Quality Control Management System

Quality does not happen by accident, it must be planned. Quality control management involves planning, quality control and quality improvement. The key elements in implementing company-wide strategic quality planning are in turn seen as identifying customers and their needs; establishing optimal quality goals; creating measurements of quality; planning processes capable of meeting quality goals under operating conditions; producing continuing results in improved market share,premium prices, and a reduction of error rates in the office and factory. Sometimes referred to as the Juran trilogy, each of these three processes has subsets:

 Quality planning process 

• Determining quality goals
• Develop plans to meet these goals
• Identify resources to meet goals
• Translate goals into quality
• Summaries 1 to 4 in quality plan

Quality control process 

• Evaluate process
• Compare performance with set goals
• Take action on the difference

Quality improvement process 

• Establish infrastructure for the annual quality improvement
• Identify the specific needs for the improvement projects

For each project, establish a project team with clear responsibilities for bringing the project to a successful conclusion

Provide resources, motivation and training needed by the teams to:

(a) Diagnose the causes

(b) Stimulate establishment of a remedy

(c) Establish control hold the gains

The majority of problems are the fault of poor management, rather than poor workmanship. Philip Crosby’s Zero defects approach does not help, since it is mistakenly based on the idea that the bulk of quality problems arise because workers are careless and not properly motivated. Long term training to improve quality should start at the top and upper managers already know what needs to be done and that training is for others the workforce, the supervisiors, the engineers.

The QMS approach encourages organization to analyse customer requirements and define the processes that produce products acceptable to him. This approach emphasizes that organization should:

• Establish quality policy and quality objectives and identify processes critical to attaining quality objectives.
• Establish measures for the effectiveness of identified processes towards attaining quality objectives.
• Establish means of preventing defects, reducing variability and minimizing rework,waste and set opportunities to reduce risks and improve the effectiveness and efficiency of process.
• Determine avenues for improvement to provide optimum results with acceptable risks and plan strategies, processes and resources to deliver identified improvements and asses the results against the expected outcome.

Some of the quality systems important for survival and growth of dairy industry and increasingly relevant to face the challenges of the new millennium are:

ISO 9000

ISO: 9000-1994 is an international standard directed at the quality management process of an organization, it include the group of standards ISO-9001, ISO- 9003 and ISO-9004. ISO-9001 standard is a management tool that focus on meeting the customers needs and expectations, every step in achieving the quality is documented the documented system defines policies, objectives and expected performance.

Quality management refers to all activities of the overall management function that determines the quality policy, objectives and responsibilities of the quality systems.Quality system is the organizational structure, procedures, processes and resources needed to implement the quality management. ISO-9001:2000 is the latest quality management system. ISO certificate is provided to the organization that has a quality management system to meet the scope of the stated standards. The important factors for the rapid success of ISO 9000 are that it:

Meets international trade requirements and brings a degree of order in the market place.

•  Addresses the customer needs and provides assurance.
• Includes comparative quality management concepts and provides framework for continual quality improvement.
•  Creates confidence among business partners within and across the nations.
•  Provides a common denominator for measuring efficiency of operation and quality of goods and services.
•  Introduces control mechanisms for an organization’s own operations to achieve,sustain and improve quality of product/services.

 With the changed focus on quality issues worldwide, the ISO 9000 standards would serve as a basis for ensuring consistent quality of goods and services. The new standards will necessitate organizations to reorient to address process-centered approach to quality management system to meet consumer requirements and gauge their satisfaction and place the system on a continual improvement mode.

FOOD SAFETY STANDARDS

The potential for food to be involved in the outbreaks of health threat is great.Outbreaks of food borne illness remind us that there are compelling reasons for proactive control of food safety at all stages of food production - from production to consumption.

For a food processing company, a pure, safe and wholesome food must be the minimum standard for consumer acceptance. Food quality, which includes not only highly acceptable organoleptic characteristics but also nutritional value and safety, has become an intense concern of the consumer.

The HACCP (Harzard Analysis Critical Control Points) is a scientifically designed food safety management system, which systematically identifies specific hazards and provides measures for their control to ensure safety of food. The salient points of this system are:

•  Addresses all types of hazards- Microbiological, Physical and Chemical.
•  Requires use of risk-based decision making in identifying significant hazards & establishing critical limits for monitoring & ensuring safety.
•  Proactive system for assuring safe production and deli\very of foods.
•  Emphasises prevention rather than inspection
•  International acceptance.

 ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ISO:14000)

Environment is defined as surroundings in which an organization operates, includes air, water, land, natural resources, flora, fauna, humans and their interrelations The environment management system encompasses the following: 

•  Structured, systematic, documented and voluntary approach.
•  Proactive identification & control of environmental aspects.
•  Ensures compliance with legislations.
•  Continual improvement in environmental performance
•  Sustainable dialogue with interested parties.

 FOOD SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (ISO 22000)

Specifies requirements for a food safety management system where an organization in the food chain needs to demonstrate its ability to control food safety hazards in order to ensure that food is safe at the time of human consumption. It is integration of Quality Management System, Food Safety and Environment Management System.

ISO 22000 specifies requirements to enable an organisation:

• To plan, implement, operate, maintain and update a food safety management system aimed at providing products that, according to their intended use, are safe for the consumer,
•  To demonstrate compliance with applicable statutory and regulatory food safety requirements.
•  To evaluate and asses customer requirements and demonstrate conformity with those mutually agreed customer requirements that relate to food safety, in order to enhance customer satisfaction,
•  To effectively communicate food safety issues to their suppliers, customers and relevant interested parties in the food chain,
•  To ensure that the organization conforms to its stated food safety policy.

 TOTAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT (TQM)

TQM is an integrated organizational approach in delighting customers (both internal and external) by meeting their expectations on a continuous basis through everyone involved with the organization working on continuous improvement in all spheres,namely, products, services and processes along with proper problem solving methodology. If implemented properly, TQM can bring the following benefits to the organization.

•  For Customers
•  Value for money
•  Greater customer care
• No complaints
•  Better availability

All these will result in better customer loyalty.

• For Company
• Continuous improvement in quality
•  Reduction in size
•  Increase in productivity
•  People are better motivated
•  Defects are reduced
•  Problems are solved faster

All the above will result in increased ROI, net profits and cash flow.

•  For Employees
•  Empowerment
•  More training skill
•  Appreciation and recognition
•  More respect

Some of the main activities available under TQM are:

•  House Keeping
•  Kaizen
•  Small Group Activity (SGA)
•  Policy Deployment (Hoshin Kanri)

ONLINE QUALITY CONTROL MANAGEMENT IN DAIRY INDUSTRY

Total quality assurance management system in dairy industry involves assuring that raw material meeting the standards, hygienic and plant parameters are maintained during processing, filling and packing, desirable storage conditions in dairy, transportation and trade, so that the product reaching to customers meets his/her needs with respect to quality, safety and nutrition. The stepwise details of online total quality assurance management system in dairy are:

Raw Material: Assuring that good quality raw material is used for manufacturing the product. Visual and olfactory analysis of material to assure that raw material is free from any foreign matter, abnormal flavours etc.

Processing: Monitoring the various parameters like temperature, steam pressure, vaccum, Baume reading, pH, hygrometer etc. and maintaining the records of parameters monitored for particular process/ product. It also involves parameters of cleaning and sanitation, monitoring of plant and personal hygiene as well as proper house keeping in production and packing area. Some of the examples are moisture control in milk powder, granulation control in ghee etc.

Filling and Packaging: It also involves monitoring of various parameters like cleanliness of filling lines, packing machine, printing and coding, control over weight and length variation, sealing integrity, hygienic condition of packing area etc.

Storage: Fulfillment of various storage norms such as cleanliness, insect and pest free area, temperature, humidity, ventilation, lighting facilities, proper stacking and stack height and maintenance of First Manufactured First Out (FMFO).

Transportation: Regular checking of transport vehicle, temperature monitoring,cleanliness of vehicle, absenceof undesirable odour, dairy products should not be transported with odour imparting materials.

Sales of Distribution: Storage of dairy products as per norms such as clean, insect and pest free area, lighting facilities, proper stacking and stack height and maintenance of First In First Out (FIFO). It also involve maintenance of storage environment such as temperature, humidity, dampness, proper ventilation etc.

Product Indentification and Traceabililty: Product identification at all stages of processing from receipt of raw material to finished product. Product identification helps in:

•  The segregation of product;
•  Isolating the non-conforming product,
•  Future prevention of non-conforming product

 Traceability is a legislative requirement. It plays an important role to investigate the problem. A system for product tracebililty helps what was produced, when, how much and its destination.