9 replies to this topic

[GMO]

Please comment if I've not put in an answer which works for you.  I'm interested though how much quality and food safety is embedded both from an organisational and personal perspective into quality and food safety and vice versa.  Does "lean" just mean making more product for you or do you build into it QFS and are encouraged to participate?

[Scampi]

I'm working on my white belt, but that is for me, not my current employer   they are light years away from implementing Lean practices of any kind (to their detriment)

[TimG]

I'm working on my white belt, but that is for me, not my current employer   they are light years away from implementing Lean practices of any kind (to their detriment)

Yeah, I see 6 sigma as a requirement for a lot of the automotive quality management/director positions I've been seeing in my job searches.

Are you taking classes for the white belt? 

[GMO]

Yeah, I see 6 sigma as a requirement for a lot of the automotive quality management/director positions I've been seeing in my job searches.

 

It's absolutely the norm outside of the food industry.  I'm really not sure why it's not been embraced much by many people in QFS.  It should be IMO but it seems to be a mix of when manufacturers use it, they leave out quality and quality not beating the door down to embrace it either.

[kconf]

What's Lean? 

[TimG]

What's Lean? 

Not me, that's for sure!

[GMO]

What's Lean? 

 

Will assume this isn't meant sarcastically...

 

It's a way to minimise waste in a system.  But waste means all kinds of waste, not just stuff in the bin.  Ohno defined one of the "wastes" as product defects and that was the intent of the original forays into what became the "Toyota Production System", the main purpose of it was to prevent defects.  

 

How I see a lot of food industry professionals adopting lean though is in silos.  For example, using things like RCA or PPS for problems but without having good physical standards or work instructions, or, worse, using "lean" as a guise to increase line speeds and not caring it results in more quality complaints or food safety risk.

[Scampi]

Yeah, I see 6 sigma as a requirement for a lot of the automotive quality management/director positions I've been seeing in my job searches.

Are you taking classes for the white belt? 

Taking it online self paced

They exam doesn't need to be proctored until your further along.     Lots of great FREE resources out there

[GMO]

I did my PPS internally and it was pretty quick.  Using it day to day in one company was the best teacher though.

 

I'm sure there's bad habits I have got into though so if you can share any resources Scampi that'd be awesome.  Always good to upskill.

[jfrey123]

How I see a lot of food industry professionals adopting lean though is in silos.  For example, using things like RCA or PPS for problems but without having good physical standards or work instructions, or, worse, using "lean" as a guise to increase line speeds and not caring it results in more quality complaints or food safety risk.

 

I would echo this, especially when it comes to the silo'ing of information.  The reason I voted quality/food safety is embedded with Lean practices is because we need procurement, production, and sanitation departments may try to adopt their own practices that conflict with food safety needs.  Procurement might chase a new film seal that is thinner in order to reduce plastic use, but the new film may not be durable enough for proper sealing.  Production may try to recover traditional waste from the production lines in a way that compromises quality and food safety.  Sanitation may try to change to different chemicals to reduce water use or costs and end up picking one that is insufficient to manage pathogen concerns.

 

Hence I feel that QA should be involved and interacting with all departments.  It shouldn't be adversarial, but more collaborative to find middle ground where possible but still be permitted and prepared to call out a bad practice that's been considered for Lean reasons.