How Digital Quality Management Systems Can Benefit Food Manufacturers

In our experience, food and beverage companies often resist technology. These businesses often have a systemic belief that their manual systems are fine because it’s “the way we’ve always done things.” Additionally, resistance is even fiercer when they believe that digital tools are too expensive, cumbersome, or difficult to implement.

Truthfully, digital tools are now affordable, accessible, and user-friendly, and companies of every size and budget can find a digital solution. Digital tools, such as quality management software and auditing apps, allow companies to better manage our new reality and help boost their bottom line.

The companies that are doing amazing jobs with the new, elevated coronavirus protocols have some important things in common: They’re using digital tools and being transparent about their commitment to enhanced safety and cleanliness protocols.

Many grocery store chains are excelling at these efforts. They are identifying people on each shift to clean and disinfect, concentrating on high touch areas; implementing new consumer traffic patterns, such as one-way traffic in aisles and proper social distancing; and offering free masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer at the door. They’re taking a proactive and authentic approach to a safety culture, showing they care about safety, and are taking proper steps to mitigate risks. Through these actions, they’re reassuring a nervous public that their facilities are safe.

Going Digital

Digital tools can help you implement new protocols, train staff, audit efforts, assess data, ensure compliance, and trigger on-the-spot as well as long-term corrective actions, as needed. As you adopt digital tools, here are a few tips for navigating our new normal that can be managed via digital quality management systems:

• Elevate your cleaning and disinfecting efforts. Digital tools can track cleaning and disinfecting activities to ensure compliance.
• Implement COVID-19 safety protocols. Use digital tools to enable instant visibility and transparency to gain critical insights across the enterprise (e.g., data can be viewed in a rolled-up manner to look at the operation as a whole or used to drill down to individual locations and areas to gain localized insights).
• Educate employees and customers. Send frequent emails to employees, customers, vendors, and other key audiences explaining the steps you’re taking to follow recommended COVID-19 guidelines. Explain how they can be part of the solution, and reiterate these messages on your website and via social media posts.
• Train employees regularly. Utilize tech tools to provide regular reminders and updates to your staff throughout each shift.
• Get information from reputable websites. COVID-19 information is being constantly updated. CDC, FDA, WHO, and NIH offer ever-evolving information on COVID protocols. The RizePoint COVID-19 Resource Center updates COVID-19 information regularly, using data from authoritative agencies and distilling the information into digestible talking points for managers to relay to their teams.
• Ensure compliance. Put policies and systems in place, educating employees about what to do, when, and why. Use digital audits to track compliance and take on-the-spot and long-term corrective actions as necessary.
• Build a better safety culture. Elevate your existing safety culture by enhancing systems (e.g., transitioning from antiquated paper systems to utilizing more accurate, integrated tech tools). This is a must-have effort and no longer optional. Otherwise, the health and safety of your employees, customers, and business are in danger.

Shaw is president of Savvy Food Safety, Inc. Reach her at [email protected]. Hensien is president of RizePoint. Reach her at [email protected].