Tobacco Industry Experience

Manufacturer of Cigarette Filters, UK.
Design, documentation and implementation of ISO.9002: 1994 Quality Management Systems in an international cigarette filter manufacturer resulting in successful certification by BSI at the completion of the program and continuous reductions in scrap and waste. Significant imoprovements were made to customer complaint handling procedures, especially root cause analysis and corrective/preventive action systems.

Cigarette Manufacturer, UK.
Development and documentation of ISO.9001: 1994 Quality Management Systems to satisfy NAMAS Guide 25 and the relevant requirements of Good Lab Practice, GLP, in the corporate analytical laboratory and R&D department of an international cigarette manufacturer. Laboratory test methods were simplified and standardised over the entire company to enable compliance audits and inter company correlation exercises to be effectively carried out.

Flavor and Fragrance Supplier, NJ.
Review and audit of the Quality Systems of the principal US manufacturing site of an international supplier of flavors to the tobacco and cigarette industry. Audits to HACCP and ISO.9001 standards included customer service, order entry, production planning, purchasing, process control, QC, QA, calibration, maintenance, storage, shipping and training procedures. Final report included analysis of strengths and weakneses and positive recommended actions to improve the effectiveness of the Quality Management Systems.

Plastics Films Manufacturer, UK & USA.
Documentation and implementation of Corporate Quality Policies and "best practices" of a plastic films supplier to the cigarette industry, leading to successful ISO.9001 registration in several different locations, followed by continuous quality improvement and cost reduction programs by interdisciplinary teams (using performance measurement and problems solving techniques, Quality Costing, SPC, Balanced Scorecards, Business Excellence Model Assessment and Six Sigma).

Machine and Test Equipment Manufacturer, UK.
Design, development and implementation of Business Excellence Model and ISO.9001:2000 Quality Systems in a major international precision engineering company supplying machinery and test equipment to high quality standards to the cigarette and tobacco industry. Significant improvements were made to the design, sales enquiry, contract review and order entry (especially late changes) procedures, resulting in less rework and better response to customer requirements. Developed and carried out global customer opinion surveys, the results of which were used to formulate and prioritise formal Quality Improvement Programs, using interdisciplinary problem solving teams, leading to enhanced customer satisfaction ratings in fhe following year .

TMA/TI ISO.9000 in the Tobacco Industry Seminar, Charlotte, NC,USA.
Design and presentation of a 3 day training seminar for over 30 delegates from US, China, Europe, and Asia to explain how to implement ISO.9000 and other Quality Improvement Programs in the Tobacco and associated industries to gain business benefits, particularly cost reduction, better productivity and enhanced customer opinion ratings. Invited Quality Management professionals from various clients to give their experiences of introducing ISO.9001 into their companies, including a major Cigarette Manufacturer from Germany, a leading Filter Manufacturer from North Carolina, a Tobacco Dryer Manufacturer from New Jersey and world famous Cigarette Paper Manufacturers from Austria & Indonesia.

Cigarette Manufacturer, Canada.
Development, documentation and successful implementation of ISO.17025 Quality Systems for calibration and validation of laboratory equipment in the corporate analytical, smoking and product development laboratories of an international cigarette manufacturer.

Tobacco Leaf Processor, USA and Brazil.
Development and documentation of simple, non.bureaucratic ISO.9000 Quality Systems and cGMP procedures in several manufacturing plants of an international tobacco leaf processor to reduce production costs, improve the reliability of production processes and the efficiency of customer service procedures. Electronic document control systems were implemented using simple, secure software and password controls for writing, updating and approving changes to policies, operating procedures, work instructions and test methods.

Cigarette Manufacturer, North Carolina.
Provided ISO.9001:2000 training to assist the client implement simple, results oriented Quality Systems in the Primary, Manufacturing and Distrbution Departments of an expanding cigarette manufacturer. Also, carried out Six Sigma and Lean Manufacturing training on Statistical Techniques including Process Capability Measurement, Quality Costing and Customer Satisfaction Measurement Training courses to all key employees.

Cigar Manufacturer, Georgia.
Carried out Balanced Scorecard training to create a Quality Performance Measurement Scorecard and ISO.9001:2000 Quality System audits in ten different departments of a major international cigar manufacturer and gave management a detailed report itemising non-conformances and giving recommendations for improvement.

General Note.
Quality Quest consultants have worked in more than 30 countries, with over 200 clients, many of whom are international companies operating within the Tobacco, Cigarette and associated industries. Since the company was founded in 1983, we have never advertised and get all our consultancy and training work from personal recommendations.