I recall a sign over the employee’s entrance door for a company that read, “QUALITY STARTS HERE.”  How about the door that upper management enters every day?

The salmonella news we are hearing about and reading about is for the peanut butter salmonella scare that happened in 2008-09.   There was also a chicken salmonella issue this year.  Go to Voice Search on your cell phone and ask about “Salmonella in peanut butter” and Salmonella in “chicken  Salmonella” and you will be surprised about all the food products that have Salmonella and the very small, if any Federal Inspections that happen.

I remember about five years ago that WALMART did a recall on peanut butter and I found a jar of this recall at a company in Spokane, WA.   I was in Spokane doing Source Inspections for a major OEM.   This was a shock to me as the jar was being used until I told people

2% FOOD INSPECTIONS
Our government inspects less than 2% of the meat that is imported into the USA.  Does this concern you?  It should and think about this the next time you are food shopping.

Wheat bread is not really wheat bread unless it says STONE GROUND 100% WHOLE WHEAT.  Did you know this?  If package says only WHEAT BREAD, it is usually white bread with coloring.  Learned this while watching my local PBS TV channel which has some excellent programs on what foods to eat and what foods not to eat.

Reading labels is really necessary today with all the ingredients that can hurt us.  Do you read labels?

Look at the sugar content in pop.  You may think that the sugar is low but is the sugar content explained for only 8 ounces and the can is 16?  I saw a pop can that there was 62g of sugar.

As a Quality Professional how many times have you heard stories about inspectors being told to accept defective product?  Because they fear for losing their job they accept the product.

Now a product can be hardware, software or a service.  What if the product is going to be installed on an automobile, aircraft,  ship or something that people will be eating, drinking, driving or a passenger?  It may seem to be a small thing that you are doing but what if the airplane crashes, the car brakes fail or the ship sinks?  Now people have died, families lost and law suits happen.  Was it really worth the risk?  The loss now is going to be much greater than the truck load of peanut butter.

You may have noticed or read that corporation officers can no longer hide behind the corporation title and feel they are protected because they are now being suited and brought to court and they lose.  They lose their job, their home(s), and their personal items and even go to jail.  The corporation then fails and this causes good employees to lose their job when they had not done anything wrong.  The company stock drops and is some cases is taken off the stock market just because a management person forced the Quality Organization to accept none compliant product.

WHAT WOULD YOU DO?
I hope that if asked to accept bad product that you will ask for an E-mail or something in writing which you will probably not receive.  If you do your job correctly and said “NO” and are fired it is time to report what happened to the proper authorities.  If enough reports of these situations are exposed then maybe the number will be reduced.  It seems no matter how hard we try to be honest there will always be an individual that will try to do things that they know are wrong and try to involve us in their wrong.

Would you install a defective air bag when you know it is wrong but you were ordered to do it?   Would you serve food that is spoiled?   Would you tell the customer that you checked their car brakes and they are okay when you did not check the brakes but are charging them for this service?  I hope that your answer is a LOUD NO.

LEARN RISK MANAGEMENT
Learn risk management – Your job depends on it.

One solution is for all employees, starting with upper management, to learn and fully understand RISK MANAGEMENT(RM).  Does your organization fully understand Risk Management?  RM is now part of many International Standards like AS9100(AEROSPACE), ISO9001(BUSINESS), ISO13485(MEDICAL), TS16949(AUTO) any many more.  Does your organization fully understand their customers Purchase Orders and ALL the REQUIREMENTS before signing on the dotted line?

Was it really worth the gamble to ship this peanut butter without the tests results just to make some money and put people’s lives at RISK?  The answer of course is NO.

I have over 30 years of experience in Quality Engineering, Source Inspections, Supplier Audits and Training, Process and Product Audits, Food Industry like AIB (American Institute of Baking) and BRC (British Retail Consortium), Lean Enterprise Applications, Risk Analysis & Control Plans, CAPA (Corrective Action and Preventative Action), 6 Sigma Green Belt, FOD (Foreign Object & Debris) investigations, AS9100 & ISO 9001 Audits and helping organizations prepare for their registration audit.

I would really like to work with the investigation team in determining how this Salmonella issue happened and what is being done to prevent it from happening again at both the manufacture of the peanut butter and its customers.  Who are other suppliers of peanut butter and what tests do they do to ensure it is safe for humans?

What are your thoughts and questions?

Bio:

Bill Walker is a quality consultant and writer in Everett, Washington, USA.  He can be reached at:  billwalkerrm@gmail.com