Managing Quality ( Thursday 18 June 2009 )

Capespan Exports strives to ensure that fruit specifications are met to the letter. And the focus on quality is a team effort through and through - from the farm to the shelf.

The product offering quality secures the sale. Developed by Motorola,the Six Sigma quality approach is a comprehensive and flexible system for achieving, sustaining and maximising business success. The nirvana of Six Sigma is essentially 3.4 defects per million opportunities, requiring a 99.99967 roll through yield across all steps in the quality process. It's based on the Voice of the Customer.

Knowledge of customer needs is imperative, because the cost of poor quality is anything for which a customer doesn't knowingly, willingly want to pay. They're not prepared to pay for inspection, rework, credit notes or other waste. Customers are only prepared to pay for efficient, consistent production as seen in best-in-class operations.

Traditionally, the supply chain is viewed from left to right in terms of Supplier, Input, Process, Output and Customers. The Japanese, however, read it backwards and quite rightly start with the Customer.

Capespan Exports managing director Graham Botha maintained that the company was intensely focused on procuring fruit according to the requirements of its international marketing divisions as per customer needs. "Underscoring Capespan Export's quality quest is our unsurpassed technical support to producers," he continued. "This ranges from interpretation of retailers demands, transferring into packing specifications, pre-harvest technical advice and ensuring fruit quality to assisting on accreditations, certifications and auditing of pack houses and farms. We also supply a self-audit system for environmental issues, food safety and health.

"Consistent quality inspections are performed both on the farm and on arrival abroad, while we assist on special packing programmes,conduct quality inspections in port and supervise the loading of vessels/containers. All this is done because we are pursuing the three Qs - Quality, Quality and Quality.

Everybody who embraces Quality wins.

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