Trade Quality Audits
Good day,
My name is Alicia and I am a new employee at a non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing company.
We would like to implement a trade quality program to review the the product quality after it leaves our warehouses. I already have an idea of the types of tests and data we would like to collect however, I would like any advice on the logistics of completing the exercise. We have quite a large number of product SKUs (way too much! - as we have a huge rationalization project at the moment). How can I go about scheduling these audits? They would be local audits across hundreds of stores and involving products such as juice, water, flavoured water, iced teas and carbonated beverages.
Thanks!
Alicia
Good day,
My name is Alicia and I am a new employee at a non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing company.
We would like to implement a trade quality program to review the the product quality after it leaves our warehouses. I already have an idea of the types of tests and data we would like to collect however, I would like any advice on the logistics of completing the exercise. We have quite a large number of product SKUs (way too much! - as we have a huge rationalization project at the moment). How can I go about scheduling these audits? They would be local audits across hundreds of stores and involving products such as juice, water, flavoured water, iced teas and carbonated beverages.
Thanks!
Alicia
Hi Alicia,
Offhand, I cannot recall ever seeing this TQP terminology mentoned on this Forum. I wonder if it is particularly utilised in your area ? If so, can you provide a link as to what it typically means ? .
This is fairly unusual, at least here in the UK, but two things I'd look at that may be relevant factors in terms of audit planning/scheduling:
1) You're presumably going to be quite reliant on the good will of your customers accommodating your colleagues turning up in their shops to review stock, take samples etc, so I'd start by talking to your larger customers to see which ones might be willing to help with this. If you can portray the exercise as being of benefit to them (e.g. more consistent, higher quality product, improving their sales as well as yours) then you might even find that some of them are willing to help with sending you samples so you don't need to visit them.
2) I'd look at your complaint data as a way to identify highest "risk" / priority. E.g. are their SKUs that give you a disproportionately high number of complaint? Or locations that seem to have higher number of complaints than others? My memory of working in drinks at this position in the supply chain is that there were a few customers who always had the same types of complaint, than we never saw from anyone else, because they always abused the products...
@pHruit
Thanks for the response pHruit! It was definitely helpful.
And you are correct. At my last company we had a very good relationship with our customers (store owners/larger corporations) by being very involved on the storefront. I would have worked at a Cookie and Cracker manufacturing company previously. There were 2 types of trade audits being completed 1) GMP audit of the actual store (cleanliness, lighting, pest control, storage practices - for example, to prevent storage pests we ensure that our products were not stored next to products like rice, pasta, flour, etc) and 2) Audits of our products for example - is FEFO being practiced, there are no quality defects, date code visibility, etc).
It may be important to add that in Trinidad larger supermarkets (at both companies) are serviced daily by our Merchandisers who will tend to point number 2 above while our Salesmen will do the same in the smaller shops.
@Charles C
I know some companies do different types of audits. I have mentioned the 2 that I am familiar with above.
In my last company we also outsourced "freshness audits" from another company.
Kind Regards,
Alicia.
@pHruit
Thanks for the response pHruit! It was definitely helpful.
And you are correct. At my last company we had a very good relationship with our customers (store owners/larger corporations) by being very involved on the storefront. I would have worked at a Cookie and Cracker manufacturing company previously. There were 2 types of trade audits being completed 1) GMP audit of the actual store (cleanliness, lighting, pest control, storage practices - for example, to prevent storage pests we ensure that our products were not stored next to products like rice, pasta, flour, etc) and 2) Audits of our products for example - is FEFO being practiced, there are no quality defects, date code visibility, etc).
It may be important to add that in Trinidad larger supermarkets (at both companies) are serviced daily by our Merchandisers who will tend to point number 2 above while our Salesmen will do the same in the smaller shops.
@Charles C
I know some companies do different types of audits. I have mentioned the 2 that I am familiar with above.
In my last company we also outsourced "freshness audits" from another company.
Kind Regards,
Alicia.
Hi Alicia,
"Quality" is of course a multi-interpretived terminology. (just like "freshness").
Do Control Systems like GFSI recognition exist in yr area ?. This would seem a logical pre-emptive option.
@Charles C.
Good day,
Yes actually my last company is FSSC22000 certified while my current company is SQF certified. I mean you can have very robust quality systems without GFSI certification. You may know that the goal is continuous improvement regardless of the Quality Management System implemented.
Not sure I understand the relevance of the statement "Quality" is of course a multi-interpretived terminology. (just like "freshness").
However thanks for taking the time to respond!
Kind Regards,
Alicia.
@Charles C.
Good day,
Yes actually my last company is FSSC22000 certified while my current company is SQF certified. I mean you can have very robust quality systems without GFSI certification. You may know that the goal is continuous improvement regardless of the Quality Management System implemented.
Not sure I understand the relevance of the statement "Quality" is of course a multi-interpretived terminology. (just like "freshness").
However thanks for taking the time to respond!
Kind Regards,
Alicia.
Hi Alicia,
^^^ - Sorry if i was too subtle. Quality is semantically often defined by subjective terms like "Fitness for Use" , "Conformance to Requirements" . Consequently, a major omission is that "Quality" is often explicitly/implicitly interpreted as excluding "Safety" as demonstrated, for example, by SQF and ISO9001.
https://insight-qual...into-a-product/
GFSI is intended to Harmonise the many Global FS Systems and simultaneously minimise the necessity for the multiple undertaking of audits. Analogous to implementing HACCP so as to avoid detailed testing of the Finished Product. Sadly many Customers still tend to rely on their own audits in addition to requiring Certification to a GFSI-recognised FS.
PS - TBH I always get nervous when I see the word "Trade" associated with "Quality". Often indicates that some kind of (usually questionable) "commercial" compromise is about to appear.
Good day,
My name is Alicia and I am a new employee at a non-alcoholic beverage manufacturing company.
We would like to implement a trade quality program to review the the product quality after it leaves our warehouses. I already have an idea of the types of tests and data we would like to collect however, I would like any advice on the logistics of completing the exercise. We have quite a large number of product SKUs (way too much! - as we have a huge rationalization project at the moment). How can I go about scheduling these audits? They would be local audits across hundreds of stores and involving products such as juice, water, flavoured water, iced teas and carbonated beverages.
Thanks!
Alicia
Hi,
We call this a storefront check and our sales rep will check the items listed below when they are at the store level for other proposes. However we don't go out just for these checks. It doesn't pertain to any of our certifications just for our own knowledge.
- Stock levels
- Display organization
- Best Before to ensure FIFO is used
- Pricing
- Signage is correct
- Staff knowledge of product at sample booths
- Packaging integrity
- Storage conditions are suitable
The audit would be done and the auditor would outbrief on issues. There was no scoring.
Then go into a consulting mode.
And, yes we were all consultants that wete previously experienced auditors.
A component of the consulting included marketing/merchandising practices.
Because of the way these were set up they were win-wins with a tremedous benefit/value to the location as sales increased greatly for those that embraced it.
The fee involved was split between the two as there was a definite benefit to both in increased sales.
I have to say that I really enjoyed doing these.