Flow chart nightmare

I've posted before that I am working on a HACCP plan similar to a grocery commissary or central production center. That being said I have a million food items. I am currently working on the flow chart of one item, cooked not shelf stable. It keeps growing and now my flow chart is out of control. Should I stick to one process one food item, ie cooked veggie side dish, or continue to lump everything that contains a cooked veggie product, ie sauce, entrees, side items, casseroles...etc?

I'm attaching 2 examples. One a simple process of a cooked veggie side item and the other is an unfinished mess of everything that could have a cooked veggie in the final product.


Thank you,
Jennifer

Dear jennyb,

Opening multiple posts on the same topic is usually non-productive.

Rgds / Charles.C

PS I'm not sure you understood the content of posts in yr previous thread.

Here is an expert view on haccp presentation (eg see option [b]) -

haccp options.png   559.26KB   106 downloads

the methods in other thread referred by myself / jeslyn were (possible) simplifications of [b]for actual situations.

Ouch. My apologies for posting similar topics in different places. I thought they were dissimilar enough to warrant their own topic.

I did understand the thread referred to by you and jeslyn but my group seems to think this is the best route. Being that they agreed on the most difficult and tangled approach, I had hoped someone had nightmares of their own to share.

I will continue to push for a one product one process approach.

Thanks again

Jennifer,

after looking at your examples I get the impression that you don't seem to use a systematic approach to describing your product and process flows. The charts you have shared seem to be very intuitive, but fail to clearly identify process steps like storage, processing, preparation, cooking, cooling. You need to create charts that describe your operations on two levels: the flow (sequence) of processes and the flow of products (ingredients) through the different processes.

I am confident that you can develop a small number of generic flow charts that describe different sequences of processes in your operation.
Use very basic grouping of products (e.g. products that are heat-treated, raw products that are not heat-treated, ready-to-eat products that are not heat-treated). Follow the logical 'flow' of products from receipt of ingredients to storage of the finished product. Typical steps in the process flow are Receiving or Goods Inwards, Storage, Preparation, Cooking, Cooling, Packaging. There might be additional process steps in your specific operation and naturally not all will be applicable for each product.
Aim for the smallest number of generic charts: three or four charts should be enough to accurately describe every production process in your operation. You might find that you can get away with two (or even only one).

In a second step use the generic process flow charts to generate your product-specific charts: include descriptions of the specifics for each product under the process headings (e.g. specific types of ingredients - meat, vegetables, dried goods; specific storage - chilled, frozen, ambient; specific preparation - slicing, peeling, washing; specific thermal treatment - cooking, steaming, poaching; etc). This will result in clear and easily understood flow charts and help you better organise your thoughts. Include as much proces-specific information as possible. This will make your hazard analysis easier!

Hope this helps,

Matt

P.S.: Take a look at the attached document. Both flow charts describe the same operation (a Supermarket that offers fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, hot and cold deli, frozen and ambient goods). The first chart gives a brief overview over the process flow, while the second chart describes product flow in detail.

Sample Flow Charts.pdf   62.77KB   144 downloads

Dear MKRMS,

Thks for sharing some of yr obviously extensive knowledge / experience in this field. The chart is very pretty and informative.

It seems to me that jennyb maybe got somewhat trapped in flow chart intricacies rather than (perhaps) preferably looking at the more global viewpoint.

I hv (fortunately) never had to construct haccp plans in this food sector however I think the size of the problem must depend on the variety of the processes, and perhaps legislatory requirements also.

I guess that the building block approach as per yr previous post(s) is mainly difficult to start up but many blocks will ultimately not necessarily contribute to the haccp plan, ie things should get easier as one progresses ? The obvious exclusion is maybe where some particularly sensitive ingredient appears, eg puffer fish.

AFAIK, there are only 2 simplification to the above “building” procedure as mentioned in jennyb’s other thread. ie (a) via the well-known FDA process approach. Presumably the success of this depends on the products / processes again. This is explained / developed to its limit in the text-examples gg1-gg4 below (which I already posted elsewhere but can no longer find ).

gg1 - USDA, developing a school haccp program based process approach - HACCPGuidance-1.pdf   1.59MB   44 downloads
gg2 - recipes school food service, NFSMI.htm   20.65KB   26 downloads
gg3 - FoodSafetyPlan-3StepsandUSDARecipes.doc   497KB   33 downloads
gg4 (alphabetical) - FoodSafetyPlan-3StepsandUSDARecipes.doc   497KB   29 downloads
(last 2 are outputs from gg2)

And (b) the (5 type-process) Snyder approach, eg as in this attachment (see pg 33) –

gg5 - (5-type processes) Snyder 2011.pdf   1.61MB   49 downloads

I hv no idea how much "typical" improvement is generated by (a, b) as compared to simply doing all the step-by-step building blocks.?? I guess quite a lot if you are only doing school meals.

Rgds / Charles.C

@Jennyb - No major "Ouch" intended. It's just that some people (unlike yourself) immediately open duplicate / triplicate copies of same starting post in different forums which causes (multiple) confusion. I hope the extended posts to this thread are helpful.

Sorry I have been MIA. Thank you both for so much information.