Background del cliente
A Belgium based table vase importer came to Mosteb after having faced constant sourcing problems and continued to provide home décor retailers, boutique florists and hospitality merchants across the Benelux. The client was looking for a reliable table vase factory and decided to work with Mosteb to create a custom clear glass table vase with a softly rounded hexagonal body, narrow flared neck and a finely textured pebble-pattern base.
The shape of the hexagonal profile was chosen as it would produce a contemporary shape which would stand out on retail shelves but would not be too complicated to produce. The narrow flared neck contributed to the support of single stems and compact floral designs, and the pebble texture on the base helped to hide the small scratches that frequently occurred from handling and to provide added grip on smooth tabletops. The firm selected Mosteb for its ability to develop a mold in-house combined with the production quality assurance and experience with European importers.
Sfide
- There was product inconsistency, which caused inventory management problems: The importer had previously had to deal with several suppliers with products varying slightly in height, neck diameter, and clarity of the glass. The differences prevented easy mixing of inventory from various shipments leading to customer complaints and additional warehouse sorting.
- Seasonal sales were impacted by long replenishment periods: They frequently experienced delays between their previous factory production and receiving an update on time for home décor sales during the spring. Retail customers had to either postpone product releases or order alternative products from rival retailers.
Analisi delle cause
Based on previous production samples and a discussion with the client on how the product was distributed, our engineering and production teams determined that there were two root causes.
Previous manufacturers had no standardized maintenance of the moulds, which caused the dimension deviation gradually happened between the different production batches.
There was no synchronization in production planning and export scheduling, resulting in unnecessary delays between production, inspection and shipment.
Per affrontare questi problemi, Mosteb set up specific production controls on the project and harmonised the manufacturing process with the export planning for better delivery consistency.
Soluzione
- Produced all orders with special production tools that have a scheduled calibration to keep dimensioning the same for repeat orders.
- Provided optical inspection equipment to ensure the clarity of glass, the diameter of the neck, and the whole dimension before packing.
- Installed rolling production planning to be able to prepare future repeat orders before previous orders were received.
Designed reinforced export cartons with custom partitions to minimise vibration while at sea. - Provide progress and quality check reports, shipping information to client during development to enhance purchasing visibility.
Risultato
First delivery of special table vases arrived according to schedule, without any significant transportation damage and with great dimensional consistency. The Belgian importer efficiently provided several retail customers from one stock without separating the products according to production batch. After the success of the project, the client decided to increase the amount of purchase and Mosteb as the factory of table vases became the client’s preferred factory for table vases for the next years for the purpose of wholesale purchase.
