It seems today that everything from spinach to children's toys are recalled as often as new items hit the shelves. And with criticism surrounding many regulation agencies, its important that manufacturers know how to leverage compliance properly, not only to positively impact its image, but to drive profitability. Compliance management is a key component of doing this, however, many companies face challenges they aren't sure how to overcome. With the right attitude, business approach and technology, any company can handle this successfully.
Managing Compliance Management
Today's manufacturers must be proactive about providing proof and assurance of quality for the products they deliver to market. This includes demonstrating the capability to rapidly limit both the likelihood and scope of potential recalls, from suppliers, within their own facilities and all the way out to customers -- based on quality and quantity information managed in an operational system of record.
Unfortunately, many companies still view compliance management much as they do their insurance policies -- as a base-line requirement and necessary overhead cost as part of doing business that adds no real intrinsic value for the company. But there are companies who are using quality compliance as a business asset and a way to drive profitability through the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. Next to protecting market share and containing the rising cost to serve, reducing risk and compliance management have emerged as key business drivers for today's manufacturers. While conforming to government regulations is essential, manufacturers are equally focused on demonstrating they can ensure the overall safety and security of the brand.
Certainly it's critical to convey an "in control" status within both plant and warehouse operations, as part of managing compliance with customers, suppliers and governing regulatory agencies around the world. But it's also vital to realize the very tangible benefits and ROI as part of automating quality-based mandates and internal best practices, for growth and continued business success.
One challenge in assuring manufacturer's compliance is adherence to regulatory and non-regulatory ordinances across every aspect of the business -- R&D, sales, procurement, warehousing, production, quality assurance, etc. This includes applying and maintaining standards for product and ingredient definitions and quality specifications. It also includes management of date-sensitive production recipes and formulas, which can be unique by customer, supplier, production plant and even by production line.
Compliance addresses the capture of information about the supplier sourcing, transport and value-add processing of all material that goes into each product, every time it's purchased, manufactured, moved and sold. This information, combined with quality test results for raw material, intermediate and finished product lots, illustrates that providing ongoing compliance requires cross-functional discipline and an automated enterprise business application to manage all the financial, physical and quality-related aspects in an integrated manner.
Putting the "Tech" in Protection
View article on one page