Solving Immediate Corrective Action Issues

Many food companies face the same issues on inspection reports time and again. You can detect frustration in a group when they ask, “Didn’t we take care of that last month? How many times do we have to go over this before these people get it?” But, before we can cast blame on personnel working in a given area, we really have to ask, “What did we correct?”

There is a difference in simply taking corrective action and actually eliminating an issue. Unfortunately, in our busy world, we often only think in terms of immediate corrective action in order to move onto the next pressing issue. This results in little more than a quick fix when an overhaul may be needed.

Immediate corrective action and long-term corrective action are separate activities. Immediate corrective action occurs on the spot as a kind of trigger reaction to a situation. The duration of the solution usually follows the same pattern and lacks sustainability. Long-term corrective action is well thought-out in order to accomplish a sustainable result that lasts for a long period of time. The results are quite different than those you can expect from immediate action. Long-term corrective action addresses the root causes and develops a good preventive approach to issues so they are not repeated.

Food plants and those providing services to them often get caught in a mode of trying to deliver a plan that shows immediate results, which becomes the routine approach to problem solving. It tends to create a short sightedness that leaves the facility in a questionable state, incurring added expenses. With this approach to problem solving, issues are never really resolved, just put aside for a short while.

Is “Re-” Your Norm?
How much of your daily job involves words that begin with re-? Remake product, repair a machine, re-clean before production, rework a product, reship product because we have a return. The list goes on and on. When these words become the norm, it is a good indication that long-term solutions are not being addressed.

Rather than focusing on so many short-term solutions that cost time, resources, and money, make a conscious effort to look at eliminating repetitive tasks. This thought process is not just relegated to the inspection committee, but should become the mindset of every department in the food plant. Why is maintenance always repairing equipment and not maintaining it to keep it operational? Why do we have to consistently take an additional four to five hours to re-clean equipment sufficiently to use for production?

There are different programs available that promote long-term strategies and reliable methodology. Sometimes situations are very complicated and need to be approached on a number of different levels. Seeking assistance with the more complex issues is a good idea. An outsider who is not blinded by the circumstances may be able to sort through an issue and come up with a lasting solution.

A great benefit to having a multi-disciplinary corrective-action committee looking at issues is that they can work together to determine the best solution. Team members can build on each other’s ideas, resulting in the best comprehensive long-term solution to the problem.

Long-term solutions are not always the most complex. Several years ago I was asked to assist with a sanitation issue in a food plant. There was a need for extensive cleaning to address the dust issues in one area of the plant. As a result of the dust, a high level of pest activity was being seen. The initial solution to the pest issue required weekly space applications that caused the plant to shut down for 12 hours during the application. The situation had grown into a major issue and cost for the facility. Upon closer inspection, it was discovered that the area had a waste-collection system that allowed dry ingredients to be dropped from upper platforms into a dedicated waste container. Since the product was a rather lightweight powder, it became airborne when it completed its journey through a drop of 30-plus feet. Fans and other air movement then moved the dust throughout the area causing dust accumulations on every horizontal surface. Hours of cleaning, expensive downtime, and pest management services were needed just to attempt to stay on top of this situation.

The people in the plant were committed to finding a solution. Suggestions varied—from modifying the system, to including a high-dollar dust collection system that would extract dust from the air, to re-piping the system so waste was collected in another area. Another suggestion under consideration was removing the ingredient from the formula so it would no longer be a problem. One suggestion that was initially not considered came from the person trying to keep the area clean. He suggested putting a tight-fitting cover on the container, cutting an access hole in the cover, and attaching a transfer sleeve to the discharge pipe that extended into the container. Doing this would contain most of the dust inside the container and eliminate the need for the aggressive frequent cleaning, reduce the level of insect activity, and cut back on the loss of production from pest control activities in this vital area.

Effective Not Expensive.
Long-term solutions do not necessarily require large expenditures. Often effective control over a situation involves a review of one or more of the prerequisite programs to find a long-term solution. Repetitive issues send a message that the programs designed to manage issues are failing in some way. Once you begin correcting deficiencies in the prerequisite programs to take care of recurring issues that crop up, you begin to think with a mindset that will prevent the issues from happening from the start.

A recurring sanitation issue likely could be attributed to a flaw in the schedule for completion, the documented procedure, or inadequate employee training. This concept applies to every aspect of operation. There is no difference between problem solving for operational, quality, or maintenance issues. If you are not looking for the solution in these very programs, you will remain captured in the immediate corrective action cycle.

Critical thinking requires practice, failure, and a learning process to do it well. It often requires a detached perspective to take conditions or events outside of the immediate evidence into account. Seek out the events that resulted in the issue you are attempting to correct, because the long-term solution lies in your ability to stop it from occurring in the first place. Change your self-inspection objective from finding issues to finding solutions for those costly and unnecessary issues that take up space on your reports and never seem to go away.

The author is Head of Food Safety Education, AIB International.