Raising the Bar

QCA is a very serious organization run by a very serious lady, Dee (Denise) Fenton. She is the executive director [and] we were fortunate to have her join and run QCA. She is extremely knowledgeable in this business. She is extremely knowledgeable in all the different aspects of manufacturing. Her career is highlighted by authoring, setting up and running Wal-Mart's product and social compliance program out in the Far East. So we've got a great leader, she understands the mission and she's taken it as a personal goal that this is going to work.

TG: And she's tough. She's rejected two of our SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) already and made ... my staff rewrite them.

PM: So what is it that they are looking for? Product safety, social responsibility? ...

AE: It's five parts. Product quality, product safety, social compliance, environmental stewardship and supply-chain safety. The overall basis of the self-assessment is [to ask the questions]: "Do you have policies in place?" and "Do you have ways to enforce those policies?" It's very intensive.

TG: ... It's not just about having a policy in place and saying, "Well, now we have a policy in place." ... It's about having the structures in place—you have to have the checks and balances. That's what is being audited, that you adhere to those checks and balances and not allow [bad] product to come in.

AE: All of this is process-oriented. The mission of the alliance is not to outline what is a good quality bag, or what is a good quality T-shirt. The mission is to make sure the processes and procedures are in place. So whether you're making a bag and I'm making a T-shirt, do we both have processes in place to make sure the quality we set in [manufacturing is being met]? Does the product comply with federal safety regulations? That's what is great about this, it isn't product-specific, it's process- and procedural-specific.