4 replies to this topic

[Quality97002]

Hi Fellow Food Safety and Quality Personnel,

 

I am a quality manager at a company that manufactures straws and cutlery. I am relatively new to this industry, having spent most of my career in the food and beverage sector. The maintenance team, when tasked with fixing or restringing the line for straws, often uses a sharp object such as a razor blade or spare blade. This is necessary when the machine is down or there is a problem with it.

 

Currently, we have a secure disposal box for these items, but we are facing a challenge in determining the best way to manage the check-in and check-out process for these blades. They need the blade frequently and I am not sure what is the best way to check in and check out this material.

 

Thank you in advance!

[cookinmaple]

Hi,

 

If its a daily use item, I would have them sign out in the AM and sign back in at end of shift. Each blade should have assigned number to keep track. If something should happen and while in the employees care it must be reported and handled immediately.

[Scotty_SQF]

I have been in the packaging industry for a bit and we didn't check in and check out blades as it would be a huge process that would take up a lot of time (talking about over 250 employees across 3 shifts).  Basically what we did is train on and require that if a blade was broken, you stopped what you were doing and reported it to quality.  Then we would ensure any broken pieces were completely accounted for, documented this and released again for production.  Blades had to be turned in if broken and the only way to get a new one was to go through Safety/Quality.  This ensured we knew why an employee was asking for a new blade.

[Quality97002]

Thank you everyone!

 

@Scotty_SQF so basically the safety/quality team will be the one in charge of the amount of blades available?

[Scotty_SQF]

Yes, you are correct.