The best managers are always seeking cost-saving opportunities within their manufacturing operations. Of all of those opportunities, there is no better cost to mitigate than that of poor quality. Lost labor hours and scrapping valuable food materials contributes zero value to your goals.

Therefore, to eliminate waste and improve quality, you must maintain a strategic approach which incorporates the following list to help improve product quality in food manufacturing.

David McFarland is the newest addition to the IMEC team, bringing a strong background in quality management and data analysis to Illinois organizations. As a Technical Specialist with more than 25 years of experience working in academic and industrial settings, David has a passion for assisting companies with their culture of continual learning and improvement in pursuit of organizational excellence. 

Companies that purchase a new manufacturing information system do so to better manage the business, cut costs, and improve customer relationships – i.e. the “strategy”.  However, when it comes to implementing the system – the “art of execution” – many companies settle for a less than fully-functional solution.  An audit, or gap analysis, of your existing system may yield substantial opportunities for improvement, especially if your company:

• Does not have an IT manager or other personnel intimately familiar with the system.
• Is upgrading an existing system but wants to pinpoint the potential benefits first.
• Experiences disruptions because of underutilized or incapable systems.
• Is in an industry where customer requirements or regulations change frequently.
• Is on a lean journey.
• Has concerns about system fault-tolerance and/or disaster recovery.
• Is experiencing very large year-over-year growth patterns.
• Customer or supplier information exchange interfaces have changed.