Do You Have the Tools for Success?

CM+P: Can you explain how SQF can also be a great starting point for more complex non-food related projects, such as cosmetics and pharma, providing them a great foundation?

Fix: SQF certification shows that we have the discipline and processes to provide a high-quality service to a customer. And as it's become an industry recognized standard, it provides a comfort level to the customer from the very beginning.

We have the systems and processes in place for the very complex, detailed, and quality related projects. Integrating one of those projects can be easily done. A project that is not as complicated flows seamlessly through the processes. This gives us a lot of versatility and agility.

Robert FixCM+P: Can you expound on how SQF and industry best practices help you deliver quickly and efficiently?

Grantham: We're able to execute promotional programs in numerous locations so our customers can develop an East Coast and West Coast strategy for promotional displays. And we have the latitude and agility to implement in all those locations simultaneously.

Fix: As we can launch from multiple locations simultaneously, we can reduce shipping costs, and provide a consistent delivery. It’s a more resilient solution for the brand.

CM+P: How have Nulogy and Alchemy kept your operations seamless? How have they helped you manage time sensitive details?

Bossong: Nulogy is the leading software solution for contract packaging in track and trace. It has great inventory and production detail capabilities, all in real time. We've been using Nulogy since 2015. And it has worked very well for us as part of our quality solution.

Alchemy is a repository of best practices and a training tool for us. We have more than 20 years of contract packaging experience bottled up into digestible training sessions for our line leaders and our quality technicians. We can continue to add to it as we roll out GMPs or any improvements. It consists of both third party training and inhouse training created from our own content.

With these trainings, we can confidently say, “Yes, our people have gone through the right training, know how to run their lines, and manage quality effectively.”

Julian BossongCM+P: Tell me more about WHATTA?

Bossong: For a company like us, labor management is really important, which includes tracking all of your people, where they are, and what they're doing every single day, for every single project. When you're managing more than 15 staffing agencies, that can be cumbersome.

We spent one to three years looking for the right solution and ultimately decided to build it ourselves. So, we built an application in-house that allows us to track all of our people and all of our projects.

In concert with Nulogy, it helps us manage our margins, as well as audit and reconcile our staffing firms and associated data. In the bigger picture, WHATTA is a database of record that allows us to look at real time detail as well as trends. We use it for trend analysis of customers, projects, industries, line leaders, and days of the week that need to be optimized, etc. We're continuing to roll out WHATTA to other to all of our sites.

CM+P: Would you suggest other contract manufacturers and packagers try to build a similar platform in-house?

Bossong: I can't make a definitive recommendation, but it has been very helpful for us. It's important with any kind of software development project that you manage it very tightly. It needs to be finished on time and on budget, and we've largely done that. But it did require a lot of time and attention.

What else should our readers know about Nulogy, Alchemy, and WHATTA?

Bossong: I would emphasize that those are our tools. It's important to optimize culture, the kicking off of projects, and the management of day-to-day labor. That is what differentiates the best-in-class co-packers against those who are not as forward-thinking or not as successful.