Virtual Customer Audit: RKW North America Breaks New Ground

Franklin/Kentucky, May 19, 2020 - Unusual times require unusual means: Through a virtual site audit, RKW North America has succeeded in winning a new customer in the middle of the COVID 19 pandemic. Due to existing travel and contact bans, the usual on-site appointment was not possible.

Audits play an important role in the acquisition of new customers. Producers disclose how they can meet the customer's requirements in all areas. The focus is on the use of the right technology, the qualification of personnel, procedures and processes and - of course - occupational safety.

If the potential customer, as in this case, comes from the food industry, special attention is paid to hygiene and the corresponding certifications. It is precisely these points that companies show and document during an on-site inspection –  normally. But the times of a pandemic are anything but normal.

So RKW's US plant in Franklin, Kentucky, needed a quick and unorthodox solution: How could the short-term request for an audit from a potential customer in the dairy industry be implemented as transparently, comprehensively and above all safely as possible? The decision was made to use a virtual audit based on smartphones and tablets, said Reinhold Franke, Vice President Sales & Business Development North America.

Quality Manager Hans Rudelsberger worked out a detailed schedule for this. This included a site floor plan on which the areas of interest for the customer were marked. "Colleagues were posted at the marked locations and prepared to provide precise descriptions and information as required and to present machine and equipment components," Mr. Rudelsberger explained. Franklin's site manager Kenneth Budlong and quality manager Samy Farouk gave a tour of the plant.

The feedback was prompt and positive - just like the confirmation. 

The RKW Group is an independent, privately owned company headquartered in Mannheim, Germany and one of the world’s foremost manufacturers of excellent film solutions. RKW is the market leader in the areas of hygiene and agricultural films, films for the beverage industry and packaging for powdery goods. In addition, the company makes films and nonwovens for medical applications, for the chemical and converting industries as well as for the construction sector. RKW’s sustainable films enable its customers to improve the daily life of consumers all over the world. In the fiscal year 2020, RKW generated total sales of EUR 784 million. About 3,000 employees process 350,000 metric tons of plastic materials at 19 locations around the world. True to the corporate slogan “When excellence matters”, the company, which was founded in 1957, offers outstanding performance in terms of quality and service. Respect and reliability are the core values of RKW and form the basis of the company’s success.

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