The power of brand promise built on quality control and assurance

Product marketing is central to the success of cosmetics and personal care companies. Exploring new and innovative technologies to deliver to the ever-savvy consumer has become a necessity. Furthermore, the pandemic has resulted in consumers’ heightened awareness of the quality, safety and efficacy of products. Dershana Jackison, head of policy and regulatory affairs at CTFA, unpacks the distinct and separate roles of quality control and quality assurance and how both their functions are essential to cosmetics manufacturing.

In August 2020, Accenture reported on new consumer research, which the consultancy had been conducting fortnightly since March 2020. The data indicates that “habits formed during the crisis will endure well beyond it, permanently changing values, attitudes and behaviour”. Accenture also reported that 67% of consumers have “high expectations of medium and large businesses to act responsibly, supporting employees and addressing major social and environmental issues”.1

These studies provide a window into the pre-requisites for the future success of cosmetic brands. It begins with understanding the role of every tier of the product manufacturing value chain and how each tier ensures all products introduced to market are successful, safe and efficacious.

The golden keys to unlock the delivery of consistent product quality without compromising on innovation and trends are quality control and quality assurance coupled with good manufacturing practices (GMP). Whilst quality control and quality assurance guarantee the quality and safety aspects of a product, GMP supports product safety during manufacturing, storage and despatch. At this juncture, it is necessary to mention that a product safety assessment is integral to the final safety assurance, however for the purpose of this article only the mentioned processes will be discussed.

Did you know?

CTFA offers a two-day intensive cosmetic GMP training programme for members of the cosmetics industry. Please send an email to info@ctfa.co.za for more information on the association’s training calendar for 2022.

THE QUALITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

The product value chain can be thought of as a series of activities, which form a process flow from ingredient and component sourcing to processing and final product packing and despatch. The framework within which this process occurs is defined by a quality management system, which includes specific controls, tests and standard operating procedures.

ISO 9001:2015, published by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO), is an industry accepted international standard and excellent tool for the implementation of a quality management system that will enhance your value chain irrespective of the size of your business. It enables a company to:

• demonstrate its ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements

• enhance customer satisfaction through the effective application of the system, including processes for system improvements and the assurance of conformity to customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements.2

On a broad and practical level, a quality management system guides the content of standard operating procedures, identification of critical control points and corrective and preventative decision-making.

Ideally, the functions of quality control and quality assurance should be separate and these usually function as two separate departments within a company. Their roles are quite different and specific. The quality control department is responsible for testing while the quality assurance department functions in a policing capacity. It is also the quality assurance department that is responsible for the implementation of the quality management system and GMP.

WHAT IS QUALITY CONTROL TESTING?

Quality control testing functions to ensure that the material or product being tested meets pre-determined quality specifications. This includes the testing of incoming materials, in-process product, final bulk product and finished products.

Adequately qualified and trained laboratory technicians are required to perform this function. Specifications can be obtained from suppliers and the research and development department responsible for product development. Quality control testing also extends to the testing of deionised water used to manufacture consumer products and specifications are determined as per the relevant Pharmacopeia.

Quality control testing provides a snap-shot of quality compliance by virtue of physical, chemical and microbiological properties of the sample being tested. For this reason, it is important that samples taken for testing are representative of the batch and that sampling staff are adequately trained on the sampling process. Errors may potentially lead to false negative results or worse – such as contamination of the entire container or batch.

WHAT IS QUALITY ASSURANCE?

Quality assurance (QA) is the process that involves the inspection of every tier of the value chain for compliance to specific and detailed standard operating procedures relevant to that process. This compliance assures the consistent quality of the product.

These include receiving checks, in-process logs, cleaning and sanitisation records, quality control records, internal audit reports, corrective and preventative action records, customer complaint records, etc.

Just as consistent product quality is imperative to a brand’s success, product safety is a regulatory responsibility paramount to a brand’s reputation

WHERE DOES GMP FIT IN?

Just as consistent product quality is imperative to a brand’s success, product safety is a regulatory responsibility paramount to a brand’s reputation. ISO 22716:2017 Cosmetic Good Manufacturing Practices is an accepted international standard used by the cosmetics industry. According to ISO, it provides a guideline to the “production, control, storage and shipment of cosmetic products”.

A company can implement the principles outlined in this standard to ensure product safety and as such proactively comply with the GMP requirement of the National Department of Health’s draft Regulations relating to labelling, advertising and composition of cosmetics, R.1469, 22 December 2017.

There are several key performance indicators (KPIs) to gauge the successful implementation of the standard. These indicators are also useful for tangibly realising your company’s return on investment in human resources and other costs for such an implementation. These include the rejection rate, non-conformance rate and number of customer complaints over a period of time.

These KPIs can be monitored through internal audits carried out by QA staff. The finding of such an audit is two-fold. Firstly, it determines whether the implementation is successful and secondly, perhaps more importantly, it provides an opportunity for continuous improvement – the ultimate goal of every aspiring manufacturing facility.

Companies can utilise the framework provided by the mentioned standards to address peripheral requirements that require integration into the product manufacturing process, such as environmental and social responsibility. Standard operating procedures can be developed to support the qualification of suppliers based on their commitments to these requirements.

Another example is to include the company’s waste management programme in the standard operating procedures and to introduce controls to ensure successful implementation. •

REFERENCES:

1. www.accenture.com/za-en/insights/retail/coronavirus-consumer-habits

2. www.iso.org/standard/62085.html

3. www.iso.org/standard/36437.html

CTFA– www.ctfa.co.za