At Puritan, Quality is essentially our middle name. It’s right in our logo. And it’s been at the forefront of everything we do for more than 100 years.
But what does that mean exactly? And how do we ensure we have the highest quality products in the industry? Bharat Moorthy, our Director of Quality Systems and Regulatory Affairs provides insight on what it takes to produce the very best swabs.
Q: What is the quality process at Puritan like?
Essentially, when it comes to quality, we don’t leave anything to chance. We start by qualifying our raw materials and our supply chain to ensure the highest quality materials go into our products. Even before we make one swab, all of our equipment and processes are validated. During this important process, which can take weeks or even months we find ways to limit variation in production to ensure that we can consistently make a great product.
Once validated, we do quality control testing of the swabs coming off the line, using specialized testing, specialized equipment and highly skilled personnel. Our employees are trained and certified to conduct these processes and many others related to quality, such as how to operate a machine and how to gown up to avoid contaminating a production area.
Q: How has Puritan’s approach to quality evolved?
Quality has always been a primary focus at Puritan, and we take pride in having the highest quality products. However, we’re currently undergoing a quality transformation. Quality is becoming an even larger part of how we operate extending well beyond simply having the highest quality products. Essentially, quality is considered critical in absolutely everything we do.
Q: What are Puritan’s top priorities when it comes to quality?
Our number one goal is zero quality issues. This ensures we have satisfied customers and that the swabs used can have good outcomes, whether it’s testing for COVID-19 or collecting DNA evidence at a crime scene.
Equally important is complying with the ever-changing landscape of regulations for all industries wherever our customers do business. And from Japan to Canada, every country’s regulations are different. For example, new European regulations for medical devices are coming out this year that we’ll need to comply with. And we’re also continually looking ahead to the regulatory issues and trends that may impact us in the future.
Q: What’s unique about Puritan’s quality process?
I think we’re one of the few companies out there that inspect 100% of our products in some form or another. This helps us catch quality issues right away. And it helps ensure our customers are getting a world-class product.
Q: What do you see as your primary challenges and opportunities?
As we experience unprecedented growth during the pandemic, we are finding new ways to run the business and manage quality. For instance, we’re transitioning to more electronic ways of managing quality instead of more traditional paper-based systems.
But no matter how quickly we expand operations, our quality standards are our quality standards. As our new plants come online, we will not sell a product from that plant until it meets Puritan’s quality standards. This can be challenging because customers would like to see us produce more product more quickly. And we are scaling up as fast as we possibly can. But we are also taking the time needed to ensure we do not compromise quality. This is the foundation our company was built on. And quality will continue to be our guiding principle as we move forward.
You can learn more about all our American-made swab products on our website. To get the latest on swab production at Puritan, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook.
