Production monitoring increases retailers’ and brands’ confidence that manufactured products will be on time and meet quality standards, while potential issues can be identified long before the production run is completed.
Whether you are looking to be less reliant on manufacturers in a specific sourcing area or seeking to move production to a new supplier you’ve never worked with before, production monitoring can help you verify that your products meet required quality standards throughout production.
UL Solutions inspectors monitor the entire production process — from the pre-production raw materials stage, through the production life cycle, to the finished product — to assess whether production aligns with your specifications and established quality standards.
Production monitoring helps retailers evaluate product quality along the supply chain
As a retailer, you can face myriad challenges in supplier selection and management, particularly when moving from one sourcing country to another. Given this new environment, how can you increase transparency and maintain confidence in your supply chain?
Production monitoring can be an effective tool to help you ensure quality requirements are met if you don’t have prior history and/or experience with the manufacturer (new supplier), or if you have historic quality issues with the manufacturer (problem supplier).
In addition, production monitoring can play a fundamental role if you are looking to move to a new manufacturing region. You may have concerns that a new manufacturer may not be able to meet volume demands, and there’s also the possibility that a new manufacturer could subcontract out some of the work.
Benefits of a production monitoring strategy
An effective production monitoring program can increase confidence in the manufacturer in many ways. For starters, production monitoring can help your suppliers understand and meet quality expectations early in the production lifecycle.
Production monitoring also allows the manufacturer to maintain control of product quality and traceability, and it addresses quality issues early by developing plans based on defects that occur during the initial production monitoring process.
These actions ultimately may save time and expense and could increase production capacity — which could result in increased revenue.
Production monitoring activities typically take into account the complexity of design and stages of manufacture when establishing quality control. When this work is completed, a Corrective Action Plan (CAP) is shared with the retailer, vendor and manufacturer. This document is essentially a plan that provides specific, measurable, achievable and time-bound goals to address the relevant issues.
The UL Solutions production monitoring process
Incorporating on-site production monitoring by UL Solutions inspectors can help production stay on schedule while helping you monitor product quality. Production monitoring confirms the location of the production to minimize subcontracting, and confirms early in the process that that the manufacturer is prepared to move forward with production.
Pre-preproduction meetings with the manufacturer help them understand quality expectations and can provide clarity around quality concerns. In these meetings, you can discuss findings, review corrective action points and determine if there are any issues preventing the order from progressing. It’s important to engage the right audience, so all stakeholders are informed and have access to feedback that may help with future vendor management decisions. These meetings can also provide insight into how the program is being supported, while also illuminating potential opportunities for improvement and growth.
UL Solutions can provide monitoring of the production to help you ensure schedules are being adhered to, and production quality is maintained at the designated manufacturer. Thanks to our technical expertise, we can help manufacturers address challenges and potential issues in the products manufacturing phase before they occur.
Our support starts from product conception until distribution and merchandising
Third-party technical audits and inspections are key checkpoints in a global quality assurance program.
Product conception services
Vendor selection
Pre-production
Production
Post-production
Transportation and distribution
Merchandising
Program management
Case study: How UL Solutions supported a customer
Faced with increased Chinese tariffs, a U.S. retailer was challenged to move production for current products to other manufacturing regions outside of China.
This retailer anticipated many challenges: It was moving to a new manufacturing region, and it had no history with the new manufacturing partner. Additionally, it had strong concerns about production capacity and product quality.
As the retailer began working with its new suppliers, it engaged UL Solutions to address its apprehensions. UL Solutions reached out to the manufacturer at the onset of production to verify that quality expectations were understood, and to assess whether the manufacturer was prepared to meet volume and quality requirements.
Prior to the onset of the project, UL Solutions experts also worked with the U.S. retailer’s Quality and Product Development teams and supplier to define its scope, objectives, parameters and expectations. Communication between all parties was critical to the project’s success, so UL Solutions initiated discussions between the retailer, the vendor and the manufacturer. These conversations helped verify that expectations were clear and understood prior to the onset of production.
UL Solutions also conducted a Manufacturing Readiness Audit (MRA) to verify that the facility’s quality management systems, personnel and equipment could meet — or exceed — the retailer’s needs. The results of these assessments were documented and reviewed by all stakeholders to reduce the risk of defective products being produced in the production’s initial stages.
UL Solutions worked closely with the manufacturer to review its deficiencies and collectively address these findings in the CAP.
A series of pre-production meetings were held with the supplier and the manufacturer to review the audit findings and assist in the CAP development, which addressed any gaps in preparedness. By identifying the root cause of the findings, the manufacturer was able to provide the necessary corrective actions to prevent future recurrence of the initial deficiencies.
Following the MRA, UL Solutions proceeded with production monitoring daily throughout the entire production run. In this work, UL Solutions evaluated the quality of product against the manufacturer’s specifications and confirmed the production schedule was maintained. Again, these activities were documented and reviewed with the manufacturer during the closing meeting to help in identifying substandard products from being produced and to drive continuous improvement in the manufacturing process.
Ongoing in-line and final pre-shipment inspections found notable improvements in product quality. In the end, the manufacturer had better overall quality control and was able to detect quality issues early in the production lifecycle — before large quantities of sub-standard products were produced.
The U.S. retailer was subsequently able to transition into a new region and manufacturing partner with seamless product delivery schedules and consistent product quality, thereby maintaining revenue streams. The retailer also validated its sourcing strategy and was able to diversify manufacturing partnership in new geographic regions.
In the end, production monitoring was a critical component of the overall quality management of these new suppliers because it allowed the retailer to engage new manufacturing partners in a new region.
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