Retailer code of practice compliance
Ensuring compliance with retailers' codes of practice is key in winning new business and developing positive supply chain relationships. Failure to comply with, and any breaches of, these codes can result in substantial fines and loss of reputation and potentially lost contracts.
Coding, labelling and packaging verification are often covered by codes of practice to ensure food manufacturers have the tools and procedures in place to prevent product recalls.
Automation for code of practice compliance
Human error is one of the main reasons for product recalls related to label and date code errors. As a result, it’s no surprise that retailers have requested that suppliers automate their production lines to minimise the risks of human error occurring.
The majority of automated systems therefore control various packaging line devices including printers and date coders to ensure the correct label and date code is applied to each product.
Audit checks to ensure automation compliance
Once you have an automated system in place, you need to ensure it's operating effectively and is compliant with your relevant code of practice.
Introducing OAL's trainer, Faye Louch. With over 10 years' experience working in food manufacturing, Faye is best placed to help you stay compliant, through her health checks as well as regular training for key users. In this video she explains her five key areas to look at when auditing food manufacturers' label and date code verification systems. Learn more about the five key audit checks by reading the full article:
System security
Fail-safe checks
Printers
Operator interaction
Continuous improvement
Top 3 reasons for failing a BRC or retailer audit
Audits. Whether it’s a BRC audit or one of the retailers, it can be a stressful time for any food manufacturer. But what if you could eliminate some of that stress by preparing for the real thing with a trusted partner? As part of our training offering, we also carry out health audits on our customers’ lines. This valuable service ensures that your lines are running correctly, errors are prevented and you should be in a better position to pass an audit.
No one wants to invest in label & date code verification equipment to meet a retailer code of practice (COP), and then find that the first time the system is fully tested is during the real audit where your operations are on the line. With our health audits, our trainers will uncover where you may have weaknesses and what you may need to improve upon so you’re ready for the real thing. Our detailed reports give you a list of corrective actions and a score, so you can keep improving year after year, and these health audits can form part of your Support contract or as a one-off purchase should you need additional assistance.
We’ve conducted hundreds of health audits, so we know what to look out for, and our trainers are ex-industry so they understand your challenges inside-out. Here are the top 3 reasons that we find cause a failure when we conduct a health audit on our customers’ sites:
#1 User hierarchy
When you install an automated label & date code verification system, the appropriate access must be given to each person to prevent mistakes from occurring. For example, it’s best to avoid offering too much freedom to operators on the line to make changes so they have the lowest level of access, rising for supervisors, engineers and management. Controlled access ensures there is a full audit trail for any decisions made on the line and people can be held accountable for their decisions.
Our system is locked down to ensure only the right level can control the system, but sometimes errors can occur and an operator may be given too much access, gated areas of the system may become free to access or login cards could be shared, all of which could lead to a failed health audit. Our trainers have a detailed checklist to ensure the right level of access is in place for each area of your line, preventing errors and safeguarding your operations to prevent product recalls.
#2 Site procedures
With any food facility, there are a whole raft of site procedures that must take place with each product run. But as with any fast-moving environment, sometimes things can slip through the net and that’s where our trainers can help as missing or incorrect site procedures are our second most common reason for a health audit fail. They can take a holistic view of what your operators are doing and review this against a tailor-made checklist to ensure everything that should be happening is, before the auditors arrive. This can include ensuring that operators have the right level of training to operate the OAL Connected system, checking what corrective actions are taken should an alarm sound and uncovering any gaps in your procedures that may leave you open to risk, as if these aren’t running correctly, it could lead to a failed audit.
#3 Failsafe checks
Food manufacturers must ensure failsafe checks are in place and they are conducted on a daily basis. These ensure the system and all linked equipment are running correctly and are not susceptible to errors prior to the start of a product run or shift. During the health audit, our trainers ask you to run your standard failsafe checks and will risk assess them to ensure you’re operating safely and effectively. These tend to include no-read checks, incorrect barcode tests, printer feedback and whether the operator can explain why they’re doing these checks or if the person running the failsafe checks has a secondary approver, which is not always the case. Incorrect or incomplete failsafe checks can leave you open to risk and it’s vital to rectify any problems before an audit, so our trainers can prove invaluable in flagging any issues before they cause significant problems.
The term ‘Autocoding’ was first coined by innovative engineer and OAL founder Harry Norman back in 2001 and refers to the system of components that work together to reduce the risk of a company suffering a product recall from incorrect label and date code labelling. Our label & date code verification solutions are installed on over 1,200 lines, testament to how effective they are in safeguarding packaging lines. But have you ever wondered how such a system came about? Here we will take a look at the history of this innovative technology and discover where it all began for Autocoding.
Identifying the problem
The development of the original Autocoding package arose from the need to prevent product recalls that occurred as a result of products with the wrong date code or label information entering the supply chain, leading to fines and wasted time and materials for many manufacturers. With existing automated systems unable to get the necessary read rates, and humans often failing to notice incorrect dates or labelling errors, product recalls could be quite frequent.
Determined to find a solution, one retailer turned to OAL while we were onsite completing a different software job to see if we could find a way to get the required read rates and eliminate the risk of a recall. Not one to turn down a challenge, we set to work and soon Autocoding was born.
Creating the solution
Pot and lid marriage on a coleslaw pot
The first system appeared in a different form to the label & date code verification systems we know and use today. The early solution used laser scanners to read barcodes, instead of the cameras now seen on lines. Although the system was able to get the read rates for the retailer, solving the original problem, the scanners were limited and only able to read 1D barcodes.
Our label & date code verification solution was then taken through a series of trials and developments, and the scanners were substituted with cameras. The system could now read both 1D and 2D barcodes, a valuable configuration for the industry. For products such as coleslaw that require both a pot and lid, 2D barcodes ensured that the two were married as the barcodes could be printed on both components. This meant that not only was the date code correct, but the correct lid was on the correlating pot. Our automated label & date code verification system was now fully developed and ready to start safeguarding packaging lines.
Incorporating additional benefits
Understanding the issues faced by manufacturers, and witnessing first-hand the problems human intervention can cause, the system was designed from the outset to be independent from the printer. The camera is connected to a central database rather than the printer, ensuring an extra element of protection. Not only this, but as our system scans and reviews the information on every product prior to leaving the factory, the system also offers full traceability and a comprehensive and reliable audit trail. These features, inherent to each OAL Connected system, help manufacturers eliminate the risk of recalls and adhere to strict codes of practice.
As time went on and we made further software developments, we realised we could add further features. The OAL Connected system now offers additional modules to ensure manufacturers can achieve full control and maximum efficiency. These modules include paperless quality checks, OEE performance, checkweigher links and traceability, to name just a few. These additional features gave manufacturers the choice to tailor our system to their individual requirements, ensuring a personal solution for each facility.
Where are we now?
Since its inception in 2001, our label & date code verification system is now the solution of choice for manufacturers both large and small. Blue-chip companies such as Heinz, Bakkavor and Ichiban opt to protect their packaging lines with an OAL Connected system and over 7.8 billion products are scanned every year. This innovative solution pioneered the way for label and date code verification and is now a crucial component in many manufacturers’ lives. As the original system on the market, we use our understanding of the food industry to constantly improve and update our systems, ensuring that you have the very best protection on your line, saving you money and protecting your brand.