognize the importance of quality. In a Berlin Packaging survey of over 200 customers, "packaging quality" ranked No. 1 when choosing a supplier, while "price" came in fifth. Timeliness also stood out, with "reliable on-time delivery," "responsiveness of service," and "on-time information delivery" ranked 2nd through 4th, respectively.
Getting It Right the First Time
Quality has always been a corporate priority, but recent supply chain disruptions and runaway inflation have underscored the urgent need to get it right the first time. If a supplier's product arrives defective or out-of-spec, lengthy lead times make it nearly impossible to replace it quickly, risking costly production downtime, unfilled orders, and angry customers.
Sourcing top-notch products has become more difficult as the cost of goods has soared. Tighter margins may persuade some suppliers to cut corners and compromise quality to offset rising production costs. These cost-saving measures may include lower-grade raw materials, changes in case counts, or reductions in customer service. Buyers must remain vigilant and get what they pay for.
Some buyers migrate their product sourcing overseas in search of lower costs. This approach, however, introduces the risk of product tariffs. When governments levy tariffs on foreign-sourced products, buyers typically switch from an established and trusted supplier to an unknown vendor and new supply chain. Finding and qualifying new suppliers takes time and adds costs.
Building a Strong Quality Management System
Consistently delivering high-quality products and services requires more than luck. It demands a robust quality management system. This system hinges on leadership's commitment to quality, a dedicated quality team, clear policies and processes, and well-defined goals.
Senior leadership must champion quality, promote it as an investment, and embed it into the company's vision and culture. The quality team plays a proactive role, constantly seeking improvements. They manage processes, control documents, set standards, inspect products, and resolve issues, all while auditing the supply chain. Their work ensures that quality is a company-wide responsibility, reinforced through training and education.
At Berlin Packaging, our Quality Service Division team, with over 100 years of combined experience, possesses the tools and practical know-how to troubleshoot various packaging and production challenges. We employ a two-tier resolution process: 1) proactive support, and 2) reactive or corrective support.
Preventing and Resolving Quality Issues
Berlin's proactive quality support prevents potential issues before they arise. It includes steps like auditing manufacturing processes, setting up comprehensive inspections, and continuously monitoring supplier performance using scorecards. These procedures help to prevent problems before they become a quality issue.
When an issue does occur, our reactive quality support diagnoses the root cause, manages corrective actions, and provides detailed documentation. The corrective support aims to resolve the issue swiftly and prevent recurrence, often involving coordination with our suppliers and manufacturers.
Unlike traditional packaging suppliers and manufacturers who only focus on their product or piece of the puzzle, our Quality team examines all packaging components (e.g., bottle, closure, product/package interaction, labeling, package handling, filling line, etc.) and the way the product is being used or filled to find a solution. When necessary, we even visit our customers to provide hands-on support and training.
Additional quality service capabilities include lean/waste reduction assessments, regulatory guidance on material usage, Six Sigma/DMAIC project facilitation, cGMP auditing, design for manufacturability assessment, and independent testing analyses. We operate several in-house laboratories around the world for package testing.
Berlin's labs offer a range of testing capabilities, including video microscope metrology, torque, leak, accelerated aging, drop testing, vibration testing, induction seal testing, and glass stress analysis. Our ability to test plastic, glass, metal, and composite containers sets us apart from other manufacturers and suppliers, which usually can only analyze their specific packaging substrate.
Integrating Quality Into Business Success
At Berlin Packaging, quality drives operational excellence that directly impacts financial performance, customer satisfaction, and strategic success. That's why, as part of our ISO 9001 certification, we track three key quality objectives to ensure we consistently exceed expectations:
1. On-Time Delivery: Since 2004, Berlin Packaging has measured and reported its on-time shipping performance from our warehouses to our customers every quarter. This goal isn't just about logistics. It's about providing reliability and peace of mind to our customers, knowing their products will arrive when they need them every time. Our outstanding track record of timely delivery directly supports our partners' supply chains, allowing them to operate efficiently.
2. Product Quality: We hold ourselves to the highest standards, ensuring that at least 99.2% of all product shipments (>300,000 annually) meet customer requirements. This focus on quality ensures that our products perform as intended, eliminating costly errors and helping our customers maintain trust and satisfaction with their end-users.
3. Strategic Business Reviews: Our commitment to quality extends beyond the products we ship. To support long-term partnerships, we conduct formal business reviews with our customers. These reviews allow us to quantify the tangible value and income benefits we bring as a direct result of working together. By integrating strategic planning and financial metrics into our quality objectives, we help our customers not only receive superior packaging but also experience measurable business growth.
For example, a business review revealed that we reduced the reject rate on a filling line by 98%, saving the food manufacturer over $90,000 in six months. Other gains included cutting downtime, scrap costs, overtime premiums, and expedited freight charges.
Quality Advocates for Customers
Berlin Packaging's customers come in all sizes and span a range of industries from food, beverage, and personal care to industrial chemicals, home care, pharmaceuticals, and cannabis & CBD.
For many of our smaller customers or those that may not have an in-house quality team, we act as their quality team by engaging directly with their suppliers and co-packers, advocating for them as if we were part of their organization. Through our longstanding relationships with large manufacturers and suppliers, we're able to leverage our size and influence to get results for smaller or mid-sized customers who otherwise might be overlooked.
However, sometimes our best efforts to work with a packaging manufacturer on a quality issue is unconvincing. But we don't stop there. We can either turn to another qualified supplier or have Studio One Eleven, Berlin's design and innovation division, create a custom solution. That scenario played out recently with plastic bottles for a beverage application.
The sterile bottles and caps experienced several quality issues, including leakage, cosmetic blemishes, inconsistent neck sizes and threading, and unreliable tamper-evidence. Unable to persuade the supplier to improve their packaging, Berlin Packaging enlisted the services of Studio One Eleven and the Quality Services team to develop a solution.
Berlin's Studio and Quality teams are designing and building new molds for the custom bottle and closure, which will produce a robust packaging system with multiple benefits. The proprietary bottle will meet tamper-evidence requirements, improve accuracy and ease of use, reduce costs through domestic manufacturing, and enhance product safety and reliability (i.e., container is subjected to pasteurization, freezing, and thawing).
Key Takeaways
High-quality products drive brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and profitability, while poor quality can lead to costly repercussions such as lost sales and damaged reputation. Supply chain disruptions and rising costs emphasize the need to maintain high standards and "get it right the first time" to avoid production delays and additional costs.
An effective quality management system requires senior leadership support, a skilled quality team, and clear policies. Continuous improvement and audits help ensure consistent quality. Berlin Packaging offers both proactive quality support to prevent issues and reactive support to quickly address and correct problems.
We conduct supplier audits, hands-on training, and rigorous in-house testing (e.g., drop, torque, and leak tests) to verify the quality of various packaging materials. We act as a quality advocate for our clients, particularly smaller companies without dedicated quality teams, and can create custom solutions when suppliers fail to meet standards. As part of our ISO 9001 certification, we track key metrics, such as on-time delivery and product quality, to maintain excellence and ensure customer satisfaction.
Learn more about our Quality Service Division.