13 replies to this topic

[Njaquino]

Good Afternoon Everyone, 

 

We are a spice company and have been having a high rate of product that has been getting ripped due to forklift, wooden pallets or handling. I am automatically disposing of this product because it is exposed to metal, wood etc. Upper management is not too happy with this decision and are asking if it can be saved, it is 2,000 lb totes. Can they be saved? I am being too strict in saving no. Prior to me coming they were patching and reusing but, I have stopped this process. I understand it is a lot of product but I look it as, it is exposed to the environment. Any one in this situation. 

 

[GMO]

The glib answer is get better drivers!  Personally as a customer I'd be hard pressed to say it's not a risk but there may be room for pragmatism.  So, if you have a lot of product currently on hold, perhaps you could permit them to use it on this occasion on the proviso they put in protective measures, i.e. barriers to prevent the forks damaging the totes and training for forklift drivers and once that's in place you revert to zero tolerance?  Perhaps you could also incentivize the drivers with some kind of bonus or prize for reducing damage.  Ultimately though ignoring it or just using it isn't addressing the root cause.

[zanorias]

Indeed the better solution would be to prevent the incidence to begin with. If this is a common occurrence I'd question whether the packaging is appropriate for use and/or the actions of the drivers and handlers. Is there any more that can be done to address these things? A cardboard layer on the pallet before laying down the product may help. Irresponsible driving/handling I guess would go down the HR route.

 

I would be concerned with potential allergen contamination as well as the potential physical FBs, so I would be sceptical of using the goods, unless you can soundly evidence that the portions you are keeping are not contaminated. Also I'd expect that if you agree with upper management and the product in the ripped bags can be used, they will have less incentive to actually tackle the root cause of the damage to the bags. Whereas if there was a clear stance and management were acutely aware of the financial consequence of damaging product and causing waste, they could be more determined to address the cause of damage and prevent the incidence to begin with.

[The Food Scientist]

My suggestion:

 

You can't just put a band aid on the issue and have it solved like that. You are just finding the issue and fixing it by disposing your product. You need to do a root cause analysis, find your possible root causes and find out how to resolve them so you don't have to keep disposing your product! Find out why this is happening, perform corrective and preventive actions and train everyone around, start giving out warnings. You need to work and get together with your team about how to fix the issue so it doesn't happen again! That's the beauty of being in the Quality world :)

[QAGB]

I would not use the totes. I understand 2,000 lbs. is a lot to be throwing away, but the potential for too many food safety hazards are there by using this product. You should definitely look into some better barriers for your totes to prevent forklifts from puncturing the products. 

 

You could also look into different style packaging for your products (bags or cubes) so that if there is damage, it doesn't affect the whole skid, and you can minimize waste. 

[kettlecorn]

I agree with The Food Scientist that you need root cause analysis. This sounds like an issue that is consistently a problem (i.e. "prior to my coming they were patching and reusing..."), and it needs to be addressed at the root. 

 

There may be room for pragmatism in the torn packaging depending on how bad it is, what occurred when it was torn, what the risk is, etc. but ultimately stand your ground. Upper management needs to understand the costs will be far higher if a recall (or, god forbid, something worse) occurs. 

[Mulan1010]

I agree 100% that management needs to be addressing the root cause of the issue and trying to prevent the issues from reoccurring.  With that being said things do happen. We have a procedure in place that if the incident just occurred and the employee immediately stopped and notified management then we can assess the damage.  If the tote was pierced at the bottom, with no possibility of the top part being touched then we allow for them to secure the hole and shovel out the top portion of the contents in the tote to another container and dispose of the bottom part and the tote.  Even if there was metal or wood introduced at the bottom then the top half would not be affected as it would defy the laws of gravity. The employees salvaging the acceptable product have to understand the importance of not stirring the possibly affected product to where it could co-mingle.  We will also issue a corrective action request (root cause and preventive measures) on the event.  Should something pierce upwards into the tote a ways or the tear is at the top of the tote or we are not sure when or how the tear occurred then the whole tote is disposed of.   Food safety always comes first and as the saying goes "If you are in doubt then throw it out" but disposing of product that is acceptable is not helping our world either.  

[Parkz58]

1.  Drivers need to be held accountable.  Yes, sometimes it is unavoidable...but at my last job, we had forklifts moving hundreds of 2,000 lb totes every single day, and in the 2 years I was there, I was involved in investigating and determining disposition of about 5 or 6 totes...total.  Our drivers were well-trained, and understood the consequences of reckless or careless handling of product...up to and including termination.

 

2.  Yes, MAY be able salvage most of the product when it is torn/ripped/skewered...but it must be handled correctly, or else it will all need to be discarded.  Again, at my previous job, we had a very specific, detailed procedure for handling such situations, and it was always investigated and implemented on a case-by-case basis.  Since I no longer have access to the specific procedure, I will give you the overview:

 

- Driver must IMMEDIATELY report the situation to QA, and the QA manager (or equivalent) is the final word on whether it can be salvaged or not.

- QA then investigates the situation, the condition of the tote (fraying, pieces missing, cleanliness of the surrounding material, etc.), the exposed material itself (is it full of frays and shreds from the tote?  Is it now wet for any reason? etc.), the "instrument" that caused the damage (how clean/dirty was the part that caused the puncture?  Had it been exposed to any allergens? etc.), and the extent of the damage (width and height of puncture, and approximate depth) - these are all documented in a Corrective Action report

- IF the only material deemed to be "potentially contaminated" is limited in scope and can be safely isolated and removed/mitigated, then the QA techs may begin the process of removing the potentially contaminated portion and repairing the damage to the tote (temporarily; it must ultimately be transferred to a new tote upon completion)

- The process is sterile; requires a sterile scoop, sterile knife, sterile gloves, etc. - the tote surface is thoroughly and carefully cleaned, and any fraying or pieces from the tote that are loose are removed.  The contaminated portion is carefully scooped out, along with at least an equal amount of surrounding material to serve as a "buffer", as material may shift slightly during removal.  This ensures that all potentially contaminated material is removed.

- The punctured area of the tote is then covered with a sterile covering (you need to determine what works best for your situation), then taped over very securely to keep it in place.

- It is then monitored during the process of transferring the material to a new tote to ensure that none of the covering or tape come loose and become FM, and the entire process is done slowly through a fine mesh screen to ensure no other FM gets into the new tote.

 

Ultimately, every single situation has to be assessed individually, and the risks carefully weighed out to determine the correct course of action.  If in doubt, always disposition it for destruction/waste, as it's better to be safe than sorry...even if it does cost the company money.  Sometimes, costing them money is the only way to light the fire under them to address the way the material is being transported and handled in the first place!

 

Best of luck,

 

Brian

[wtheriot]

Root Cause Analysis...that is where you find your solution.

 

I also think much of the product can be saved. If it is a small hole in bottom, why would you dispose of the top 1500+ pounds? The risk must be assessed of course but it is very likely that it can be removed manually and the bottom portion discarded.

Ultimately the cause has to be discovered and corrected (poor handling by forklift drivers).

[kingstudruler1]

Root Cause Analysis...that is where you find your solution.

 

I also think much of the product can be saved. If it is a small hole in bottom, why would you dispose of the top 1500+ pounds? The risk must be assessed of course but it is very likely that it can be removed manually and the bottom portion discarded.

Ultimately the cause has to be discovered and corrected (poor handling by forklift drivers).

 

agree.   need to determine risk and base decisions off of that.   

[QAGB]

Root Cause Analysis...that is where you find your solution.

 

I also think much of the product can be saved. If it is a small hole in bottom, why would you dispose of the top 1500+ pounds? The risk must be assessed of course but it is very likely that it can be removed manually and the bottom portion discarded.

Ultimately the cause has to be discovered and corrected (poor handling by forklift drivers).

  

I have to disagree. Parkz58 does have a good program for how to handle these types of situations, but they are still very dependent on the situation.

 

I will say that forklifts are not clean. At all. People can say they have cleaned them, but I've not seen a clean forklift (at least not in any facility in my industry). If there is a puncture in product by a dirty fork, and product shifts inside tote, I'm not trying to discern where the food safety hazard is in the tote. Ultimately, it is my name that signs off on this situation, so I am not going to assume that risk. 

 

I've also had the unfortunate situation where a careless employee allowed pallets which had bird "poo" on them to be not only brought into the facility, but also used a forklift to place these pallets in the building. I made them clean the entire mast on the forklift after taking all the pallets back outside to be removed from our facility.

 

In the case where the pallet itself has punctured a tote, it's still risky. I guess if the pallet is still with the tote and you can inspect the pallet to make sure it wasn't contaminated, then maybe you can do some extra sieving and patching the tote before transferring to a new tote. Still - this is risky. I'm not going to advocate for it, but I imagine it can be done if done correctly. 

Edited by QAGB, 11 September 2019 - 06:03 PM.

[Njaquino]

Thanks everyone. I have preformed a root cause on all material being damaged. 

 

1. We have been receiving opened raw material. I wrote a procedure for truck inspections and trained them on it. They are now report these issues to purchasing and I.

2. Forklift Drivers. I am having all forklift drivers retrained.

3. We are switching from wooden pallets to plastic pallets to stop the wood from break off into the raw material bags. 

4. We are adding cardboard in between pallets.

 

It is the first time there is a QAQC person so they are very shocked at the changes. I hope this can help minimize the damage. 

[QAGB]

Thanks everyone. I have preformed a root cause on all material being damaged. 

 

1. We have been receiving opened raw material. I wrote a procedure for truck inspections and trained them on it. They are now report these issues to purchasing and I.

2. Forklift Drivers. I am having all forklift drivers retrained.

3. We are switching from wooden pallets to plastic pallets to stop the wood from break off into the raw material bags. 

4. We are adding cardboard in between pallets.

 

It is the first time there is a QAQC person so they are very shocked at the changes. I hope this can help minimize the damage. 

 

 

Hi Njaquino,

 

Great plans. I must say...yikes to #1. I'm glad you have trained them on a reporting procedure, and hope that they do indeed follow it!

[zanorias]

It is the first time there is a QAQC person so they are very shocked at the changes. I hope this can help minimize the damage.