Complaint management at Tri-Sure Closures

At first sight, container closures would appear to be simple products, but appearances are deceiving. In a world in which higher and faster production is constantly required and competition is increasing, there is steadily less margin for error. This is the reason behind the growing need for accurate and effective complaints management. To an increasing degree, complaints no longer cover primary defects but minor divergences or shortcomings. This causes a problem because of the high efficiency and far-reaching automation in the chain. 

Susan Hollander, quality manager at Tri-Sure® in Amsterdam: "Unfortunately, things can go wrong in production for us as well. But even if the complaint is sometimes unjustified, it is naturally extremely important to always provide the client with the right solution. A centrally managed and extremely accurate complaints system is therefore indispensable for us."  

Project group

In 2005 the Strategic Business Unit (SBU) of Tri-Sure decided there should be a single central, worldwide system for handling complaints. Up until then a variety of complaints systems were used which did not provide mutual insight. Thanks to the Dutch branch's good experience with the Quality Online Complaints System, this was the system the company decided to adopt. 

Hollander: "In the past, branches didn't know from each other what the complaints were at the various sales offices, so considerable benefit could be achieved by processing the entire complaints recording and handling in one centrally managed system." A project group was set up, including amongst others the French branch, which produces synthetic container closures. In this way the experience of the largest organisations involved in types of complaints in the steel and synthetic production and sales could be combined. The project group charted how Tri-Sure would ideally like to handle a complaint: which procedures should be followed, which people and departments should be involved, etc. At any given time there needed to be an insight into the status and history of all complaints worldwide. Hollander: "Because, of course, a sales representative wants to know what complaints are ongoing for a specific client or a specific product at the various branches before he initiates a client contact, for example." 

Ultimately, it took Tri-Sure the better part of 2005 to define the procedures, because at the same time the company wanted to make improvements in terms of uniformity, the degree of insight and reporting. 

Advantages

The new system works entirely with Java browser technology and in a Windows environment. The solution concentrates on two lines of approach: the technical and commercial sides of a complaint. Within the technical part it is about the problem itself, while the commercial part also focuses on the question: "How do I ensure that the client will be 100% satisfied again, because a complaint is also an opportunity!" 

What it is initially about, is the question of how the problem arose and how this problem can best be tackled and resolved. Phase two concerns the technical verification: "Is this indeed what happened and has everything been done to investigate the complaint and to resolve it?" This phase is handled at the production sites. Phase three is a report drawn up by the commercial departments for the client, and the final phase is the commercial verification.

The implementation of Quality Online was carried out according to plan and the system went live on January 1, 2006. Hollander is highly satisfied with the use of Quality Online and the way in which Quality Online helped them to realise their wishes: "We already felt we could do a lot with the old system, which was based on Lotus Domino from Quality Online, but the Quality Online consultant helped us wonderfully to formulate our wishes and to translate these into the new possibilities of the software." Now the Netherlands, France and Brazil work with the system, and implementation in other countries is planned. 

Tri-Sure and Tab-Seal are registered trademarks of Tri-Sure Closures.