As the managing director of a company, you make a large number of decisions every day and very often set the strategic direction of your company.
The weight you attach to the topic of product compliance is an important factor in setting the course for the future and the success of the company.
Due to the multitude of legal regulations, the external sourcing of many products and components and the incredibly high speed at which new products are introduced, compliance with all legal regulations is a challenge that can hardly be met.
At the same time, authorities are paying more and more attention to stringent and complete documentation (formal product compliance) and have upgraded their technology enormously. For example, many market surveillance authorities now use small, handy XRF scanners that can detect harmful substances in products or packaging in a matter of seconds. In addition, competitors, consumer associations and warning associations pose an increasing threat to the successful marketing of our own products.
All of this leads to increasing import delays, sales bans, product recalls, fines and even criminal prosecutions - not to mention the associated claims for damages from customers and long-term damage to your image.
In our opinion, you should attach great importance to the topic of product compliance. Perhaps the following 8 tips will help you to protect yourself from the growing dangers and to set up your internal structures and processes so that you can concentrate on value-adding and profitable activities.
8 product compliance tips for managing directors
Using 3-5 important products as examples, check how well you are really positioned in the area of product compliance. The results of our Product Compliance Check show that most companies and their suppliers only fulfill 30-40% of their product compliance obligations.
Book our product compliance workshop for your company and make participation mandatory for purchasing, product management, quality management, development and management. This is the only way for the entire company to understand the complexity of product compliance requirements and the resulting tasks for the individual functional areas and departments.
Work with us to develop goals and priorities for setting up an efficient product compliance management system. Only if you establish the right processes, structures and measures from the outset will you quickly achieve the desired success and reduce the greatest risks in a short space of time.
Use specialized tools instead of egg-laying woolly mice. Product compliance management is a very specialized area of responsibility with many technical, chemical, environmental and legal issues. Standard software products such as ERP or logistics solutions do not cover these requirements or only do so suboptimally and rarely really help you.
Outsource product compliance tasks to experts. Companies often do not have the human resources to handle the demanding and complex tasks in-house. Use external service providers who can take on the majority of the tasks for you at fixed prices.
Let an external project manager manage the optimization of your product compliance management. Good product compliance management is a joint task in which research & development, product management, purchasing, quality management and often also logistics play a decisive role. Managing this joint project requires time and skills that are sometimes not available within the company. This is where interim managers can help to integrate the various departments, moderate without self-interest and improve product compliance management in the interests of the company.
Declare the topic of product compliance a top priority and make it clear to everyone involved in purchasing, research & development, product management and quality management that this is a priority. This should also be reflected in corresponding target agreements and assessment standards.
Communicate the importance of product compliance fulfillment to your suppliers and consider it as an important factor in your supplier evaluation and management systems.
