The client had launched a new product line into rising demand, and volume was outpacing the processes meant to carry it. Product moved a long way before it reached a customer: from raw materials, through a co-packing operation, and into customer distribution centers. At point after point along that path, quality was failing.
A ready-to-drink beverage contract manufacturer lifted outbound first-pass quality from 49% to a sustained 70% within four weeks, a 43% improvement, by building the inspection control it never had as a new product line outran its own processes.
Ready-to-Drink Beverage Contract Manufacturer
Results at a Glance
43%
First-Pass Quality Improvement
16
Critical Inspection Points
Executive Brief
A new product line was scaling faster than the processes meant to support it, and quality was failing at multiple points as product moved from raw materials through a co-packing operation and into customer distribution centers. Over a 14-week DMAIC engagement, POWERS defined 16 critical inspection points across the end-to-end flow, redesigned the cardboard packaging and standardized load patterns to cut transit damage, aligned the manufacturer with its co-packer and customer through structured feedback loops, and embedded the controls into a reinforced quality management system. Outbound loads passing first-pass quality climbed from 49% to a sustained 70% average within four weeks, a 43% improvement, damaged goods reaching distribution centers fell significantly, and the operation gained a scalable quality system documented against a gold standard for future co-packers.
The Situation
Demand for a new product line was rising faster than the processes built to support it, and quality was breaking at every handoff from raw materials to the customer dock.
The client had launched a new product line into rising demand, and volume was outpacing the processes meant to carry it. Product moved a long way before it reached a customer: from raw materials, through a co-packing operation, and into customer distribution centers. At point after point along that path, quality was failing.
The deeper problem was a lack of control rather than a single defect. There was no end-to-end visibility into where quality was being lost, and the issues were not isolated; a structured review surfaced more than 100 discrete problems spanning inadequate production-line checks, no formal inbound inspection from the co-packer, no outbound load inspection before shipment, insufficient cardboard strength and packaging design, poor load patterns and inconsistent dunnage, and limited feedback between the manufacturer, the co-packer, and the customer. Defects compounded across handoffs because nothing was catching them before they moved downstream.
Leadership needed three things at once: end-to-end visibility into where product was failing, immediate containment of the losses, and a scalable system that could absorb the volume growth ahead rather than a one-time cleanup that would erode the moment demand climbed again.
The Diagnosis
Six structural gaps producing the same outcome from six directions.
No quality checks on the line
Production-line quality checks were inadequate, so defects originated and passed unnoticed at the source before product ever moved downstream.
No inbound inspection from the co-packer
There was no formal inbound inspection process for product arriving from the co-packer, leaving defects introduced upstream undetected on receipt.
No outbound load inspection
Loads shipped without any outbound inspection prior to leaving the dock, so quality failures left the building unchecked and reached the customer.
Packaging too weak to protect the product
Insufficient cardboard strength and packaging design left the product base unsupported, allowing damage to occur in handling and transit.
Loads built to shift in transit
Poor load patterns and inconsistent use of dunnage let product shift on the move, driving damaged goods into customer distribution centers.
No feedback loop across partners
Limited feedback between the manufacturer, the co-packer, and the customer meant problems were not surfaced or owned, so the same failures recurred.
What POWERS Did
Built end-to-end quality control that scales with volume.
POWERS ran the engagement on the DMAIC framework and attacked the failure points in parallel. On process control and inspection, the team defined and implemented 16 critical inspection points across the end-to-end process, developed SOPs and trained teams at each control point, and built structured inbound and outbound auditing so defects were caught at the source, on receipt from the co-packer, and again before any load shipped.
On packaging and load optimization, the cardboard packaging was redesigned to reinforce the product base, standardized load patterns were established, and forklift operators were trained to build loads consistently. Together these changes reduced load shifting and cut the transit damage that had been reaching customer distribution centers. In parallel, supplier and partner alignment brought the manufacturer, co-packer, and customer into working sessions, with structured feedback loops installed to create accountability across the handoffs that had previously been blind to one another.
To make the gains durable, POWERS reinforced the quality system itself: mapping the full process flow, embedding the inspection points into the quality management system, and developing a documented gold standard that defines the minimum operational and quality requirements for future co-packers. The cumulative effect was a single connected control system across raw materials, co-packing, and distribution, one designed to hold as volume continues to grow rather than to patch the problem once.
The Full Result
Two results that stabilized quality and stood up a system built to scale with volume.
43%
First-Pass Quality Improvement
Outbound loads passing first-pass quality rose from 49% to a sustained 70% average within four weeks as the new inspection control points and audits caught defects before shipment instead of after.
16
Critical Inspection Points
Defined and embedded end to end, from production through inbound and outbound auditing, giving an operation that had been running blind a control system across every handoff.
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MOS · Supply Chain
A ready-to-drink beverage contract manufacturer lifted outbound first-pass quality from 49% to a sustained 70% within four weeks, a 43% improvement, by building the inspection control it never had as a new product line outran its own processes.
Ready-to-Drink Beverage Contract Manufacturer
Executive Brief
A new product line was scaling faster than the processes meant to support it, and quality was failing at multiple points as product moved from raw materials through a co-packing operation and into customer distribution centers. Over a 14-week DMAIC engagement, POWERS defined 16 critical inspection points across the end-to-end flow, redesigned the cardboard packaging and standardized load patterns to cut transit damage, aligned the manufacturer with its co-packer and customer through structured feedback loops, and embedded the controls into a reinforced quality management system. Outbound loads passing first-pass quality climbed from 49% to a sustained 70% average within four weeks, a 43% improvement, damaged goods reaching distribution centers fell significantly, and the operation gained a scalable quality system documented against a gold standard for future co-packers.
Results at a Glance
43%
First-Pass Quality Improvement
16
Critical Inspection Points
The Situation
Demand for a new product line was rising faster than the processes built to support it, and quality was breaking at every handoff from raw materials to the customer dock.
The deeper problem was a lack of control rather than a single defect. There was no end-to-end visibility into where quality was being lost, and the issues were not isolated; a structured review surfaced more than 100 discrete problems spanning inadequate production-line checks, no formal inbound inspection from the co-packer, no outbound load inspection before shipment, insufficient cardboard strength and packaging design, poor load patterns and inconsistent dunnage, and limited feedback between the manufacturer, the co-packer, and the customer. Defects compounded across handoffs because nothing was catching them before they moved downstream.
Leadership needed three things at once: end-to-end visibility into where product was failing, immediate containment of the losses, and a scalable system that could absorb the volume growth ahead rather than a one-time cleanup that would erode the moment demand climbed again.
The Diagnosis
Six structural gaps producing the same outcome from six directions.
No quality checks on the line
Production-line quality checks were inadequate, so defects originated and passed unnoticed at the source before product ever moved downstream.
No inbound inspection from the co-packer
There was no formal inbound inspection process for product arriving from the co-packer, leaving defects introduced upstream undetected on receipt.
No outbound load inspection
Loads shipped without any outbound inspection prior to leaving the dock, so quality failures left the building unchecked and reached the customer.
Packaging too weak to protect the product
Insufficient cardboard strength and packaging design left the product base unsupported, allowing damage to occur in handling and transit.
Loads built to shift in transit
Poor load patterns and inconsistent use of dunnage let product shift on the move, driving damaged goods into customer distribution centers.
No feedback loop across partners
Limited feedback between the manufacturer, the co-packer, and the customer meant problems were not surfaced or owned, so the same failures recurred.
What POWERS Did
Built end-to-end quality control that scales with volume.
POWERS ran the engagement on the DMAIC framework and attacked the failure points in parallel. On process control and inspection, the team defined and implemented 16 critical inspection points across the end-to-end process, developed SOPs and trained teams at each control point, and built structured inbound and outbound auditing so defects were caught at the source, on receipt from the co-packer, and again before any load shipped.
On packaging and load optimization, the cardboard packaging was redesigned to reinforce the product base, standardized load patterns were established, and forklift operators were trained to build loads consistently. Together these changes reduced load shifting and cut the transit damage that had been reaching customer distribution centers. In parallel, supplier and partner alignment brought the manufacturer, co-packer, and customer into working sessions, with structured feedback loops installed to create accountability across the handoffs that had previously been blind to one another.
To make the gains durable, POWERS reinforced the quality system itself: mapping the full process flow, embedding the inspection points into the quality management system, and developing a documented gold standard that defines the minimum operational and quality requirements for future co-packers. The cumulative effect was a single connected control system across raw materials, co-packing, and distribution, one designed to hold as volume continues to grow rather than to patch the problem once.
The Full Result
43%
First-Pass Quality Improvement
Outbound loads passing first-pass quality rose from 49% to a sustained 70% average within four weeks as the new inspection control points and audits caught defects before shipment instead of after.
16
Critical Inspection Points
Defined and embedded end to end, from production through inbound and outbound auditing, giving an operation that had been running blind a control system across every handoff.
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