Are you Ready for a Recall?

Consumer Packaged Goods and food and beverage companies face many challenges in the need to stay relevant to consumers and improve profitability in a relatively low margin industry. These challenges include the need to manage consistent quality, manage raw material and production costs, shortening production runs to bringing new products to market faster, and meet customer demands with a more responsive supply chain.

In addition to these challenges, manufactures must confirm their processes comply with food safety, regulatory and traceability requirements. Falling short in any of these areas can result in a costly recall process.

Impacts from a recall go beyond the cost of inventory of the recalled product. There is a potentially large economic cost including scraping/loss of inventory, loss of production time and the cost of the entire recall process. The product might lose shelf space, and there is a very real likelihood of irreversible damage to the product or brand, which could cause ongoing economic issues for the company or even for the entire industry segment.
 

3 Questions About Your Data 

Even if you regularly practice your recall process by conducting mock recalls, how sure are you that the data is correct and that your records for a product accurately match the actual journey it followed in the manufacturing process? 

Once an issue is identified,

1.  Can you trace the affected batches accurately?

2. Does your record keeping include manual data records?

3. Does your traceability process accurately cover the complexity of processing and material flows that occurs in your plant?

What if you announced for recall for a specific batch, but then discovered additional affected batches, and/or your product is found in unexpected markets? Public confidence in your brand crashes as the recall expands, emptying retailers’ shelves, which will quickly, be filled by a competitor.

Minimize the Risk of Recall

Minimizing the risk of a recall starts with manufacturing process enforcements to ensure “right first time” quality. The right manufacturing execution system (MES) bridges the gap between the business and manufacturing worlds. It includes robust automated systems that manage risk, minimize manual entry and human error, and can manage product and order changes without contamination. 

An MES designed for the CPG industry can:

• Connect your manufacturing, business and control systems with real-time event driven communications.
• Improve scheduling and control of plant assets, track raw materials, and finished products through complex processing, and give great insights into operational issues that might impact your supply chain.
• Be the foundation for traceability and the implementation of quality and food safety programs.

Your MES should offer digital traceability via connected business and automation systems, the enforcement of product and quality business rules and the tracing of all ingredient and quality transactions.

Moving Beyond Paper Production

Typical paper production management buries workers in paper and often checks are missed. There’s little if any error proofing. And data is only on paper—not in real-time—so it’s difficult to validate what’s written down, when it was written down, if I was a true representation of what occurred and even harder to determine if something is missing.

Complex processing requires integrated systems with full and robust traceability—an MES that:

• Automatically synchronizes the bill of materials from the ERP to the MES.
• Rapidly adapts to order and product changes without manual data replication, by automatically configuring automated equipment during product changes.
• Confirms that the recipe is followed with enforcement of process, including running conditions and quality checks.
• Accurately models the manufacturing process and can validate inventory for use and tank status checked before use to avoid contamination.

MES and the Connected Worker

No longer limited to their tools and immediate surroundings, the modern, connected worker is a digitally empowered asset, equipped with real-time information, insights, and tools that elevate their capabilities and enhance their contributions to the production process.

MES integration plays a pivotal role in supporting the connected worker. MES transforms routine tasks into strategic decisions, empowers workers with data-driven insights, and enforces business process and ultimately, propels factories into a new era of productivity and collaboration.

Achieve Your Targets

In highly automated, complex manufacturing processes where continuous, batch, discrete or hybrid production processes are found, the right MES offers get real-time tracking quality checks so you can meet quality targets and achieve regulatory compliance in a near 24/7 manufacturing environment.

FactoryTalk® CPGSuite® bridges the gap between business and manufacturing and as a result, offers confidence in traceability and quality, and in process enforcement while manufacturing at scale.

Learn More

Find out how a powerful MES solution can help provide the complete picture of your manufacturing process. Register now for the webinar, MES for Food and Beverage: Are You Ready for a Recall?

To learn more about FactoryTalk® CPGSuite®, visit our website.