3 replies to this topic

[Brothbro]

Hi All,

 

I have a question about a Co-man offer looking for us to perform shelf life testing for their products. In this scenario, we would be manufacturing their products in our facility to their spec (dietary supplements, encapsulated powders). They do not currently have any shelf life testing data on their products, and want us to perform this testing. They're asking for at least a dataset for each product showing results at time of manufacture vs end of shelf life. 

 

My question is, is this typical for a company to ask in this situation? I don't have much experience in co-manufacture relationships. Personally, I would like them to already have some shelf life assurances in place so that I can understand that this product is not a hazard to our facility if it reaches the end of its shelf life. Indeed, is the current shelf life spec arbitrary, because they have no data? Additionally, they aren't even offering yet to pay for any of this testing, which at the very least I think they should do. I'm going to bring these concerns up to our owner, but I wanted to ask here too. Am I totally off-base? For some of the testing they require, we would need to send product to a 3rd party lab ($$$). Organizing the data and doing the internal testing we -can- do also costs money/time. Is it normal for co-manufacturers to be asked to generate shelf-life data as part of the contract?

[olenazh]

Are you going to manufacture that product after shelf life testing? Is it your typical product or something different? I mean, if it's a long rug project - it's one thing, the cost of shelf life testing will pay off in the future as a part of a big project. If they're asking you for a favour - well, that depends on how much is the total cost of overall testing, and if you can afford it I would go with it. Another thing - if it's not your typical product and total expenses would include big changes. In this case, the financial burden should be on your co-man shoulders. 

[Brothbro]

Thanks olenazh, the situation here is that we're being asked to produce the product before shelf-life data is even available. Indeed, the shelf life they list is 2.5 years, so even an accelerated study may take 8-12 months. I think you're right that this is a business-relations type issue...it's a product type we're very familiar with so it's not a totally alien material to have in our plant. Our owner is going to decide whether they'll consider this a "favor" or not. 

[SerenityNow!]

As a manufacturer, I would not want to accept a product in which I do not already have experience producing.  How sure are you that the processes in place are effective and relevant to the product they want you to produce for them.  At a previous employer, we manufactured products for several companies.  It was private labeling, and it was only product that was within our scope.  There were new products, but we had already processed products of the same nature, ingredients of which we had parameters along with shelf life studies.  Your company is ultimately on the hook for these products as you are the manufacturer regardless of whether the product bears labeling as "Manufactured for" or "Distributed by".  This is something I would be grumbling about specially if shelf life is determined before there is data to validate it.  Makes me wonder what other potential issues could arise that they may feel like are no big deal.