Wednesday, 06 May 2015 10:15

Brand Quality is Your Lifeline to Avoiding Disaster Four steps to install quality control and assurance programs

Written by   Howard Baker, cosmetic chemist and managing member of Product Integrity Laboratory LLC

It takes a long time to build a reputation, but only a moment to destroy it. After all the time, effort, and expense it takes to build your brand, a problem with the quality of your product can ruin it very quickly. Taking a few steps to protect your products and brand with quality assurance and control is a great way to protect your reputation in the eyes of your customers.

Here is an overview of how to create a quality program.

The key elements are procedures, specifications and standards, inspections, and reporting. You will need to be able to evaluate production of your products to make sure they have been made correctly. To do this, you will need to get samples, inspect them, and report the results of your inspection, so that production and distribution of your products can continue.
The procedures part of the puzzle sets up who is doing what and when at the right times in the manufacturing process. After each batch of bulk product is made, production needs to wait until quality control evaluations are done to confirm that the batch is acceptable. If there are problems, filling the packages would waste package components and time. Similarly, once a batch has been released for filling, inspections need to be done to verify that the finished product meets all expectations – the right product is filled into the containers, caps are on tight, labels are correctly applied, lot numbers are properly applied, and so on. Checking these things before the product is shipped into the marketplace can prevent quality disasters in the field.
Your quality assurance procedures outline what samples during the production process are sent to whom and what happens during the process. Your manufacturing facility will participate in the effort, so working out procedures with their understanding and agreement is crucial. Understand that the quality assurance procedures will add a little time to the production cycle. Taking this time to avoid quality problems will avoid spending a lot more time fixing a production disaster and your brand’s reputation. Every large company you can think of spends this time and effort to protect their brands. They would not spend the resources if it were not worth it.
Knowing what your products are supposed to look like is communicated with your specifications. For the product inside the package, you should know key aesthetic, physical, and chemical characteristics that designate a batch as acceptable. The laboratory or manufacturing facility will often provide a certificate of analysis (C of A) or specification sheet for each formula they make. If you do not have one for a particular formula, use a C of A for a similar product as a template and develop your specifications from there.
For the finished product, you need to outline the parameters that show that the right product is in the package in the right amount and that the package components have been assembled correctly. Outline how tight the caps should be, where the lot codes are supposed to be, how much product is supposed to be in the package, how straight the tube crimps have to be, and so on.
With basic specifications in place, a set of agreed-upon standard samples is needed. You can describe a lot of things on paper in specifications, but having a real sample to show what the product is supposed to smell, feel, and look like makes the quality evaluation process much clearer. Keep a set at your facility and your manufacturer’s facility.
Your quality assurance procedures should then outline who to send the specific samples to for inspection and evaluation. They need to prevent further manufacturing until your company has evaluated samples against specifications and standard samples and until you have reported out a release.
Now, most contract manufacturers have their own quality assurance/quality control departments, and they will almost invariably offer to handle all of the quality assurance and control for you. Remember, it is your product and reputation at stake. It is worth double checking yourself. In a problem situation, the manufacturer’s quality assurance and control department will protect the manufacturer first. Having your own quality assurance and control department will balance the situation when problems occur.

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