Interview with Matthew Schneider
Paperless Systems Administrator, Kanes Foods, Evesham UK.

Kanes Foods are a major supplier of fresh chilled foods: bagged salads, vegetables, stir-fries, sauces and coleslaws, to some of the leading supermarkets in the UK. The company has 140 product lines and produces 100,000 items a day from the four factories on its site in Evesham. It has around 1,000 employees. Kanes Foods implemented the Principles Quality Manager paperless system 18 months ago. At this time, Matthew’s was appointed to the new position of paperless systems administrator. His role is to integrate and manage the paperless quality control system. Alongside Matthew, Kanes Foods have a team of 38 individuals responsible for quality control.

Describe your role?

"My responsibility is to ensure the system works to optimise the quality of our products and to provide solutions to help the quality department. It involves working closely with the quality control managers and we meet regularly to discuss any issues that arise. These could be hardware issues with the PDA, issues manager or computer, new tasks we need to create, tweaks to the system, reports, analysis and trend data or even training PDA operators. Depending on what needs doing I will usually spend some time each day programming and talking to staff to get their views on the system."  

How has your job changed since the implementation of the paperless system?

"Well, mine is a new role so my job has changed entirely! But as far as changes in the company go, the system has enabled us to improve the overall quality of what we produce and led us to re-think our entire quality control management."

"The system has made life simpler because it is so easy to use and ensures due diligence, but it has also brought some underlying issues to the fore, which could have stayed buried for years. As a result we now carry out many more checks across the company.With the old system we checked quality before production and of the finished item, we are now doing over 2,100 checks a day on incoming ingredients, quality assurance during the process, HACCP checks and on the finished products. All lines are now checked 5 times before they are despatched."

"In my role, I now know exactly what is going on at all times. I look at trends twice a week (something we couldn’t do before) and am alerted to any problems by text or e-mail as they occur on the production line. The system ensures that issues are remedied immediately so that quality is maintained throughout every production line."

"I am responsible for adding and modifying checks on the system. This has ensured ever-improving quality of our products. As a result we are now employing 38 quality controllers, up from 32, to carry out the new and existing checks. In some areas we have also separated the quality and production function to ensure a smoother operation."        

Was it easy to convert from a paper to a paperless system?

"The great thing about the paperless system is how easy it was to incorporate into our existing processes. Other systems we looked at  required us to make massive changes to our current processes but the principles quality manager was tailor made to suit us and has the flexibility to grow with our changing needs. It’s amazing, it took Kanes Foods 25 years to perfect and evolve the paper system but less than 17 months to fully convert to paperless."

What has been the single biggest difference the Principles Quality Manager has made at Kanes Foods?

"The system has enabled us to improve the quality of what we do and as a result has made our business more secure. This in turn has brought a sense of over-riding confidence across the company, everyone feels it. Attitudes to quality have really changed."

"Kanes take quality very seriously and with our customers and new regulations pushing the bar, our aim is always to have higher standards than our customers. The system allows us to achieve these standards on a day in, day out basis."

What savings have you been able to make?

"You could say it has ensured continued business from customers. An increased demand in quality from customers has coincided with an improvement in our product quality. This is entirely down to using the quality manager system. It also helps avoid late fees with supermarkets as any problems are spotted and addressed immediately therefore goods can be dispatched on time."

"The system helps avoid product recall, again because issues are tackled in real-time. Our paper bill has reduced. We used to fill in over 200,000 sheets of paper a week, plus record temperatures and carry out other checks, now everything is recorded including photographs, temperatures and bar codes, via one hand held device and records stored altogether on our computer. We have also reduced our storage of records by about 90%...we keep records for five years, that’s a lot of storage space we are freeing up for more productive use."

Have there been any unexpected gains using the system?

"There has been a vast improvement in efficiency, both in employee’s daily jobs and their use of time but also across the company in areas such as waste management to dispatch and in-coming goods. We are also now working with the technology. We have learned that you are only ever as good as what you put in to the system and my role is to work with it to make sure this remains true. Do you think the paperless system has been a good investment? We took a chance investing in paperless and it’s really paid off. The Principles quality manager has been so brilliant we are planning to remove paper from the entire production process, on my recommendation. Our aim is to roll the system out across new areas so that 100% of all removable paperwork is taken out. This will make Kanes Foods a 90% paper-free company!"

"The other area where the quality manager will really pay is in preventing a product recall. Thankfully this hasn’t happened yet but a product recall could cost way over £50k, to say little of the loss of reputation and confidence from customers."

"The paperless system reduces the risk of a recall because you are able to access information quickly and can assess the extent of a problem immediately and remedy it there and then. You can then pass this on to the customer via e-mail, using photographic evidence and detailed thorough information. Before the quality manager system, product recall would be inevitable because of the time it would take to assess and remedy the problem. The new system really doesn’t let you get this far as problems are picked up, and remedied, throughout the process."

Would you therefore recommend the system to other companies?

"Absolutely."

What difference has the system made in dealing with your suppliers?

"To be blunt, it has made us re-assess our suppliers. The system allows better monitoring of in-coming ingredients and highlights inconsistencies, both in real-time and as trends, so we have been able to tackle issues and, where necessary, suppliers to ensure higher standards. We are currently working with Applied Principles to get suppliers to use the quality manager system, so that the same quality standards are achieved across our supply base."

What about your customers, has the system made any difference there?

"All of our customers have been to the site to see and assess the quality manager system in operation. They have all been entirely happy. Random visits from supermarkets have decreased because any quality information needed is readily available to them via e-mail. This has radically improved our customer service, responsiveness is now measured in minutes rather than in the many hours it would have taken previously. The depth of the information we can give customers is also so much better, we can show information graphically, photographically, as trends and as specific information on one item at any give time. This has definitely given our customers greater confidence in our business, which is really important at a time where consumers are driving the demand for ever-increasing quality, and supermarkets are under greater pressure to assure higher quality products."    

What are the benefits of the system to the staff?

"The system has changed employee’s attitude to quality control. It not only gives management greater control but it allows employees to follow a clear path, in the form of a series of instructions for checking quality, giving them clearer definition of their role and it talks to them in their own language! This is fantastic because we have a high percentage of foreign workers. I guess the downside is that they are under more scrutiny, they are more accountable and have to be more diligent, the system doesn’t allow for any shortcuts!"

Has the BRC audit been affected in any way?

"Since using the quality manager system the BRC audit is now pain free. Before it took five members of staff hours to collate information, it now takes me 20 minutes. The whole process is efficient because we have all of the information we need, there are no panics because we can’t find things, and a new level of confidence because we actually know where all the records are. Most importantly we are confident that we will pass because the system makes sure you are achieving pass scores on every item that passes through the factory."

What’s it like working with Applied Principles?

"I would describe Applied Principles as responsive. They are always willing to listen, discuss and implement changes that will help our business. It feels like a partnership, for example we are currently working on developing two new checks which should be implemented in the next month."