Management approach
Material topic: Product assurance
Importance for Lenzing
- Impact on user health and safety along the value chain
- Product responsibility and customer satisfaction are key to the Lenzing Group’s long-term success and business growth
Opportunities
- Leading the market in terms of best product consistency, application performance, and service
- Achieving business and sustainability targets by monitoring and improving manufacturing processes
Risks
- Impact on health and safety of users
- Losing market position due to increasing competition or new technologies
Guiding principles
- Lenzing’s sCore TEN strategy
- Group Policy for Safety, Health and Environment
- Lenzing Group’s ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, ISO 45001:2018 certifications
- Global Code of Business Conduct
- Global Supplier Code of Conduct
- Clean and Hygiene Guideline
Due diligence processes and (ongoing) measures
- QESH process management including risk assessments and internal audits to ensure the effectiveness of the measures and standards implemented
- Certification management (e.g. Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX®, food contact compliance, etc).
- Continuous monitoring, interpretation and foreseeing the impact of business-specific regulations and requirements, new certifications and standards requirements depending on the applications of the products and the customers by Global Product Safety & Regulatory
- Ingredient risk analysis and regulatory compliance management in Lenzing products throughout the product lifecycle
- Product claim verification and support of new product claims validation
- Introduction of product technical validation protocol for new product lines
- Development of holistic Management of Change (MoC) process
- Introduction of customer satisfaction survey tooling and process
Objectives
- Quality leadership
- Strengthening specialty/premium fiber sales, sales of pulp, biorefinery and co-products business
Achievements/activities in the reporting year
- Collaboration along the entire value chain to support customers and brands
- Roll-out of the Clean and Hygiene guideline across all sites
- Creation of a new role in the Global Technical Marketing department as a point of contact on sustainability issues along the textile value chain
- Roll-out of automated quality performance reports and visualizations providing real-time information to the Lenzing community
- Performed formal compliance reviews and risk assessments for the certification portfolio and ingredients
- Maintained and improved company-wide regulatory standards and procedures
- Optimization of customer service processes to improve the customer experience
Responsible
- Global QESH
- Global Technical Marketing and Development
Supporting
- Global Business Management (Textiles and Nonwovens)
- Global Business Management (Pulp and Wood)
- Global Engineering
- Performance.Improvement.Technology
- Global Technical Marketing Development
- Research & Development
- Customer Service
Lenzing operates a quality management system based on ISO 9001:2015. It forms the basis for all work processes and reinforces efforts to achieve complete customer satisfaction.
All Lenzing fiber products undergo health and safety testing. However, the ultimate responsibility for consumer health is borne by the companies that manufacture finished products from Lenzing fibers.
The Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs team (part of Global Quality Environment Safety and Health) ensures that raw materials incorporated into final products are thoroughly checked and are appropriate for the specific application.
Product Safety and Regulatory Affairs ensures that Lenzing is up to date with changes to applicable standards and regulations. The classification (Classification, Labeling and Packaging, CLP Regulation) of titanium dioxide powder, which is used as a dulling agent in some fibers, was communicated to Lenzing’s nonwoven customers in order to discuss the potential need for product changes. Various external factors prevented the continuation of the activities reported in last year’s sustainability report to transition all the remaining fiber finish components from animal to vegetable origins.
Quality improvements
Lenzing has continued to achieve major quality improvements in the reporting year, including significant improvements to spinning faults and contaminations in Lenzing’s Lyocell and Viscose factories. COVID-19-related disruptions and pulp availability challenges continued to have an impact on the quality performance of some factories which could not maintain the 2020 quality performance. Nevertheless, a net improvement on quality performance is achieved and is reflected in the quality-related KPIs for the entire group.
In 2021, the total number of complaints for the fiber business was lower indicating the effectiveness of the quality improvements implemented in both product and service quality areas. Lenzing is confident that all of its products perform well in their respective applications.
As a follow-up to the Heartbeat for Quality initiative, a new Fiber Quality strategic initiative was launched with a broader scope, building further on the material and production quality improvements, initiating projects focusing on service quality and customer intimacy, and activities that further strengthen the quality and process-driven mindset of the organization. The approach followed is based on redesigning and introducing internal systems and processes. The first designs were completed in the reporting year, with the full strategy implementation scheduled for 2022. One example is the updated Event Action Reporting (EAR) system, which is being introduced to all production lines, enabling the real-time monitoring of loss situations and cross-communication of common root causes across the operational network to prevent incident reoccurrence. The reporting system operates as an information source and supports the definition of quality improvement opportunities. In addition to the reporting system, detailed information is generated on the incidents, automated reports, and visualizations, providing real-time monitoring of quality performance.
Third-party certifications for LENZING™ fibers
The STANDARD 100 by OEKO-TEX®, Annex 6, certification confirms that LENZING™ fibers have been tested for numerous regulated and non-regulated harmful substances and are therefore harmless to human health. By monitoring raw materials and production processes, Lenzing ensures that its fibers comply with all relevant regulations, guidelines, and standards. LENZING™ standard nonwoven fibers are certified for food-contact applications under European and U.S. regulations. Lenzing uses external third-party certifications to prove the compatibility of its products in their fields of application. Information on all the Lenzing Group’s product certifications are available at: https://www.lenzing.com/sustainability/external-recognition
