What is Quality Partner ?

When a company includes ZLRC as a quality partner, the latter becomes a technical associate in assuring the quality of the products being produced by the company through the development and execution of meticulous quality assurance procedure in the entire business cycle; from the procurement of raw materials to processing, packaging, storage and finally to the distribution of finished products.

What support can ZLRC provide ?

Depending upon the type of company (whether manufacturing, packaging, import or export), ZLRC can provide one to several supports to the receiving company according to the need as listed below :

• Development of quality assurance policy and guidelines.
• Provide technical guidance on the establishment and operation of the laboratory in the company.
• Provide theoretical and practical training to the laboratory staffs in the premises of Zest Laboratory and Research Center.
• Provide training to the staffs on current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) or HACCP.
• Assist the company in obtaining national and international quality assurance certificates.
• Regularly monitor the quality of the products by carrying out tests, analyze the data and suggest ways to improvecontinuous improvement to the quality.
• Support on investigation of OOS and OOL, generate CAPA and NCR.
• Support in procuring equipment, chemicals, reference standards and developing test methods, 
• Provide test certificates, MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) and other technical document as per the need
• Assist in conducting Product or process research as per the need of the organizations.

What benefit does the company get by having ZLRC as a Quality Partner ?

The company will get strong technical support from the competent experts of ZLRC who’ll provide continuous guidance to strengthen the infrastructure, equipment, procedure, technical team and also the benefit of  itsof its International recognition and accreditation that ultimately helps in assuring the quality of the product of the developed by the recipient company. The client will also get its products analyzed in the sophisticated state of the art laboratory of Zest at Balkot, Bhaktapur.

Who are the prospective companies for the partnership with ZLRC ?

The private company, hospitality industries, Departmental stores, community or cooperatives that produce, import or export Food, Dairy, Ayurvedic product manufacturer, Herbal, Agricultural Products, Food Repackaging, Sweets suppliers, BrewaryBrewery and Soft Drinks, Mineral Water, Pickles, Spices, Fast Food, Fruits, Vegetables, Food Grains, Oil, Grocery, Meat, Tea, Coffee, Hard Cheese etc. could be the prospective members for partnering with Zest.

What is the procedure for establishing the partnership ?

• Upon receiving the intent of partnership from the company, ZLRC shall study the entire business cycle and explore the possible quality checks and interventions.
• ZLRC then prepares a technical due diligence report (DDR) on the existing infrastructure, equipment, human resources and procedures being followed by the company and the existing quality issues or the issues that might occur in future. It will then followed by the proposed areas of improvements and their tentative cost.
• After discussion on DDR, both the company and ZLRC will identify their scopes, cost and limitations.
• A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between two parties will take place with the elaboration of areas of support along with the associated cost by ZLRC. The MOU is initially drawn for three years.
• It will be mentioned in the MOU that the company agrees to mention ZLRC as its quality partner in their website, brochure, letter head and packaging materials.

What is the cost involved ?

The cost varies from type of companies and volume of business. However, there’ll be one or more following fees in the cost proposal to be submitted by ZLRC;

1. Monthly Fee : The technical person/s normally visit to the company once a week or every fortnightly depending upon the need. A full time technical staff may also be deployed at the site if required. The cost will be worked out on the basis of extent of involvement of ZLRC Staff at the site.
2. Analysis Fee : Minimum assured number of samples per month  and the parameters to be tested in ZLRC will be mutually agreed. The company will get a flat discount of 15% on the normal charge before VAT.
3. Training Fee: The training fee shall be based on the type of training, external experts (if required), number of participants and number of days. ZLRC shall charge training fee on the basis of per person per day.
4. Per Unit Fee : There could be a singular per unit fee to succeed all above fees. The client has to pay on the basis of the production of the units. The charge varies from 0.5% to 1.5% of MRP depending upon the scope of services and the production quantity.

Legal Arrangement

The partnership will be established through mutual agreement between two parties to improve the quality of the products and share the benefits. ZLRC is not authorized to provide any  give quality certification to the product and/or the company as this is entirely different procedure. ZLRC is however instrumental in obtaining such certificates from Nepal and/or abroad.