Client Background
A high-end distributor of home fragrances, with headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands, came to Mosteb to request us to find a square glass diffuser bottles dealer to serve their growing European market. They assessed three suppliers, and they selected Mosteb as their sole supplier.
Customization Requirements:
- Embossed on the two opposite sides of the bottle are vertical reed patterns, embossed, 150ml square bottles.
- Silicone seal rings to be used with natural bamboo screw caps.
- Enhanced stability through the use of custom base thickness (5mm).
Why Mosteb: The rough geometrical style made their products stand out on the retail shelves and the supportive base was used to solve the problem of breakage that they had faced with the former suppliers. The flexibility of MOQ (500 vs. 2000+ of competitors) allowed Mosteb to experiment with new fragrance lines without bearing the huge inventory risk.
Challenges
- Strict timeframe: During the implementation of the GiftBox, there was a tight deadline that required the delivery of the client within 6 weeks before autumn/winter started to receive gifts. Their former supplier had failed to deliver on a similar deadline losing them a chance at sales.
- Quality Blemish Issues: The experience they had with Asian manufacturers made them suspicious–20 percent of a prior shipment had a thickness of glasses which was not uniform leading to early cracking during filling. They required the confidence of a steady output of quality when it came to the batches.
Cause Analysis
The basic problems as determined by our technical staff are:
- The rushed time schedule could not fit in the standard production cycles without compromising quality checks.
- The embossed texture specification demanded captured control of the mold temperature-neglected by competitors offering low prices.
Our Response: We appointed a special project manager and rescheduled our production challenge, whereby we devoted a special annealing oven to this order specifically to have homogenous glass tempering. Our QC unit used three steps of inspection protocol: post-molding check, pre-cap threading check, and finished packed sampling (5 percent batch rate).
Solution
- Expedited Production: Protocol Reserved production line capacity 2 weeks ahead and mold trials were done prior to the actual production and this prevented delays occurring during its adjustment.
- Improved QC: Standards AQL 1.5 level of inspection (tougher than normal industry 2.5) and tolerance thickness maintained at +-0.3mm. Pre-shipment sample products are sent to the client to get them to approve and then packed in large volumes.
- Daily Openness: Clear communication on business progress during production and real-time sharing of quality check reports, pre-agreed backup logistics partners in the case of shipping delays.
Result
- Shipped 5,000 bottles within a 38 day period (8 days before time period)
- None of the breakages throughout transit and filling.
- Our client had 40 percent sales growth in this season, in comparison to the past year.
- Within 4 months client made a repeating order of 12,000 units in three SKU variations.
