When things don’t go right

I like to think that Mont Blanc Gourmet is a terrific partner and supplier to our customers. And most of them would agree. Unfortunately, now and then things happen and we just can’t live up to the standards we both expect. We have just finished one such situation, one of the most frustrating projects we have ever undertaken. 

Mont Blanc Gourmet was asked by one of our customers to develop two new fruit-based flavors to be used in their summer drinks. Samples of both flavors, Mango and Berry Pomegranate, were sent to our customer and we finally received approval to produce them both. The product was going to be packed in a different bottle than we usually use for our sauces, so we got samples and had those approved by the plant and the customer. Our customer wanted to be kept apprised of our progress, so we scheduled a weekly conference call between Mont Blanc Gourmet and their team. In addition, email updates were sent whenever anything of significance developed. Things were proceeding normally and we ordered ingredients and scheduled a test run. 

Who knew that mango puree would be so difficult to find! We contacted the supplier, only to discover that the samples we had been using were from a crop in Asia that they did not have enough of for our needs. They sent samples of another mango puree, but it didn’t taste the same. The third puree worked in our blend, so we made samples, sent them to the customer, received approval, and finally placed an order for a mango puree from India that everyone preferred.  

We ordered the bottles from the manufacturer and arranged for delivery to the plant. Because this is a fruit product, we were going to hot fill the bottles and then cool them down quickly to make sure the fruit didn’t overcook. And in order to eliminate paneling, we purchased a heavier weight bottle. Paneling happens when a hot product is filled in a plastic container and then sealed. The sides of the jar suck in because the high temperature creates a vacuum inside the bottle. It doesn’t look attractive, but fortunately doesn’t affect the product. However, with a customized heavier bottle, we felt we could eliminate that problem and deliver a better-looking package. We sent a sample of the bottle to our customer so they could see the heavier bottle and approve it, and then ordered bottles from the supplier.

The day of the test run, we had both our director of Quality Assurance (QA) and Research & Development (R&D) at the plant overseeing production. Whenever we make a new product for the first time it is important that we have people from our company watching the process. The product was blended and then hot filled in the bottles, and the first problem manifested itself. The plant was unable to properly tighten the caps on the bottles causing the bottles to leak. Fortunately this was only a test run, but the results were discouraging. Upon inspection, it was discovered that the bottle manufacturer had not made the bottles correctly, and had shipped thousands of defective bottles to the plant. We had to order more bottles, and expedite their delivery in order to fill the order to meet our customer’s launch date. Another long conference call with our customer ensued where we discussed the problems and laid out our plans for the next run including how we were going to attempt to solve them. 

New bottles were ordered and shipped to the plant, production was scheduled, and again our director of QA was present. This time the bottles could close properly, and the finished cases were placed in the cooler to reduce temperature. Random inspections showed that there was no paneling of the bottles, and QA testing showed that the product tasted great. The product was immediately shipped to the customer for their launch, and we breathed a sigh of relief that the production had gone so well. And then the phone rang. Terrible news. The bottles were leaking again. 

We tested samples from the run, trying to determine the cause of the leak. The bottles were okay, and the caps were on tight. The focus was soon on the induction seal, the silver tamper proof lid under the cap that seals the mouth of the bottle. It was the cause of the leak, but during production and coming off of the production line there had been no signs of leaking. In fact, bottles had been picked up and squeezed after they were filled and nothing came out. This was puzzling. The bottles were good. The caps were good. The bottles were sealed as they came off the line. It didn’t make any sense. How could bottles that were perfectly sealed when coming off of the production line be leaking days later? Then we considered the refrigeration. Once the bottles were filled, they were placed in the cooler to lower the temperature of the fruit inside. And the change in temperature seemed to be affecting the seals. We tested the hypothesis at the production plant by doing another test and sure enough found a higher failure rate among the product that was cooled as opposed to the product that was left at ambient temperature. Having figured out the problem, it was time to make more. The good news was that the new drink was selling very well. The bad news was that they were running out of fruit puree. We scrambled again to schedule yet another production. And this time I was on a flight with members of my team to visit our customer and give them the bad news in person. We spent several hours explaining everything, and again laid out next steps. We knew they were getting frustrated, but we were trying everything we could to fix the unexpected issues that kept popping up. We were running out of chances, but we tried again. And finally, it went smoothly. We had one bottle leak out of a total of 3,000 bottles. High fives went all around in our office, and this time the conference call was easy. Everyone was pleased.

It has been a long six months since we began this project, with unexpected problems arising at every turn. Vendors didn’t have the right kind of fruit. The bottle supplier shipped defective bottles. The cooling process caused the bottles to leak. It has been an arduous process of elimination, resulting in massive frustration for us, our manufacturer and worst of all, our customer. I’m glad it finally turned out for the best, and everyone is pleased with the finished product, but it certainly wasn’t easy. Just goes to show that sometimes, despite everyone’s best efforts, things don’t always turn out the way they are supposed to.