Interview International | The complexity of quality assurance

The complexity of quality assurance The importance of Quality Assurance & Compliance within the promotional industry

The complexity of quality assurance The importance of Quality Assurance & Compliance within the promotional industry Compacon’s customers come in all shapes and sizes. Just like people, each company is unique, with its own values, customs, qualities, wishes and requirements. Compacon must therefore be versatile.

We are not only talking about the type of products our account managers propose or the creative designs our Studio makes, but also laws and regulations, quality management and safety controls differ per project.

That is why it is important to have the right knowledge to deal with this properly. How do we do that? Our QA & Compliance Manager Anja explains it to you.

The products Compacon delivers must be safe and of desired quality.

“Our customers give us the confidence that we deliver products that meet all quality requirements and guidelines. You give the customer a kind of insurance”, says Anja.

Yet guaranteeing this is more complex than you might think.

Anja agrees: “Because of the large range of products, there is a lot of information that you have to check and keep an eye on. That is definitely a big challenge.“ Also, developments in the area of quality assurance and compliance are not static. Laws and regulations not only differ from country to country, but are also subject to continuous change.

Cover photo: Colleague at work

That is why it’s so important to have a punctual and careful person like Anja in the Compacon team to map out the complexity and thus, often hidden in the background, provide the right solution for the customer.

“As QA & Compliance Manager, I make sure within Compacon that we work according to the right processes to ensure that there is continuous improvement to avoid unwanted situations. I do this by starting projects on a risk-based approach, looking at mandatory legislation and customer requirements.”, explains Anja. “In addition, I make sure we work on these projects in the most sustainable way possible.”

An organization like Compacon that values its customers, no colleague wants to run the risk of offering a product that is not of the right quality. No one is consciously looking for a precarious situation.

Yet “wanting” is never good enough to eliminate risks. Fortunately, Anja knows how to support the commercial teams well.

“The sales colleagues come up with the ideas and products for the customer,” she says. “I put these along the QA & Compliance bar.

I give them advice if there are risks associated with the product.”, clarifies Anja.

“It can also happen that the customer has its own Quality Department and then it is easier to switch with peers. Then I work more closely together with the sales team towards the customer.”

Every project is different, but the commercial teams know how to find Anja.

wow!

“With Sales, I mainly deal with custom-made, larger projects because that’s where most of the risks lie,” Anja explains.

“As an example we recently received a question from a customer who would like to run a webshop platform with us. However, in addition to information about the platform, they also wanted to know how the processes are set up, whether we have the right knowledge in the area of product compliance and whether we have done the right information security checks for the webshop platform.

In this case, all disciplines come together and we have to make sure we can convince the customer that we have the correct know-how by giving the right answers, making clear overviews and showing process-flows to the customer.

In the end, the customer was very impressed with the knowledge and we successfully partnered up with them.”

In addition to projects in which quality management for products involvement is needed, Anja takes also care of the general safety and quality of Compacon. This mainly concerns the design of processes in general as well as in regards to information security. Sustainability also plays an increasingly important role.

“For Compacon I keep myself busy with the ISO certifications, such as ISO 9001 and 14001,” Anja mentions.

“Also, in the area of sustainability, I make sure that Compacon can make the continuous improvement steps to keep our Ecovadis rating on high level.”

On sustainability, Compacon, like many organizations, is in transition.

In 2021 we again received the Platinum rating, the highest rating from Ecovadis. This cooperation platform tests the sustainability performance of organizations worldwide on the basis of various criteria. However, this does not mean that we can lean back.

“An important part of my job and its future is precisely sustainability”, indicates Anja.

“This goes through all processes and departments of the organization.

Not only within the organization, but also the entire chain is addressed.

For this we will have to look closely at the risks in this area and how we should adapt the current processes in order to be able to give and offer quality to our customers and society in this area in the future as well.”

Fully explaining what Quality Assurance & Compliance exactly entails is almost impossible.

ISO certifications

Most likely, new developments on global and local law and regulations have already been changed while you read this article. That doesn’t stop Anja from enthusiastically talking about her role and expertise: “I’m involved in almost every department within the organization.

I like to take a look behind the scenes of every department as well as interaction towards customers or suppliers. In addition, I am often involved in a project from the beginning to the end, which makes my role very dynamic.”

Want to know more about how we can help your brand with compliant and high quality promotional products? Get in touch via www.compacon.com.