Christmas, a very special holiday celebrated all around the world, a sacred time spent with family and friends, houses adorned with traditional decorations and illuminated in a splendor of colors, all leading up to the childlike anticipation of Christmas day, the gifts, the food and the wine!
While it may still be quite a few months off for most people, it is now that time of year when suppliers and retailers the world over begin their arduous preparations for the very busy festive season ahead, starting with none other than the hallowed Christmas tree.
In 2015, 12.5 million artificial Christmas trees were purchased in the US alone at a 
purchase price of $69.38 each, resulting in revenues totaling $854 million for manufacturers in that short period. As a holiday that approximately 2 billion people around the world celebrate, the market for Christmas and these trees is undeniably massive, not to mention the powerful potential for profits it promises.
But, what happens when things go wrong on the production line?
Between 2010 and 2014 fire fighters responded to an annual average of 200 homes that were reported to be on fire or burnt down in the US alone due to fires started by Christmas trees with a total damage of $16.2 million. Fires started by malfunctions in artificial trees highlight the critical importance of strict quality control measures needed in place during and after production, from the lighting within the tree, the temperatures they produce to the types of plastic that is used to manufacture the tree.
Can your company stand to lose millions because of negligence in the QC process? What about the implications brought about from families that lose their homes or worse?
Preventing unnecessary damages and losses before they happen should be at the top your Christmas wish list. In this blog post we talk to Francois Deudon, CEO of Asia Pacific Inspection, as we seek to understand the technicalities that go into the making of Christmas trees and the essential QC procedures/tests involved in the production of these products, helping to ensure a safer, happier and more ‘festive’ festive season for us all…
Q: What are some of the challenges involved in the manufacturing of Christmas trees in terms of quality?
A: One of greatest challenges is ensuring that each branch is able to comply with the NFS 54200 / Decree 2003-1123 without any accessible sharp points. In order to comply with this requirement, an industrial practice of bending the end wire of each branch to prevent any accessible sharp points. Many Christmas trees contain hundreds of branches, so the quality control of suppliers plays a significant role so as to manage the potential risks.
Q: One of the biggest concerns that consumers have is the PVC content of an artificial tree – How do quality procedures overcome this kind of challenge?
A: The quality control involved from the design stage to the mass production stage is needed to manage this concern. In the design stage, a client will instruct the supplier that only qualified raw materials should be used to create this product. In the pre-production stage, raw materials or products should be submitted for testing to ensure that these qualified materials are used. Suppliers should not only use these qualified materials; but they should also be able to avoid contamination during the production process. The clients should then assess the chemical management system of the factory, when they choose a supplier. After the production is completed, the client could then appoint a third party company to pick a sample from the mass production for chemical testing to ensure only qualified materials are being used for production and that there is no chemical contamination.
Q: Are suppliers more aware of the raw material and construction of trees that need to comply to strict 
international regulation?
A: The more experienced a supplier is the better he will understand the regulations of any given country. Here it will be the retailer or the importer’s responsibility to choose an appropriate supplier. This can be done through a technical audit, which could help measure the capability and capacity of suppliers, providing valuable information when choosing suppliers.
Q: Do you think stricter quality control or inspection measures can help reduce the amount of fires that are started each year due to artificial Christmas trees? How so?
A: Yes, the testing on mass production products will assess the flammability of artificial Christmas trees. It could also avoid unauthorized change of the materials during this mass production process.
Q: What quality tests are absolutely essential before shipping Christmas trees off to various distributors?
A: The flammability test, the sharp point sharp edge test and the REACH test are absolutely essential before shipping to any distributors.
Conclusion
While retailers and importers across the globe are preparing for all the holiday joys, what we have learnt is that it will be important to select the correct supplier, based on previous testing records or it may even be important to consider an audit that will help identify any procedural risks early on, as the scope of the festive season is too big to cut any corners as any faults of failure will have the potential to lose you millions. The various Christmas tree testing procedures will be important to ensuring that the festive season will be a safe and happy one all round.
Let’s take a look at what Walmart did; They created what they call the Sustainability Index, which is essentially a scorecard for suppliers to be reported on from various social and environmental production factors.
Walmart has said that by the end of 2017 that 70% of its products will come from suppliers who participate through this Index, and as a benefits they will be endorsed as a sustainable partner and proud Walmart supplier.
Solutions
Supply chain compliance is an important issue to address, with many local retail brands realising that compliance needs to be a top priority to be achieved in order to achieve a globally competitive advantage in the market.
So how do we go about achieving just that?
1. Supply chain visibility – This refers to the data visibility made available within your supply chain; from where your raw materials come from, to your factory’s technical operations right through to your 
with efficient quality procedures. They are also up to date with the latest developments in the industry along with the best practices to follow. As a result, you have all the expertise and 
The purchasing department of any organization has many functions from procurement of raw materials all the way through to the load testing of various household goods through to policy compliance. Each of these components requires the leadership and technical skill and know-how of a quality manager to ensure the entire procedure is run effectively and according to set 
– Every brand strives to increase their credibility within the global market, this standard can help you maintain that competitive advantage, as suppliers who have this standard are often selected over and above those who do not.
2. Improvement of customer satisfaction – At its very core this standard is about the improvement of customer satisfaction, through thorough planning and efficient implementation where the end user is satisfied with the functionality, quality of the product to the way in which it was delivered.
3. Better process integration – By understanding and analyzing your processes you will clearly be able to find improvements that need to be made. These are based on hard that is collected to make these improvements to your procedures.
4. Improve your evidence for decision making – Evidence-based decision-making is based on hard data. Decisions can then be made based on data which can allow for proper allocation of resources and in turn having cost benefits for your brand.
5. Create a continual improvement culture – By instilling a continuous improvement cycle within your buying office, you will not only increase your outputs, but also the quality and standard of your procedures and end product, and also creating that customer satisfaction.
A Quality Management system is essential to ensuring 
2. Strategic partnerships
3. Inventory management tactics
Managing inventory is all about balance. Making sure that you don’t have too much inventory thus face the risk of increased storage costs and a longer time to market having an effect on your return. You also need to make sure you don’t have too little inventory forcing people to shop elsewhere for a similar product. Both sides of the equation can have detrimental effects for your brand. Here we look at two inventory management tactics that are applied by two of the biggest global retailers:
4. Quality Control
they need products. You may find yourself at a loss with a delivery delay. Contingency plans are essential to ensuring your product gets to market. A 
1.Risk Management – Global brands take every procedure into account when understanding possible areas of risk. From sourcing to logistics to inventory management, each of these areas affects one another. If there is a problem with sourcing, it inadvertently affects the logistics of the entire operation. Therefore a brand such as Amazon needs to have a Risk Mitigation strategy that spans the entire operation.
Miller is seen as instrumental in paving the way with greening the supply chain from using a green design for their products, to ensuring they use less harmful chemicals within the products. The only way they were able to do this was through gaining supplier buy-in. They asked their suppliers to begin complying with the zero-waste policies within their procedures.
effectively manage their supply chains. Regionally there is the thought that this may be too expensive to apply. When it comes to technology, it is too easy to jump to the first software you find. It is essential to understand what you need technology to do for you, so that you may select the type of technology that is best suited to your needs. By doing this, you are ensuring that this is not overly costly for you and maximizes its efficiency for you.
If we take a look at Targets mistake of launching the toddler sized Barbie SUV country-wide, the problem they faced was that their distribution centers were receiving inventory faster than they were distributing it to stores across the country. This meant that there were Target stores that had empty shelves with none of the promised items in store. They attributed this to inconsistencies between actual inventory and the computer records. A mistake like this will have cost millions in revenue loss, but also detrimental to both Target and Barbie. As a supply chain manager, it is up to you to ensure you suppliers and distribution centers operate on the same system to mitigate risks like this occurring.
