Start small. Escalate only if the first piece of work earns it.
Two tiers, sequenced deliberately. The first is designed to be an easy decision and to tell you quickly whether the landscape holds what you need. The second is where the real qualification work happens.
Capability Landscape
2–3 weeks- Requirement definition workshop
- 10–15 manufacturers screened against your requirement
- Desk and telephone evidence collection, L0/L1
- Structured comparison with evidence levels stated
- Gaps identified explicitly, including where evidence runs out
- Shortlist of 3–5, with the reasoning shown
Fixed scope and fee, agreed in writing before work begins.
Qualification Engagement
6–10 weeks- Everything in C1
- L2 verification on the shortlist — technical interviews, document assessment, machine-level confirmation
- L3 physical verification where scoped
- Risk and gap analysis against your specific requirement
- Full qualification report with per-claim findings
- Introduction to selected manufacturers, included at no separate fee
Scoped to manufacturer count and site-visit requirements. Fee agreed in writing before work begins.
What actually happens, in order.
1 · We pin down the requirement
Structure, barrier spec, format, volume, target market, regulatory constraints, timeline. Most qualification failures trace back to a requirement that was never written down precisely enough to test against.
2 · We agree the scope in writing
What we will investigate, to what verification level, and what we will not. That document is reproduced on the final report so nobody is later surprised by its boundaries.
3 · We collect and grade evidence
Declarations, documents, press manufacturer references, certificates, technical interviews, and where scoped, physical inspection. Each claim gets its source, date, method and level recorded as we go.
4 · We reconcile and report
Conflicting evidence is resolved to a current-state answer with a confidence value and a visible reconciliation path. Unresolved claims stay marked unresolved.
5 · We make introductions, if you want them
Included in the engagement fee. We take nothing from the manufacturer, before or after, which is why we have no stake in which one you choose.
When this is worth doing — and when it is not.
Worth a conversation
- You need additional or alternative Asian flexible packaging capacity
- The capability is genuinely difficult to verify and universally claimed
- You lack in-house technical sourcing capacity for the work
- A wrong choice would cost you materially in trials, delay or rework
Probably not us
- You want the cheapest quote rather than the right capability
- You already run a qualification function with audit budget
- You need a certificate for compliance rather than a decision
- The requirement is commodity work any converter could take
We would rather tell you at the first call that this is not work we can usefully help with than take an engagement that will not repay it.