TechHelp and the Idaho Manufacturing Alliance will offer a Public Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Course (LSSGB) at IMA’s HQ in Nampa with full-day sessions on 1/17, 1/31, 2/14, and 3/6 of 2024. Lean Six Sigma is a well-known approach for achieving operational excellence that combines the process improvement benefits of Lean with the statistical process control benefits of Six Sigma. The course includes time between sessions for participants to complete workplace projects.
There has never been a better time to apply the principles of Lean Six Sigma in your organization. With today’s tight labor market and supply chain challenges, Lean can help your company become a more attractive employer and a stronger competitor. Luke Fuess and Janna Hamlett of TechHelp, the University of Idaho, and the legendary Lean practitioner Gene Hamacher will lead the course and provide LSSGB project support.
I hope the weather is not treating you too harshly as we enter the holiday season.
We are thrilled to announce that our team has expanded with the arrival of Stuart Walker, a 28-year research and development veteran in the food industry. Stuart joined TechHelp as a Food Specialist in October of 2023 after working for almost 12 years at the renowned Litehouse Food Company in Sandpoint, Idaho. He looks forward to utilizing his extensive food formulation and manufacturing knowledge and background to help solve the current problems being experienced by Idaho food manufacturers. Stuart will be based in Boise but will serve Idaho food processors statewide.
Supply chain constraints are not a new challenge in the food industry. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic created additional hardships, the food industry has always had to deal with difficulties in the supply chain. Food is a global market, and even the smallest food processor brings in food ingredients, packaging, and equipment from around the world. The food industry is not immune to environmental disasters or political unrest in the global environment. Since the food supply chain is very complex with multiple stakeholders, processors, brokers, and transportation involved, it is susceptible to turbulence and instability.
The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act – Preventive Controls for Human Food requires processing facilities to have at least one Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI) on staff to oversee the food safety plan and system.
Our upcoming online FSPCA Preventive Controls for Human Food Course is one way to gain that credential. This FSPCA Preventive Controls for Human Food course is the “standardized curriculum” recognized by the FDA. This course covers regulation Title 21 CFR 117 – Current Good Manufacturing Practice, Hazard Analysis, and Risk-Based Preventive Controls for Human Food.
People make mistakes—more often than we might like to think. Studies have shown that no matter how well-trained a worker is, or how well-maintained the equipment is, errors still occur. Tasks are forgotten, and equipment breaks. Standard work and “one right way” can help reduce errors.
Mistake proofing, also known by its Japanese equivalent, “poka-yoke,” is a method used to reduce or eliminate errors, or to make those errors immediately obvious. Ensuring that non-conforming product is never created—or at least never arrives at customers’ doorsteps—is invaluable in the food industry. Reduced downgrade, less rework, and decreased out-of-specification product are all benefits of mistake proofing.
A sanitation program is a key component of any food processor’s or food handler’s food safety plan. A well-written and well-executed sanitation program can mitigate, or reduce to an acceptable level, all three classifications of hazards (microbiological, chemical, and physical) in a hazard analysis. Sanitation is one of the four preventive controls (process controls, allergen, sanitation, and others) in the Preventive Controls for Human Food rule of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA). Sanitation has long been a major prerequisite program for Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). Consequently, it is imperative that the sanitation program be functioning and performing according to expectations.
If you look around, you may find many examples of ‘TIM WOODS’ in a food processing facility. TIM WOODS is an acronym for the ‘eight wastes’ that can plague a processing facility. In lean manufacturing, waste is any cost, effort, or material that is used in a processing facility that does not directly lead to a completed unit.
According to the Idaho Business Review, there were about 470,000 Idaho workers eligible for the Accomplished Under 40 (AU40) award in 2022. From among that huge cohort, Food Processing Specialist Catherine Cantley of TechHelp and the University of Idaho stood out and was recognized as one of Idaho’s AU40 business professionals.
When buying equipment for a food processing facility or commercial kitchen, it is ideal to purchase new equipment that is designed for the specific product, processing use, and processing capacity at the facility. However, in many cases this equipment may be cost-prohibitive, or the exact type of equipment may not be readily available, and so used equipment may need to be purchased instead.
Is your manufacturing facility undergoing a workforce shortage? Attracting, hiring, and keeping workers is one of today’s key workforce challenges. In this webinar, we explored how collaborative robots (also called cobots) can help. Our speakers, Ryan Okelberry (House of Design) and Al Youngwerth (Versabuilt) are local legends in the robotics industry who shared their experiences and answered questions.
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