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Quality Control in the CPG Manufacturing Industry

Consumer packaged goods (CPG) manufacturers leverage SPC operations management methods to handle diverse customer and CPG compliance requirements while keeping yield and quality high.

CPG Manufacturing Quality Control

Today’s CPG manufacturers benefit from ongoing demand for consumables such as food and beverages, cosmetics, apparel, cleaning products, supplements and pharmaceuticals, and many other products. They thrive on emerging opportunities as consumer demands change. And they reach an increasingly global marketplace.
 
But this dynamic environment brings serious quality challenges and business challenges. Whether CPG makers sell to end consumers or provide components for big product makers, they must:

  • Meet challenging customer quality standards
  • Execute tight turnarounds with short leads
  • Offer the best possible per-item price
  • Stand out in a highly competitive landscape
  • Meet CPG compliance requirements of a variety of agencies

As a result, quality managers in the CPG industry need real-time SPC data collection software for manufacturing visibility—within plants and across the globe—to proactively:

  • Drive down costs
  • Increase speed and yield
  • Increase quality and prevent defects through continuous improvements
  • Ensure part and product traceability
Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) Quality Control Solutions

InfinityQS® Statistical Process Control (SPC) software provides an enterprise-wide operations management solution that enables quality managers in the CPG manufacturing industry to accomplish these goals. In addition, InfinityQS solutions:
 
  • are based on real-world manufacturing experience in short-run or high-mix/low-volume production environments where SPC can be especially challenging
  • offer flexibility to manage quality in complex environments with extreme efficiency
  • enable data collection from any existing equipment, so quality managers can effectively capture, combine, and compare data and discover where they have the greatest opportunities for improvement

CPG Manufacturer Success: NorthStar Battery leverages real-time SPC operations data so they can react quickly before problems escalate. 

Real-time visibility to reduce cost

InfinityQS automates real-time data collection and analysis on the shop floor, providing quality dashboards to enable early detection of problems so the team can take action to prevent additional product defects and nonconformities. This early prevention reduces scrap, rework, and recalls, providing significant savings to the bottom line.

InfinityQS users reduce their recall risk by dramatically reducing process variation. And ProFicient™ Lot Genealogy and Reporting functionality minimizes recall costs by enabling tracking of raw material lot codes throughout CPG manufacturing operations.
 
Based on these cost reductions and others, you’ll be able to demonstrate a significant return on investment within a very short timeframe.

Real-time manufacturing visibility improves CPG quality control

In a recent survey of our customer base, customers reported they reduced scrap by an average rate of 12.7% per week. They also reported an average 14.3% reduction in man-hours for rework.

Improved quality control in the CPG industry—
reduced defects and variation

Paper and spreadsheets can no longer get the job done given today’s need for extreme precision in the CPG manufacturing industry. Quality managers need visibility into the specific metrics and granular details that deliver value to their organizations and their end customers.
 
InfinityQS experts understand:
 

  • Defect analysis: We understand defect data—and defect opportunities. InfinityQS SPC software is capable of leveraging metrics for Defects Per Million Opportunities (DPMO) and Defects Per Thousand Opportunities (DPTO) to allow Consumer Packaged Goods manufacturers to compare products of varying complexity.
     
  • Variation analysis: We truly understand the variation introduced by time, across pieces, and within pieces. Our 3D control charts capture this analysis.
Improved quality control, reduced product defects and variation

Drive continuous improvement in CPG

Today, the CPG manufacturing industry needs real-time and accurate data that is visible from the production floor to the corner office. Quality managers need visibility within plants and across multiple facilities, often on a global basis, to drive continuous improvements by:
 
  • Prioritizing process improvement efforts
  • Comparing production line capability
  • Ensuring product conformity
InfinityQS SPC software provides these capabilities for CPG manufacturers in real time, improving data collection and analysis even for short-run and high-mix/low-volume production environments, by using advanced statistical techniques.
 
Manufacturers with very small lot sizes and multiple key characteristics on each part use InfinityQS solutions to analyze process consistency across product setups. And monitoring precision tool wear and quick changeovers are no problem.

 
Drive continuous improvement by focusing on quality improvement

With InfinityQS cloud-based solution, organizations gain real-time visibility into their suppliers’ shop floor quality data before nonconforming product even ships. For organizations in the CPG industry, this enhanced level of supplier monitoring can:
 
  • Eliminate source inspections and Certificates of Analysis (COA)
  • Reduce inventories
  • Provide additional quality improvements and cost savings

Traceability

InfinityQS ProFicient software provides a track-and-trace lot genealogy solution across the entire supply chain, enabling Consumer Packaged Goods manufacturers to:
 
  • Significantly reduce the time and costs of recalls
  • Take proactive steps to prevent recalls
  • Automate processes, documentation, and reporting

CPG industry compliance

 
InfinityQS’ provides functionality that helps Consumer Packaged Goods suppliers and manufacturers comply with CPG industry and customer standards for quality, consistency, and security. Our robust solutions can stand up to third-party audits.

Lot Genealogy reports provide a complete view of the incoming/outgoing product relationship complete with statistical summary information.

ProFicient’s Lot Genealogy and Reporting functionality enables CPG manufacturers and suppliers to track raw materials or component lot codes throughout manufacturing operations. For investigation purposes, genealogical "trees" can be created for any lot. These reports allow you to determine:
 
  • Materials used in the production of a specific finished lot
  • Where incoming raw materials were consumed
  • Root causes of nonconforming lots
  • Information critical for responding to product recalls
  • Which final lots were created from incoming lots
Dynamic Scheduler
You can specify unique, time-based intervals based on the product, process, or even the workstation. Windows automatically pop up, clearly identifying when data collections are due. If a failure is detected or if no data is collected, ProFicient can automatically send notifications, email administrators, or even force users to specify assignable cause codes and corrective actions.

Watch the video.
Audits are easier with instant access to quality records and electronic documentation needed to demonstrate compliance. Our a robust solutions can stand up to third-party or internal audits for Quality Management Systems (QMS) or automotive OEMs. Creating reports takes only minutes instead of hours or days, eliminating the need for spreadsheets.
 
InfinityQS solutions boast built-in checklist and workflow alerting features needed to comply with Quality Management System SPC requirements for key product characteristics, Critical Quality Attributes (CQAs), and Critical Process Parameters (CPP).

You can incorporate work instruction requirements at the production floor level, providing automatic data collection prompts to operators. InfinityQS’s real-time Dynamic Scheduler offers a visual checklist to operators, reminding them when to perform critical quality checks.
Manufacturers in CPG industries must also comply with filling requirements for Net Content (weight) Control. The Net Content Control feature from InfinityQS supports both the US Department of Commerce Maximum Allowable Variation (MAV) and European Union Tolerable Negative Error (TNE) and T1/T2 requirements, plus related Net Content Control reporting to support the needs of global manufacturers.
 
Many CPG ProFicient users see fast ROIs based solely on reduced “giveaway” or overfilling of product using the Net Content Control functionality.
When enabled, Database Auditing provides full traceability for any modification, edit, or change to any database record. Traceability records are easily viewed in a variety of ways, but they cannot be edited. Whenever a record modification or deletion is attempted, the “Reason for Change” tracking feature forces users to select a reason for the modification from a drop-down list. Additionally, free-form comments are required. When specified, a Change History and Reason for Change Report can accompany any chart printout.
 

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