The Power of the Plant Floor

"The Power of the Plant Floorâ€? is an ongoing blog about various challenges and opportunities for food and CPG manufacturers are facing on the plant floor and how they can overcome real-life issues and better improve plant floor operations and productivity to benefit the overall business using Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Manufacturing Operations Management (MOM) and Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES).

Key Ingredients to Successful Quality-based Traceability

Posted by David Cahn on June 3, 2009

In this week’s blog, I would like to outline the key elements needed in a successful quality-based traceability system. Integrate Quality and Traceability Data Traceability does not stop at one up, one down. Further due diligence includes reviewing documentation associated with incoming inspections, certificates of analysis, supplier non-conformances, supplier audits and regulatory complian ...... Read More

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Industry Needs for Traceability Systems

Posted by David Cahn on May 28, 2009

Traceability systems may be designed to include varying levels and approaches to improving breadth, depth and precision. A longstanding function of traceability has been to differentiate one supplier from another by providing their buyers and prospective buyers the assurances of a detailed and well-implemented program. Exactly how much breadth, the degree of information regarding the product ...... Read More

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Industry Needs for Traceability Systems

Posted by David Cahn on May 28, 2009

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Think Backward

Posted by David Cahn on May 13, 2009

In the area of food safety, we need to think from the perspective of the consumer backward. Consumers typically expect their food to be safe. With all the visibility now, they are making a purchasing decision on what goes into the food, the source of their food and the product compliances a company deploys. Processors, on the other hand, need to demonstrate their food safety claims by implementing ...... Read More

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Industries: Manufacturing Issues

Recalls – Why Prevention Bests Management

Posted by David Cahn on May 6, 2009

With food safety again making headlines, I thought it was a good time to discuss the ever increasing rate and impact of recalls on the global food supply. While there are numerous challenges in tracking and traceability systems solving food safety issues, there are some fundamental issues that are critical for the industry to address. Today I want to focus on how traceability systems traditionally ...... Read More

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Industries: Manufacturing Issues

Cracking the Pistachio Shell

Posted by David Cahn on April 7, 2009

Alright, I admit it. I understand it’s not good to be exposed to salmonella, but when the news was about baby milk, and even peanuts, it still did not really hit home for me. Now, pistachio nuts are a different issue! Call me selfish, but I love my pistachios. In fact, even my dog loves them. What makes the news even worse is that I bought a five pound bag at Costco the day before the anno ...... Read More

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Cheap is the New Cool – “Back to Basics” is Back in Fashion!

Posted by David Cahn on March 16, 2009

Are we buying a brand experience? A lifestyle? Are we conscious of what a chosen brand communicates to others about our personal or family status? No, we are buying the cheap one! In a mass, collective tipping point, it is no longer a sign of sophistication to pay extra for premium brands, it’s not just a sign of “excess” but of “excessive stupidity.” For i ...... Read More

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Industries: Manufacturing Issues

HACCP: Same Issue or Does the Emperor Have New Clothes

Posted by David Cahn on March 2, 2009

Initially HACCP, (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points), was put in place in the1960’s for the U.S. Space Program. Since then it has been applied to all stages of food production and various other industries, including pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Today, HACCP is now government-mandated in the meat and poultry industries (USDA) as well as the seafood and juice industries (FDA). The ...... Read More

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Profit is the Goal—Part 2: Staying Focused on the Money

Posted by David Cahn on February 18, 2009

In my last post, I drew attention to the historic failure of plant measurement projects to deliver hard and sustainable benefits. In a recent (Summer 2007), study of 100 food and beverage and CPG companies, AMR Research found no measurable difference between the abilities of MES users and non-MES users to leverage metrics to respond to business challenges. Not a pretty pict ...... Read More

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Industries: Manufacturing Issues

Risk Compliance – No Small Peanuts

Posted by David Cahn on February 12, 2009

The recent peanut butter scandal dominating headlines is simply another example of how the food manufacturing supply chain is becoming more complex while the compliance visibility of our IT systems and our processes tend to be localized. As we have all discovered for any implementation in order to achieve its objectives, the people, processes and technology must be aligned. In the litany of ...... Read More

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Profit is the Goal — Part 1: The Power to Achieve It

Posted by David Cahn on January 12, 2009

As this blog is titled “The Power of the Plant Floor,” I want to address the nature of this “power.” A plant floor is truly powerful when two things are occurring: 1. The actions of the people on the plant floor — specifically line operators and their immediate supervisors — make a difference in achieving the goals of the plant. 2. Those pe ...... Read More

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Industries: Manufacturing Issues

Beef: Having It Your Way and Ensuring Compliance

Posted by David Cahn on January 7, 2009

The last few weeks have been very interesting in the world of global beef products. Mexico’s agriculture ministry said on Dec. 26, 2008, it could soon resume imports from 30 U.S. meat plants temporarily suspended because they did not meet joint sanitary regulations. The plants fell short on standards like packaging, labeling and some transport conditions. So what happened here in a wo ...... Read More

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Industries: Manufacturing Issues

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