PACKAGE DEFECTS

Who’s your quality inspector?

Yesterday I bought a case of water for my wife. These are the typical 1 gallon PE jugs and when I opened the case I found that one had an ugly thick white line on one side. Since I know a bit about blow molding, I knew what it was. When extruding the parison, the extruder had hiccupped a thick spot on one side.

I collect defective packages for use in my workshops and classes so I told my wife to save the bottle when it was empty. I saw no problem with using the bottle. She did.

She freaked out and refused to drink the water. She was convinced that something was wrong with it. Not only would she not drink the water in that bottle, she says she will not drink from the other, normal, bottles in the case. She also told me not to buy that brand again.

You and I know there is nothing wrong with that bottle. But how many customers will respond as my wife does?

This reminded me of an episode back in the 80′s. An urban legend was going around that a large CPG company was owned by Satan because of some alleged symbolism in their logo.

I remember discussing this with my secretary at the time. She was not a superstitious person. She told me that she did not believe the stories but had changed brands anyway. “Why take a chance?” she told me.

As manufacturers these seemingly irrational reactions can be frustrating. Why should this water company lose a customer because of an unimportant defect in a bottle? On the other hand, this may be a good thing for society as a whole. We constantly tell people not to use any product that doesn’t look “right”, especially a food or drug. Consumers are not experts. They have no way to judge whether this line means something or not. I would say my wife’s reaction, silly as it may seem to us “Packaging Experts” (as my wife calls me once or twice a day when she needs a bottle opened) is exactly the right one.

It is the job of all manufacturers to make sure that the product is not only good, in the sense of being free from danger and defects, but that it looks good. This bottle should have been rejected and reground as it came out of the blow molder.

It should have been rejected at the packing station where the empty bottles are bagged.

It should have been rejected at the unbagging station.

It should have been rejected at the filler.

It should have been rejected at the case packer.

It was not rejected at any of these points. I would be willing to bet that the defect was seen at least 3-4 times between molding and case packing. It was probably seen but not recognized as a defect and removed.

And the bottler lost a customer. Possibly forever.

How many customers can you afford to lose?

Remember: The customer is always the final quality inspector.