Kanes Foods are a major supplier of fresh chilled food to some of the UK’s best known supermarkets. Their product range of more than 120 items present production and logistical complications which require precise planning and meticulous controls. Their traditional paper based systems and procedures were not only labour intensive, but made traceability and accountability an arduous and costly overhead.
John Randall, owner and managing director, had for some time, harboured an ambition to achieve optimum quality control through a paperless procedural system. “We were filling out around 500 pieces of paper a day” he said, “which not only had to be archived and maintained, but also had to be readily accessible during audits. Such paper records run the risk of misinterpretation and are therefore subject to constant policing and scrutiny.”
Production and technical managers were asked to identify areas where a paperless system offered best potential for control and economic return. Mike Sutton, Production Manager for Kanes Foods said: “We initially focused on the process of issuing knives, gloves, protective clothing and metal detection rods within the low risk and high care processing areas, essential in the prevention of food contamination.”
“It had bothered me for a long time” said John Randall, “that I would walk across the floor and observe a queue of staff obviously becoming frustrated as they waited for their equipment to be issued. At the head of the queue a supervisor was charged with manually recording the issue of equipment and clothing. This process required an individual sheet of paper for each staff member. It was not only wasteful in today’s ecologically sensitive environment, but also time consuming.”
“In a margin driven industry, many companies are seeking ways of driving costs out of their process, whilst maintaining traceability, accountability and stability” commented JJ Kotze, Managing Director of Applied Principles. The equipment issue process was creating a drain on resources both for record maintenance and audit scrutiny. Applied Principles proposed the Principles Issue Manager as the solution which could not only be implemented quickly, but could also show a return on investment measured in months rather than years.
“Rather than issue stations inundated with paperwork” said Mark Harris, factory manager at Kanes, “we now have rugged stainless steel towers housing XP Pro based workstations constantly communicating with our servers.”
The issue procedure is now task driven and the software allows supervisors to logon with a unique ID, swipe a staff member’s card, scan the equipment or clothing’s bar code or RFID identity, then complete the issue process via a touch screen. Items that cannot be identified by barcode or RFID, can be marked with a unique number and issued via the touch screen. At the end of each shift, or at break times, items can be booked back into holding to ensure their safe return. Items that have become damaged or are no longer intact can be recorded as such, hence providing proper control of costs and providing an early warning of failures within the critical control points.
“The new system has not only cut our equipment issue time in half,” said Mike Sutton, “but has dramatically reduced the queues, eliminated the paperwork and provided us with instant accountability for the issue and return of items which require vigilance, such as knives and protective clothing. In fact we can now issue and track anything that requires strict control.”