Leveraging the power of customer reviews

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Leveraging the power of customer reviews

Consumers have always had the power to vote with their wallets and decide what they do and don’t buy. But in today’s online world, they have the power to not only influence what they buy but what others buy.

Empowered by the connectivity of social networks and the democratization of information, consumers are taking control of where, when, and how they engage with brands. This has effectively given consumers a role in the supply chain as they demand more personalized products and expect brands to adapt to their needs.

Now they have been given a voice, consumers are increasingly willing to share their opinions publicly and seek out what others have to say. In some categories, consumers are reluctant to make purchases without independent recommendations. This has not only disrupted the traditional purchasing process but puts additional pressure on brands, who need to ensure they bring to the market products that live up to their promises.

According to a report from the technology company PowerReviews, customer reviews have become the single most important factor when making purchasing decisions, ranking above other elements such as price and recommendations from family and friends. 

How to make customer reviews work for your brand

One of the key benefits of reviews is that this feedback lets brands know whether a product is relevant to its audience and whether it’s better than its competitors’.

Although positive reviews can naturally benefit brands in enormous ways, negative product reviews can have drastic impacts. They can not only affect the sales of the product but can escalate to the point of harming the brand image as a whole.

That said, bad reviews also provide an opportunity to improve and show customers that the brand is actively listening and willing to bring improved products to the market that aligns with customers’ quality and safety expectations. Customer reviews can also help find niches in the market yet to be explored, based on what customers feel is missing in a product or would be nice to have.

Navigating the masses of online reviews and identifying real issues and their root causes to make valuable improvements is not always easy. It might require support from a third party who can assess and identify issues and establish the appropriate recommendations. 

Turning negative reviews into positive outcomes

At API, we help our customers improve quality and safety at the product development stage to meet consumer expectations through a dedicated program that uses five steps to:

  • help brands and retailers listen to and understand consumer feedback
  • identify the causes of bad ratings
  • establish recommendations for product improvements

What are the benefits for brands?
  • Better and differentiated products
  • Increased quality and safety
  • Increased customer satisfaction
  • Supplier empowerment
  • Better budget allocation

Interested in finding out how API can help you bring better products to the market? 

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How to get your outdoor furniture summer-ready for next season

Blog - How to get your outdoor furniture summer-ready for next season

Summer is just around the corner, and as customers get their gardens, terraces, and balconies ready for the balmy months, outdoor furniture brands and retailers are already preparing their collections for next year’s season. Demand for outdoor furniture has soared as a result of the pandemic, but the industry hasn’t escaped the supply chain crisis that began in 2020. Two years on, the journey from raw materials to the end customer remains challenging and lengthy.

 

While increased demand is great news for the outdoor furniture industry, this has led to a backlog of orders and tasks that has been difficult to manage. While business is returning to normal in prominent manufacturing countries like China, Vietnam, and Indonesia, manufacturers are still facing delays and the scarcity of raw materials needed to build the furniture. Furthermore, once the product is ready, it still needs to reach the consumer, and shipping times remain long with container shortages and products getting caught in the supply chain traffic jam. With no option to delay the outdoor furniture season, products must arrive on time, or businesses risk losing customers to competitors.

 

That said, the arrival of products on time isn’t enough to satisfy increasingly demanding consumers. According to the Outdoor Garden Furniture market study by Fact.MR (Feb 2022), consumers desire outdoor furniture that is:

  • Resistant to climate conditions
  • Good quality
  • Durable
  • Insect and mold resistant
  • Crack-proof
  • Sustainable (using eco-friendly materials and processes)

 

What does this mean for brands and retailers? Businesses need to operate speedily while ensuring the quality and fit-for-use of their products, which means that getting things right the first time and anticipating mistakes has never been more crucial.

How to ensure quality outdoor furniture from the beginning

The best way to get outdoor furniture products right the first time is to detect issues as early as possible in the supply chain. The easiest way to achieve this is to go upstream and anticipate risks from the earliest stages of raw materials and manufacturing.

Key points to look at include:

  • Ensuring you have the right design
  • Ensuring product compliance
  • Ensuring the right production process
  • Defining the right control plan

Utilizing the support of a third party can help brands and retailers address these challenges while relying on an independent expert to secure product quality and fit-for-use. This will reduce issues at the end of the supply chain, avoid delays, and satisfy customers with products that arrive on time and meet their expectations.

At API, we provide comprehensive expert solutions for outdoor furniture. With more than 25 years’ experience and a portfolio of international brands and retailers that trust our knowledge, our suite of solutions is dedicated to securing the quality, safety, and performance of outdoor furniture products across the entire supply chain from the earliest stages of development. Some of these include:

  • Help during product development
    Ensure better products from the early stages of development through:

    • Raw material traceability
    • Suggestions on sustainable processes
    • Suggestions on product improvement
    • Validation of control plans, marking, product characteristics, golden sample
    • And more 
  • Design/prototype review at the factory or lab
    This includes expert reviews at the factory, showroom, or at our network of laboratories at the moment of product selection, including conformity criteria, risk and issues anticipation, and recommendations for improvements. 
  • Sample validation
    Validation of a final sample before production will define the model to follow and ensure the rest of the production is manufactured according to the brand specifications. 
  • In-production process assessment and root cause analysis
    This aims at understanding the processes for improved finished products with a high focus on identifying, assessing, and improving the manufacturing methods critical to quality and safety to prevent failures. 
  • Fit-for-use and performance testing
    Evaluate your products’ performance and durability, including:
    • Resistance to aggressive environments
    • Corrosion, UV aging, rain and water resistance, heat resistance, etc.
    • Usage resistance (scratches, stains, washing, tearing, metal finishing adherence, etc.)
    • Product feel and support
    • Textile performance
    • And more
  • Recycled polyester testing
    This scientific method verifies and quantifies the amount of recycled polyester in products to ensure what you bring to the market while supporting your marketing claims. 
  • During production inspection
    Inspection of the finished goods at 5% or 10% of the production completion will identify issues early in the production line.

Interested in finding out more about how API can help your brand with our adapted outdoor furniture solutions?

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An empowered supplier is a competitive ace card

Brands and retailers can have relationships with a great number of suppliers, which can reach in the thousands for the bigger players. When the volume is that high, it can be difficult to think of individual suppliers as anything more than a transactional necessity for the manufacturing of hardline goods. But brands and retailers that see their suppliers this way may miss out on what their more reliable and advanced suppliers can offer them.

Increasing numbers of brands and retailers are looking for ways to empower their suppliers, but this is easier said than done. Effective buyer and supplier collaboration is not only about open communication across the entire supply chain, it’s about enabling the suppliers to feel they can share ideas and make recommendations as the true owners of hardline product quality.

While working with empowered suppliers is the ultimate goal, the path to getting there isn’t always straightforward and should be broken down into smaller goals. Some of the most common challenges brands and retailers face when looking to empower their suppliers include:

  • Easy to say, but not to do
  • Time-consuming
  • Empowerment is based on trust but needs a system for monitoring
  • Reluctance from some factories
  • Unclear quality liability

Supplier empowerment: Where to begin
It’s important to keep in mind that empowering your suppliers means being in direct contact with them. Using intermediaries that muddy the waters can complicate the task and make it more difficult. Another question to ask is whether all your suppliers can be empowered. To answer this, you need to have a clear understanding of your supply chain. The factories most likely to align with your expectations will be the more strategic and trusted ones with a long-term approach. These are usually factories with a solid QMS and with whom there’s already fluid communication, a solid investment, and projects demonstrating growth to make this commercial relationship last.

You can start by asking some simple questions:

  • Are you working directly with factories or through vendors?
  • Do you have top factories that you work with?
  • Do you have long-term partners?
  • Do you have a stable sourcing strategy? Or do you shift countries frequently?
  • Do you create partnerships with your manufacturers?
  • What incentives will you bring to the factory? Will you bring more orders?

As essential as it is to understand where you stand before launching an empowerment program, it’s equally important to make factories understand the benefits for them. Among other elements, advantages for empowered suppliers include:

  • Less external control
  • Cost and time savings
  • Improved quality processes and production output
  • Improved partnerships with customers that can result in more orders

Supplier empowerment: Implementing an effective program

Empowering suppliers also offers significant benefits to brands and retailers of hardline goods. It allows for better resource optimization, going further upstream, and doing more quality assurance, ultimately reducing costs and allocating budget to areas of risk. The final objective would be to replace third-party inspections by shifting quality ownership to the suppliers. This would increase efficiency and ensure continuity, even during disruptions like those we saw in the last couple of years.

Brands and retailers with a solid quality management team can put all this in place through their internal teams, allocating time and resources to train and monitor their selected suppliers. That said, this sort of program, while worthwhile, isn’t easy to implement. It’s a time-consuming process that requires constant follow-up and a strong and comprehensive setup. Continuous monitoring is also necessary to ensure that factories are qualified and maintain expected quality standards.

Brands and retailers have the option to bring in additional resources and use a qualified third party to take charge of the program instead of allocating it to an internal team.

A 7-step program: The ‘Factory Certified Auditor Program’

At API, we support our clients’ supplier empowerment strategies as part of our global risk-based approach. We’ve implemented a 7-step program, the ‘Factory Certified Auditor Program,’ designed to empower the best-performing suppliers to perform their own inspections. The 7-step program covers:

  1. Program introduction to vendors
  2. On-site assessment
  3. Validation and training
  4. Examination
  5. Correlation & probation
  6. Certification
  7. Monitoring

Why should brands and retailers follow this program?

  • Expert guidance: Industry experts introduce additional resources and external inputs when developing and implementing the program.
  • Flexible and reliable: Training is prepared by industry experts according to customer needs and what’s already in place with multinational brands.
  • Continuous monitoring: Regular monitoring ensures that factories are well qualified and maintain good quality standards.
  • Increased quality, lower costs: Externalization of training and alignment with vendors aim to shift quality ownership in harmony with brand requirements.
  • Neutral partner: An external, neutral agent can intervene as needed with no conflict of interest.
  • Complete or partial manager participation: Managers can partake in 100% of the program or only the stages requiring reinforcement.

Interested in learning how API can help your supplier empowerment strategy?

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Ensure your recycled polyester claims are genuine

According to Precedence Research, the recycled polyester (rPET) market is expected to hit US$14.23 billion by 2030, driven by soaring demand for sustainable products from consumers, governments, and NGOs. The use of rPET in consumer goods is no longer a trend but a reality in many categories, including toys and furniture. What started with soft toys containing stuffing made from rPET is fast-evolving into other uses. Danish toy giant Lego has announced its first prototype bricks made of rPET from discarded bottles, and IKEA has launched a range of kitchen furniture with plastic films made out of recycled bottles. Many other furniture brands are producing products made from rPET, including chairs and stools, storage boxes, bathroom accessories, and more.

Amid this rise in environmentally conscious consumerism, sustainability has become a powerful marketing tool in a crowded marketplace. But as green consumers become more informed and critical, brands and retailers must be able to back up the use of rPET in their products with proof to avoid risks of reputational damage and noncompliance. Until now, the primary way to verify the inclusion of rPET in products was to rely on declarations and documents from suppliers and third parties. By betting solely on someone else’s information, however, brands risk greenwashing (claiming something as sustainable when it isn’t) and breaching regulations (the EU and GRS-V3 impose a minimum recycled polyester content of 20%).

What is recycled polyester, and why is it so popular?

To create virgin polyester (PET) –the world’s most common plastic—crude oil and natural gas are extracted from the earth and heated to form a molten liquid. The liquid is spun into fibers to create polyester fabric or molded into plastic containers. These products aren’t biodegradable and will persist in the environment, even as they eventually break down. Recycled polyester (rPET) originates mostly from post-consumer PET bottles that are melted down and re-spun into new polyester fibers. One tonne of rPET saves 11,100kWh of energy—the equivalent of two years of energy consumption for an average household. Each kilogram of mechanically recycled polyester also represents a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by more than 70% compared with virgin polyester.

A scientific solution to verify recycled polyester

The only way to be 100% sure that the amount of rPET in your products matches what your brand claims is through reliable scientific testing. As part of a continuing commitment to helping brands achieve growth through sustainability innovations, API and Worms Safety Laboratories have pioneered an innovative solution that detects and quantifies rPET in products and materials to prove its existence and avoid greenwashing. The accurate testing method is based on nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) technology, which is highly sensitive, robust, precise, auto-calibrated, and not affected by additional chemical substances such as dyes, viscose, or others. In simple terms, the process targets the presence of isophthalic acid (IPA), which is added to PET to give specific properties to the raw material. This superior testing method uses NMR technology to compare the IPA content in each sample to the average IPA content derived from a reference database of bottles collected in Europe, China, and India. More information about the rPET testing can be found here.

More accurate than any other method

Other methods are available to measure IPA content, including Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, Raman, Liquid Chromatography, and Gas Chromatography. However, common disadvantages of these processes include the generally higher uncertainty of the testing equipment and the sensitivity to other substances present in the sample. The solution developed by API and Worms Safety Laboratories is highly sensitive and specific, with low detection limits and greater certainty. The PET bottle reference library is continually monitored and updated, and any changes in PET quality on the market is reflected in the test results.

Interested in learning more about how this solution can benefit your brand?

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The drive toward sustainable packaging

We live in an era in which sustainability has never been more important in every step of the supply chain. Today’s consumers increasingly demand products that have a reduced impact on the environment, which includes eco-friendly packaging. In the toy industry, this has driven major manufacturers like Hasbro, Mattel, Lego, and MGA Entertainment to make pledges to reduce their packaging and make the switch to recycled or eco-friendly materials.

We’re seeing the same pattern in other industries, such as furniture. Swedish giant IKEA is aiming to eliminate plastic packaging from most of its products by 2025. Players such as Amazon have also joined the movement, with its ‘Frustration-Free Packaging’ that helps brands produce less waste than traditional packaging by redesigning their packaging, eliminating waste throughout the supply chain, and ensuring that products arrive undamaged on customers’ doorsteps.

The goal of these initiatives is to tackle the harmful impacts of plastic packaging on the environment in favor of alternative solutions with less impact.

The problem with plastic

Each year, around eight million tons of plastic waste end up in the world’s oceans. Forbes has reported that plastic trash is found in the guts of more than 90% of the world’s sea birds, in the stomachs of more than half of the world’s sea turtles, and is contributing to the deaths of whales. It’s predicted that, by 2050, the mass of plastic in the world’s oceans will exceed the mass of all the fish that live there. Plastic packaging can take thousands of years to decompose in the environment and also takes a great deal of energy, water, and other natural resources to produce.

These sobering figures have made many consumers deeply concerned about plastic packaging finding its way into the environment, and eco-conscious consumers will choose brands that are working to address this impact over those that aren’t.

The role of legislation

Alongside pressure from consumers and NGOs, multiple laws and regulations are being introduced to find a solution to the plastic problem.

Many governments have formulated systems that support a circular economy and reduce their national waste. The extent of these requirements varies among countries, but overall, we’re seeing increasing numbers of regulations aimed at reducing the use of packaging and promoting more sustainable packaging materials.

In Europe, the Waste Framework Directive establishes measures for dealing with waste, while the Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive intends to harmonize the management of packaging waste and prevent or reduce the impacts of packaging and packaging waste, including by setting recovery and recycling targets.

There are also regulations specific to certain nations, such as the UK’s plastic packaging tax that came into force on April 1, 2022. The UK Plastic Packaging Tax (PPT) affects businesses that manufacture or import plastic packaging, including packaging that already contains goods (such as plastic bottles containing beverages). The tax aims to encourage the use of recycled rather than virgin plastic in packaging (when permitted) and stimulate the increase in recycling and collection of plastic waste. You can learn more about it here.

In March 2020, France adopted Law No. 2020-105 Regarding a Circular Economy and the Fight Against Waste. This law aims at minimizing waste and promoting resources to be reused as much as possible. The economic model targets low consumption of nonrenewable resources, the reuse of waste as a resource, products that have a longer useful life, the recycling of 100% of plastics, and less wastefulness. The law also sets the goal of recycling 100% of plastics by 2025 and the end of single-use plastic packaging by 2040.

In the US, there are also initiatives to reduce plastic consumption and packaging, such as the California plastic waste and labeling bills. These propose several laws that make labeling less misleading and shine a light on the responsibility of packaging producers to find alternatives to single-use, non-recyclable plastics.

The packaging landscape is complex, with growing numbers of regulations and standards to keep in mind that collectively aim to achieve a more sustainable future. With adequate guidance and clear visibility of targets and requirements, brands can prepare to adjust their processes as appropriate and ensure a smooth transition.

At API, we can help you comply with these and other packaging requirements while supporting you in bringing better products to the market. Interested in finding out more?

 

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How Do Professional Importers Ensure Product Compliance?

Your brand is only as reliable and trustworthy as the quality of products you put out into the market. Without a robust product compliance program in place, the integrity of your brand is bound to be compromised sooner or later. Our complimentary eBook ‘How to Build Systems to Ensure Product Compliance in Large Supply Chains’ lays the foundation for building a robust compliance program to help you avoid costly mishaps and begin overcoming compliance issues today.

Product Compliance is Key To Your Success

Product compliance starts with a compliance program Effectively managing growing supply chain complexities is something that most purchasing managers/importers deal with on a day to day basis. As your brand grows compliance issues you never knew were there (nor were prepared for) may rear their ugly head, and it’s up to you to begin pinpointing issues and plugging the holes your profits will fall through, before the consumers of today tear them open even wider. Ensuring product compliance starts and ends with one thing: A robust compliance program. 

Building a compliance program

A working compliance program addresses the rules, standards, regulations and requirements that your company or brand sets for its suppliers. These standards will create the accountability within the supply chain that consumers today are looking for. At this stage if you are pondering on the necessity and importance of compliance, take a look at this: In 2007, Mattel had to recall 1.5 million lead covered toys due to negligence. The company ended up having to pay a $12.3 million settlement with another $2.3 million in civil penalties for violating a lead paint ban.

“Can your company afford a mistake like this?”

‘How to Build Systems to Ensure Product Compliance in Large Supply Chains’

‘How to Build Systems to Ensure Product Compliance in Large Supply Chains’

Learn how to avoid costly mishaps so you can begin overcoming compliance issues through understanding:
  • Why compliance is necessary now more than ever
  • How to turn your compliance challenges into opportunities for growth
  • The specific audits that are needed for compliance in your supply chain
  • How to go about creating a compliance culture for your brand
Our complimentary eBook will provide you with in-depth insights into the systems that go into building a compliant supply chain that can sustain your company going forward. The key to your success will be how well you are able to integrate these systems into every tier of your brand and supply chain, creating opportunities that will give you a competitive advantage over your competitors.

ARE YOU FACING COMPLIANCE ISSUE CHALLENGES?

START BUILDING YOUR COMPLIANCE PROGRAM TODAY – CLICK HERE TO GET YOUR FREE COPY!

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7 Tips to Manage Supply Chain in times of COVID-19

This crisis may be the catalyst to revisit the global supply chain strategy and accelerate the adoption of new models and capabilities, but in the meantime short-term actions are needed to respond to the challenge.

Here are some tips from a manufacturing perspective to help with the continuity of your supply chain while maintaining quality products:

7 tips_pic

  1. Care about your people and your supplier’s teams
  • Educate employees on COVID-19 symptoms and prevention
  • Ensure your factory has screening protocols

Training and specific audits that focus on the measures to be adopted during this crisis are a good tool to ensure the health and safety of the teams.

  1. Increase your visibility over workforce/labor planning
  • Check actual capacity of your factories
  • Assess impact on production times
  • Pay additional attention to product quality as plants run with fewer workers and some might hire temporary/new staff who might be unqualified

Data collection here is key: from gathering the records of the factories for a quick screening, to implementing more in-depth measures such as technical audits, in-line inspections or in-production assessment, having greater visibility of the real situation of your factories is vital at this stage to not only ensure the completion of your production on time but also the quality of the goods delivered.

  1. Understand your key suppliers and increase the transparency of all your supply chain
  • Understand the impact your orders have on one’s factory production lines
  • Understand the flexibility one factory has in regard to production / purchase shifts

Whether your orders only represent a small portion of one factory’s production lines or you are flooding these same production lines with your goods makes a huge difference as to how to interact with this factory. 

If you are not a key customer, you need to make sure you understand how the factory will be dealing with your order when/if they face a shortage of staff or inventory. What flexibility do they have to shift production and purchase order fulfilment to other locations if their supplier of raw materials / components is out of stock?

  1. Carefully select the suppliers you’ll work with if you are shifting countries
  • Ensure you’re working with the right suppliers for your productions

The concept of shifting production to other areas was already on the table before the virus appeared, with a trend among many companies toward considering moving ‘out of China’. Diversifying areas of production and looking for alternative locations can help secure additional inventory and capacity. However, launching production in a new area can be challenging if you don’t have the experience or the right teams in that specific area. A third-party company can support you with adapted solutions to facilitate the transition and ensure the quality of your production through a dedicated technician program.

  1. Update inventory policy and stock management
  • Before = as little stock as possible
  • Now = need to anticipate and increase safety stock

This might lead to associated risks such as product deterioration or mold development which can be identified via a final inspection and tackled with a warehouse condition audit or a more elaborate mold prevention program.

  1. Align IT systems and support evolving work requirements
  • Manage quality remotely
  • Use new IT tools and solutions

We are being forced to shift from a culture of ‘on-site’ work to ‘remote work’. Be ready to embrace change and to consider possibilities that were not even contemplated a few months ago, such as video-monitored inspections.

For brands, retailers and importers’ quality management teams, online quality management solutions can help manage your goods’ quality even when working from home. With a simple click of the mouse, it is now possible to keep track of your quality actions, read reports and make decisions on whether or not the goods should be shipped. Expert technicians can also be one video/phone call away, offering their support in these difficult times and finding the best possible solutions to cope with the crisis.

  1. Prepare for the rebound
  • Be ready to move quickly

We are, without doubt, facing exceptional times and although it is impossible to anticipate when and how this epidemic will pass, we need to remain confident, align our efforts and prepare for a brighter future. Stay alert and ready for change: those that are able to adjust quickly will have a higher chance of rebounding and adapting to the times ahead.

we are in this together, and at API we are putting our manufacturing experience and product expertise at the disposal of our clients to help them adjust during this difficult time. Thanks to the agility and flexibility of our teams and our local infrastructure, we are able to quickly implement on-site and remote solutions to respond to our clients’ needs.

Do not hesitate to get in touch with us to discuss your supply chain challenges.

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What you should know about Christmas tree testing

Christmas, a very special holiday celebrated all around the world, a sacred time spent with family and friends, houses adorned with traditional decorations and illuminated in a splendor of colors, all leading up to the childlike anticipation of Christmas day, the gifts, the food and the wine!

While it may still be quite a few months off for most people, it is now that time of year when suppliers and retailers the world over begin their arduous preparations for the very busy festive season ahead, starting with none other than the hallowed Christmas tree.

In 2015, 12.5 million artificial Christmas trees were purchased in the US alone at a Christmas tree testingpurchase price of $69.38 each, resulting in revenues totaling $854 million for manufacturers in that short period. As a holiday that approximately 2 billion people around the world celebrate, the market for Christmas and these trees is undeniably massive, not to mention the powerful potential for profits it promises.

But, what happens when things go wrong on the production line?

Between 2010 and 2014 fire fighters responded to an annual average of 200 homes that were reported to be on fire or burnt down in the US alone due to fires started by Christmas trees with a total damage of $16.2 million. Fires started by malfunctions in artificial trees highlight the critical importance of strict quality control measures needed in place during and after production, from the lighting within the tree, the temperatures they produce to the types of plastic that is used to manufacture the tree.

Can your company stand to lose millions because of negligence in the QC process? What about the implications brought about from families that lose their homes or worse?

Preventing unnecessary damages and losses before they happen should be at the top your Christmas wish list. In this blog post we talk to Francois Deudon, CEO of Asia Pacific Inspection, as we seek to understand the technicalities that go into the making of Christmas trees and the essential QC procedures/tests involved in the production of these products, helping to ensure a safer, happier and more ‘festive’ festive season for us all…

Q: What are some of the challenges involved in the manufacturing of Christmas trees in terms of quality?

Christmas tree branch bending procedureA: One of greatest challenges is ensuring that each branch is able to comply with the NFS 54200 / Decree 2003-1123 without any accessible sharp points. In order to comply with this requirement, an industrial practice of bending the end wire of each branch to prevent any accessible sharp points. Many Christmas trees contain hundreds of branches, so the quality control of suppliers plays a significant role so as to manage the potential risks.

Q: One of the biggest concerns that consumers have is the PVC content of an artificial tree – How do quality procedures overcome this kind of challenge?

A: The quality control involved from the design stage to the mass production stage is needed to manage this concern. In the design stage, a client will instruct the supplier that only qualified raw materials should be used to create this product. In the pre-production stage, raw materials or products should be submitted for testing to ensure that these qualified materials are used. Suppliers should not only use these qualified materials; but they should also be able to avoid contamination during the production process. The clients should then assess the chemical management system of the factory, when they choose a supplier. After the production is completed, the client could then appoint a third party company to pick a sample from the mass production for chemical testing to ensure only qualified materials are being used for production and that there is no chemical contamination.

Q: Are suppliers more aware of the raw material and construction of trees that need to comply to strict Christmas tree testing processinternational regulation?

A: The more experienced a supplier is the better he will understand the regulations of any given country. Here it will be the retailer or the importer’s responsibility to choose an appropriate supplier. This can be done through a technical audit, which could help measure the capability and capacity of suppliers, providing valuable information when choosing suppliers.

Q: Do you think stricter quality control or inspection measures can help reduce the amount of fires that are started each year due to artificial Christmas trees? How so?

A: Yes, the testing on mass production products will assess the flammability of artificial Christmas trees. It could also avoid unauthorized change of the materials during this mass production process.

Q: What quality tests are absolutely essential before shipping Christmas trees off to various distributors?

A: The flammability test, the sharp point sharp edge test and the REACH test are absolutely essential before shipping to any distributors.

Conclusion

While retailers and importers across the globe are preparing for all the holiday joys, what we have learnt is that it will be important to select the correct supplier, based on previous testing records or it may even be important to consider an audit that will help identify any procedural risks early on, as the scope of the festive season is too big to cut any corners as any faults of failure will have the potential to lose you millions. The various Christmas tree testing procedures will be important to ensuring that the festive season will be a safe and happy one all round.

Are YOUR QUALITY ASSURANCE SYSTEMS LETTING YOU DOWN?

FIX YOUR ISSUES TODAY WITH OUR FREE GUIDE BY CLICKING HERE!

 

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Video-Monitored Self-Inspections in COVID-19 Affected Areas

The exceptional situation currently facing the household goods and toys supply chain is forcing companies around the globe to adapt to a reality that is changing by the day.
At API, we’re continuously looking for new technical solutions to support our clients, adopting all necessary measures to help minimize the impact on your shipments while keeping our employees, your teams, and those of your suppliers safe.
While some areas are returning to activity, others remain unreachable and access to many factories is still limited for safety reasons. However, this doesn’t mean that we cannot support you in monitoring the quality of your goods. Traditional inspections may for now be limited in some areas, but we can bring you our support and expertise via video-monitored self-inspections.

Video-monitored self-inspections

Video-monitored self-inspection can easily be put in place for your reliable factories, with monitoring via a video call with one of our technicians who will provide guidance throughout the process.
This solution brings additional support to your brand to help control the quality of your goods in these extraordinary times. Some of the main benefits include:

  • Support in ensuring self-inspection controls are made thoroughly
  • Verification of the proper methods of implementation and efforts put in place to conduct an adequate inspection and truthful declaration

While this tool can help confirm the correct self-inspection is carried out, the absence of our technicians on-site brings certain limitations: 

  • Some verifications may not be fully under the control of API (Ex. counting of quantities, random carton selection…)
  • Some points cannot be validated remotely, or on-site verifications reported accurately (Ex. bulk shading or humidity/moisture level, appearance checks, assembly, function checks…)
  • The factory/vendor’s history with the brand is essential to determine the feasibility of this solution – not advised for one-off / short-term suppliers

At API, the health, safety, and security of our teams, customers, partners, and factories is key. We remain at your disposal and continue to look for risk-free solutions, and we thank you once again for your support during this crisis.

Interested in knowing more about our video-monitored self-inspections? 

 

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2 Ways To Ensure Supply Chain Compliance

Supply chain compliance is becoming one of the biggest challenges faced by all retail professionals. Among small, medium enterprises’s it likely hits a little harder, with limited resources and where costs are always a make or break factor. Often-times you can only afford a supplier lacking certain levels compliance documentation, which in turn requires you to monitor them even more stringently, but can you afford the resources to do so properly? Your supply chain is dotted with complexities that can expose your organization to risk. This risk as you know needs to be avoided and planned for with actionable steps in place to mitigate any kind of exposure or threat to your supply chains operations. So let’s do just that…  In this blog post, I endeavor to highlight only two of the most common supply chain challenges that many regional retailers currently face, but also what you can do to begin achieving that desired supply chain compliance for your brand so that you may begin safeguarding against avoidable areas of risk. So let’s dive in;

First Identify your challenges

Identifying the challenges that you face within your retail supply chain is always the best place to begin, here I list two of the most common challenges that are experienced among many a local retailer; 1. Supplier relationships –  Your suppliers are the key to your entire operation. Take a moment consider that… Supplier collaboration can foster growth, if allowed they can also help you to create operational efficiencies which enables you to get your product to market a lot faster. This relationship will act as an incubator for out of the box, innovative thinking as your supplier begins to take real ownership of the end products and their quality. The way in which you engage with your suppliers from the very beginning, will set the tone for your operations going forward. Careful assessment is needed when signing on new suppliers, this is often the point at which compliance problems begin to seep in. You need to ensure that all the appropriate factory technical documentation is in order when selecting a supplier. A bit of due diligence in this area will guard you in the long-run. This will ensure that you have a defined and agreed upon set of operating principles where everything is done in compliance with these operating principles and standards. 2. CSR and environmental impact – Through adequate evaluation and a good a supplier relationship you will be able to determine CSR and environmental impacts. This is either done through a social compliance audit and an environmental audit which is either done in-house or through a third-party quality provider, such as API. An environmental audit will provide insight into things like by-product waste of the factory, how they dispose their waste, who disposes their waste and what levels of CO2 are being emitted and whether or not any of this can be reduced or are even being addressed. The results will help you to determine their impact on the environment and whether or not they are compliant with local and/or international environmental laws. A social compliance audit provides insight into things like child and forced labour, overtime and possible wage related disputes. This things are not only unethical, but should your brand be aligned with these practices, you will be destroying your brands reputation and image. The results of the above audits will enable you to make an informed decision about the type of supplier you wish to align your brand with. Supply chain compliance and environmental auditing Let’s take a look at what Walmart did; They created what they call the Sustainability Index, which is essentially a scorecard for suppliers to be reported on from various social and environmental production factors. Walmart has said that by the end of 2017 that 70% of its products will come from suppliers who participate through this Index, and as a benefits they will be endorsed as a sustainable partner and proud Walmart supplier. Solutions Supply chain compliance is an important issue to address, with many local retail brands realising that compliance needs to be a top priority to be achieved in order to achieve a globally competitive advantage in the market. So how do we go about achieving just that? Good supplier relationships for supply chain compliance 1. Supply chain visibility –  This refers to the data visibility made available within your supply chain; from where your raw materials come from, to your factory’s technical operations right through to your inventory management strategies. All of this data needs to be made available and visible to your consumers to create a sesnse of openness and trust within your supply chain operations. **When bringing on new suppliers be sure to ask for access to all of their compliance documentation from health and safety, to environmental and technical information. 2. Supply chain transparency – This is where your organisation begins to analyse current quality and compliance procedures. Transparency and visibility need to work hand-in-hand the data provides insight into the operations and the operations provide the data to be analysed. Supply chain transparency endeavours to take a deeper look into your systems and processes, understanding what makes them work and also not work. This approach to your supply chain operations allows you to mitigate risk early on, but also identify any areas that may need improvement, therefor adopting a continuous quality improvement cycle. As mentioned earlier, consumers actively research any retail brand’s supply chain and its processes from raw material to the moment a product reaches the floor to right before they make that purchase decision. It is crucial for your brand to ensure clean and compliant operational procedures if you are to achieve a globally competitive brand. Supply chain compliance need not be another complexity that your retail brand needs to face, through actively engaging and applying the above suggestions to your operations they will indeed help you on your way to a successful and compliant supply chain that puts your brand in a position of growth and also mitigates against any unnecessary risks.

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