A conversation with Langham Logistics Director of Quality, Sean Merrill
When selecting a 3PL, many organizations prioritize a logistics partner’s cost and capabilities. However, that limited scope overlooks a third important leg to successfully stand up an operation: quality.
A 3PL’s ability to manage quality assurance (QA) determines if it can meet a customer’s specified requirements, standards, and objectives. In the pharmaceutical and biologics industries, a commitment to quality has life-saving implications. The key is operationalizing QA across the entire organization, rather than approaching it as a secondary activity.
Sean Merrill, Director of Quality at Langham, guides our quality assurance program. He has extensive experience working in the pharmaceutical, medical device, and logistics industries focusing on QMS implementation, risk management, and process improvement. His team manages quality processes, conducts quality audits, and provides continuous training on quality systems.
Sean took time out to detail Langham’s unique approach to QA and how its commitment to quality is a true differentiator.
For those not directly working in a quality management role, what is quality assurance?
Merrill: Quality assurance is a systematic process that establishes quality objectives, implements practices for achieving those objectives, continuously monitors the procedures, and evaluates their performance to find areas for continuous improvement.
People often mistakenly interchange “quality control” and “quality assurance.” However, quality control is a subset of quality assurance. Activities like quality planning, root cause analysis, corrective and preventative actions (CAPA), and continuous improvement are all functions of QA.
Ultimately, the goal of quality assurance is preventing product defects and process errors that increase costs and risks while decreasing customer satisfaction and operational efficiencies.
How does Langham’s commitment to quality and continuous improvement differ from other 3PLs?
Merrill: We do not approach quality assurance as a reactive practice. We don’t wait for something to go wrong to look for ways to make things better. Continuous improvement is one of our quality objectives, so we are always searching for ways to streamline our operations.
We have a great quality team that continually audits our processes. Many organizations may complete one or two internal audits per year. We complete an average of 12-15 internal audits per quarter.
Even outside of our formal internal audit process, my team is constantly reviewing procedures, finding ways to remove bottlenecks, and upgrading our processes. But it is not just the quality team focused on improvements. Our engineering group is also heavily focused on automation, innovation, and enhancements. The engineering team does an amazing job of analyzing performance numbers and implementing strategies or new solutions to help alleviate pain points.
How does Langham’s commitment to quality—especially in the highly regulated pharmaceutical and biologics industries—stand out as a leader?
Merrill: We take a different approach in how we manage corrective actions and root cause investigations. The quality assurance group owns the record through its lifecycle. We don’t open corrective actions, assign them to someone, and wait for them to get done. We own the issue and work with our colleagues in operations to make sure all problems are thoroughly investigated, facilitate root cause analysis, determine corrective measures, and implement new processes.
What is Langham’s approach to onboarding customers in a way that promotes quality?
Merrill: We encourage customers to audit our quality management system during onboarding. The quality team helps document all client requirements and processes from start to finish prior to the first shipment. This level of detail helps us train the staff and ensure operational consistency across teams and warehouses. Quality personnel also participate in regular governance meetings to keep everyone in the company—from the executive level to the frontline—focused on quality metrics for each customer.
What have been the results of Langham’s QA efforts?
Merrill: We’re off to a great start in 2024. For Q1, third-party auditors found no issues regarding customers, regulatory inspections, our ISO 9001 certification, or cGMP standards.
Internally, we investigated and closed all corrective actions on time. We had zero overdue quality records, no findings classified as major, and all identified risk assessments were completed on time.
But let’s consider how these stats translate to customers.
We identified an issue in one of our warehouses where a handful of outbound orders were reported as late being processed for shipping. We investigated the problem and found that the volume of outbound orders exceeded the customer’s forecasted volume. As a result, the outbound processing area we designed did not accommodate the actual volume of orders. The quality and engineering teams worked together to perform root cause analysis and identify corrective measures. We added some conveyance and made additional room for in-process staging which eliminated the issue.
A knee-jerk fix may have resulted in the costly measure of reallocating or increasing staff. By thoroughly investigating the issue, we found the problem’s core and implemented the appropriate corrective actions to permanently resolve the obstacle. We’ve had no additional problems since.
How does Langham’s culture support and embrace continuous improvement for quality?
Merrill: I am very fortunate to work in a company with a strong quality culture that prioritizes risk management and mitigation. Langham values improvement and the contributions my department makes to the organization. Two of our company’s core values are communication and accountability. I embrace those values by holding quarterly management review meetings and reporting on quality KPIs weekly to the team. The quality team is accountable to our metrics. In turn, they partner with their colleagues across the operation, communicate around deliverables, and support employee responsibility to spot and resolve issues quickly and thoroughly.
Learn More About Langham
Langham Logistics is a global transportation and warehousing company working with some of the biggest brands in the world. We offer supply chain management, domestic and international freight services, and airport logistics. Langham operates more than 1.5 million square feet of temperature-controlled warehouse space strategically located across the United States for distribution efficiency. Our team of experts manages logistics from A to Z so clients can focus on boosting their business. When it comes to unparalleled supply chain leadership and know-how, Langham delivers.
