Berlin Packaging (berlinpackaging.com), a leading full-service supplier of plastic, glass, and metal containers and closures, announced an industry-first Quality Service Division dedicated to helping customers reduce waste, improve operational efficiency, and strengthen quality systems. The new service is the latest in a series of value-added offerings – including package design, equipment financing, profit consulting, and international sourcing – designed to assist customers in bolstering their net income. All of these services are provided free of charge in exchange for new packaging business.

“We have built Berlin Packaging into a $1.4 billion company in part because we offer services to help customers grow their bottom lines and their businesses overall. Our new Quality Service Division adds to that powerful suite of services,” says Andrew Berlin, chairman and CEO of Berlin Packaging. “We have been focused on quality since our inception and have been ISO Certified since 2004, but as we’ve helped more and more customers proactively improve their own quality systems, it made sense to establish this capability as its own division. This approach is unique in the packaging industry and a new way for us to thrill our customers.”

Staffed by a dedicated team of quality experts, the new division can identify weaknesses in customer processes, help establish quality systems to resolve them, and aid in proactive planning to prevent quality problems before they happen. Capabilities include lean manufacturing assessment, kaizen event facilitation, specification development, and a host of industry-specific coaching, assessments, and applications that can be tailored to a specific customer. The team also has an on-site laboratory to assist with product assessments and system design.

One customer in the food industry, for example, used Berlin’s quality consulting to eliminate expensive manufacturing process bottlenecks in the operations of a recently acquired company. Berlin’s Quality Service Division team helped the customer minimize line downtime and reduce handling costs for rejects as well as other unnecessary production expenses by conducting a process flow analysis, a space-utilization evaluation, and a tutorial on filling requirements for the acquired company’s products.

“Relatively few companies have the in-house expertise to diagnose and correct production problems and operational inefficiencies that eat into profits, let alone to work proactively and hone the overall quality system. Our Quality Services Division steps into the breach, serving as a quality advocate for our customers,” says Bryan MacKenzie, director of quality at Berlin Packaging. “This is as important in helping customers build profitability and competitive advantage as putting their products in the perfect package. We help our customers do both.”