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Ice is food that requires the same concern for sanitation as any food served to customers and it can be contaminated in many ways.
- Ice makers can deliver contaminated ice when not regularly cleaned or incorrectly cleaned with the wrong type of chemicals.
- Foreign objects can be introduced into the ice storage area, contaminating the ice and, depending on the object, posing a potential safety hazard.
- Scoops and shovels used to remove ice may be stored incorrectly and contact unsanitary surfaces.
- Buckets used to transport ice to the point of use may be used for other tasks or not properly cleaned.
In addition to selecting equipment that minimizes sanitation issues, operators can improve the cleanliness of delivered ice with the following practices:
- Have employees wash their hands before removing ice from the bin.
- Wash scoops and shovels frequently and hang them away from contaminating surfaces.
- Use only ice-dedicated buckets to transport ice and wash buckets frequently.
- Never nest ice transport buckets inside each other.
- Prohibit staff from storing food or beverages in any ice storage bin.
- Clean the inside of the ice storage equipment frequently.
- Clean the ice maker in accordance with the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Routine cleaning of any equipment that makes, holds, or moves ice is essential to remove mold, algae, and bacteria. The frequency and type of cleaning should be performed according to the manufacturers' instructions as well as the physical environment in which the equipment is found.
Some manufacturers impregnate internal parts of their ice machines with antimicrobial compounds to reduce build up of mold and bacteria. One releases a chlorine dioxide gas inside the ice maker cabinet to inhibit bacteria and mold growth. Several offer self-cleaning functions that can be activated when the ice maker requires cleaning. These self-cleaning cycles, however, only clean the evaporator surface where ice is made, so other manual cleaning is still required. The frequency of cleaning will depend on the physical environment of the ice maker and the amount of ice being produced.
For over fifty years, Follett Corporation has led the industry in designing and manufacturing high quality, innovative ice storage bins, ice storage and transport systems, ice and water dispensers and ice and beverage dispensers for the foodservice, healthcare and supermarket industries. Follett’s headquarters and state-of-the art manufacturing facility are located in Easton, PA.
Follett Ice and Digital Kanban Driving Quality
Kanban, in its most simplifying role, is a visual signal (or cue) that something needs to be replenished. More specifically, lean manufacturers today use digital kanban by Datacraft Solutions (www.datacraftsolutions.com) to drive a process to make, move, or buy the appropriate parts. Thus, digital kanban becomes one of the fundamental building blocks of a pull (or consumption based) replenishment system.
According to Matthew Marotta, founder of Datacraft Solutions, “Follett has worked internally with pull systems for many years. One of the major objectives was to remove excess inventory from the work cells and drive them back to a central location where they would await demand. With the decrease in available floor space and internal success with pull, digital kanban seemed to be a natural progression.”
Senior Purchasing agent, Jeff Craig, with Follett Ice developed a “wish list” for the digital kanban system based on our years of experience in manufacturing, planning, and procurement. The selection of Datacraft Solutions’ Signum digital kanban product revealed a short evaluation process according to Craig: “The evaluation process took us about two and a half months in all. The components of evaluation were to first understand the product. What will the product do and just as important, what it won't do. Next, we asked the question, is this product useful to our organization? We then spoke an actual user. Seeing the system up and running was a major component to my recommendation. We then needed to evaluate our ability to support this implementation from a people resource perspective. And last, can we make a favorable business case for this product where Follett is able to achieve an acceptable return on our investment?”
Craig advised other food manufacturers to consider several key variables when selecting a digital kanban system:
- Have the full commitment from management to support lean manufacturing.
- Have a supply base that is open to change. Not only will the method of ordering change, there will be a reduction in order quantities and lead-times.
- Have the people resources available for implementation.
- Generate enough savings to cover start-up and monthly fees.
Follett Ice has experienced direct benefits from the Datacraft Solutions’ kanban system including an increase in inventory turns, a reduction in floor space consumed, and better communication with suppliers. Indirectly the company has benefited from some of the organizational changes caused by the implementation. According to Craig, these benefits have included, “Better control over our inventory, the implementation of bar coding, and a reduction in the time it takes to place and receive orders.“
Specific return-on-investment data by Follett Ice as a result of the Datacraft Solutions’ implementation include $150K inventory reduction = 57% IRR for three years and 71% IRR for five years.
Food Quality: Cheese
Wisconsin-based Green Bay Cheese Company faced significant challenges due to government regulations and customer compliance issues. Green Bay Cheese needed an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software package that could:
- Track individual cheese lots from raw material receipt through consumption in manufacturing and onto shipment of finished product to their retail and food service customers.
- Manage special customer pricing requirements based upon the current market price for cheese.
- Provide detailed costing of their manufacturing operations.
- Prepare customer-specific private labeling of product including product details and lot analysis information.
According to Rebecca Gill, Vice-President of Toledo-based, TGI (www.tgiltd.com) food ERP (enterprise resource planning) package Enterprise 21, “Green Bay Cheese was able to address their requirements and more.” Specifically the cheese manufacturer is now able to:
- Electronically store womb to tomb lot tracking of cheese so that a given lot of cheese can be traced to all customers who received material produced from that particular lot.
- Interactively calculate online customer pricing based upon cheese market price and customer pricing factors.
- Automatically generate customer-specific labels which included not only customer logos and barcodes, but also the retail customer’s price to the consumer.
ERP Features Drive Quality for Food Manufacturers
From Inventory Control to Purchasing an ERP system for the food sector must perform certain key functions. Order Management, Manufacturing, General Ledger, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable efficiencies must also be taken into consideration. These backroom functions have a causal impact on the nature of quality assurance and quality control.
ERP Inventory Control for Food Manufacturers must include:
- Integrated Warehouse Management system
- Multi-location and bins per warehouse
- Prime pick, put-away, and restocking locations by product code
- Sophisticated product configurator
- Bill of material maintenance for kitting
- Fully attributed inventory
- Lot Control with analysis
- RF and barcode enabled
ERP Purchasing Functionality for Food Manufacturers must include:
- Multiple suppliers and purchasing rules per stocking part number
- Vendor RFQ processing
- Automatic creation of purchase orders based upon replenishment rules
- Automatic or manual generation of requisitions
- Blanket purchase orders
- Electronic signature approval
- Vendor performance tracking
Due to the government regulations and compliance issues Inventory Control may be the most important function to consider, yet a fully functioning integrated system is critical to cost justify the Food ERP acquisition and achieve a rapid return on investment. With the ERP implementation, Green Bay Cheese Company is better equipped to serve customers ranging from grocery stores and food service distributor and government agencies maintaining their reputation of exceptional customer service and competitive product offering.
Technology solutions that allow careful monitoring of the manufacturing process can only advance the efficiency and effectiveness of the quality systems.
| Author Biography: |
Thomas R. Cutler is the President & CEO of Fort Lauderdale, Florida-based TR Cutler, Inc., the largest manufacturing marketing firm worldwide:www.trcutlerinc.com
Cutler is the founder of the Manufacturing Media Consortium of twenty seven hundred journalists worldwide is writing about trends, data, case studies, profiles, and features in the manufacturing and industrial sector. Cutler has worked with thousands of media outlets to expand manufacturing media coverage.
Cutler has authored more than 1,000 articles for a wide range of manufacturing periodicals, industrial publications, and business journals including most of the leading monthly trade publications. |
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