CHALLENGE
Food quality and food safety have always been watchwords at the organization. Fortunately, the fact of the matter is that vertical farming has intrinsic safety advantages compared to traditional methods. Contaminants and pests from the outside world can’t find their way into the farming space—obviating the use of pesticides. As the crops are irrigated, nutrinized, harvested, and packaged by machine, the end customer at the grocery store is the first pair of human hands to touch the stock directly.
This hermetically sealed growing environment also lends itself to an extremely high degree of traceability. During a nationwide romaine recall, the company was able to keep all its stock on the shelves because they had full traceability of all seeds and growing medium. The company can take a randomly selected clamshell of lettuce and then trace it back to the barcoded seed tray that it originally came from. Even the water used to irrigate its crops is traced and analyzed throughout the entire growth cycle. If there’s ever a food safety incident, this organization is perfectly poised to intercept and recall the affected food items.
As such, the challenge isn’t necessarily in the realm of improving quality or safety (although the company is dedicated to continuous improvement). Rather, their challenge has been to effectively utilize the wealth of data that their facilities generate.
For example, the company is subject to frequent audits from food safety organizations as well as its wholesale customers. In responding to those audits, the company could either furnish their raw data—which is extremely detailed—but they lacked a way to selectively produce only the data that the auditor needed, or to present that data in an attractive manner. This increased the length of the audit process, something that’s antithetical to the startup philosophy of moving fast. By the same token, the agritech company needed a fast, reliable, and repeatable method of auditing its suppliers. The company’s operating philosophy is based on an automotive production model and, as such, the company requires exacting performance from its OEMs, just as the automotive industry expects.
In short, the company needed to adopt a solution that could centralize its data, improve their audit readiness and reporting, and allow them to audit their supply chain. Due to their efficiency ethos, they preferred a single solution that could be adopted rapidly while covering many bases.
“We were looking for something that could manage all of our corrective actions, our document controls, and our supply chain,” said the company’s global quality manager. “So, I was looking for elements such as qualifications, PPAPs, and supplier ratings. Therefore, when I came across a solution that could essentially do all of it, I was on board immediately.”
Global Quality Manager
We were looking for something that could manage all of our corrective actions, our document controls, and our supply chain. ...I was looking for elements such as qualifications, PPAPs, and supplier ratings. Therefore, when I came across a solution that could essentially do all of it, I was on board immediately.”
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When the new global quality manager came on board, he found that the company was using Google Sheets as an ad hoc quality control mechanism. He immediately recognized the need for a more formal application. ETQ offered all the right features in a single application, and they promised a rapid deployment.
“The team at ETQ told us, ‘We’re going to start with a gap analysis. We’re going to review your workbooks and understand exactly how you want to roll this out.’ And it’s a very quick process. Everything was incredibly well-defined. I’ve never been a part of such a smooth software implementation before,” he said.
The company signed a contract with ETQ in mid-May, and the implementation go-live happened just one month later, on June 15th. The first step of the implementation was specific to the Reliance document control application. This formed the backbone of quality management at the company and, as a result, this single feature was able to remedy many of the challenges they experienced.
After the initial document control implementation phase, the next deployment will be ETQ Reliance’s Supply Chain Quality application set, as the company relies on its suppliers for high-quality, food-safe materials at a reasonable cost.
“We’ve really built out an automotive-based supply chain process, which means routine audits at our suppliers for all of our CapEx and our direct materials. It means complete PPAP of all of our suppliers to make sure that we’re guaranteeing the consistency and the quality of our supply,” the global quality manager noted.
SOLUTION
Global Quality Manager
It is very interesting to see how different the requirements are for all of our customers, and I think being able to have a one-size-fits-all quality program such as what we have in ETQ is very important for us.
Even though the agritech company is comparatively early on in its implementation of Reliance, the results have been measurable. Reliance, with its document control module, has dramatically streamlined the way that the firm responds to — and passes — audits. For example, as part of their Safe Quality Food (SQF) certification, the firm must pass a surprise audit that can take place at any time between July 14th and the middle of September. No matter when that audit occurs, however, this ETQ customer can click a single button and deliver a report to the auditor without having to go through each individual finding. As time goes on and the company continues accumulating data, each relevant document will automatically update the linked audit findings.
This ability represents a dramatic time savings. They no longer must work to prepare individual findings by hand, which means that audits themselves go much faster. What’s more, the reports are more feature-rich, incorporating trend analysis that’s much easier to comprehend than a rudimentary Excel spreadsheet. This in turn means that the company can rapidly pursue the high-intensity audits that allow them to sell produce through various grocery chains, all of which have exacting standards.
“It is very interesting to see how different the requirements are for all of our customers, and I think being able to have a one-size-fits-all quality program such as what we have in ETQ is very important for us. All our data is there, and we can pick and choose what we want to show those customers. Because they are so different it’s great for us to have such a flexible process and a robust program,” said the global quality manager.
Meanwhile, the forthcoming implementation of the Reliance supply chain quality application will also create massive efficiencies for the organization. Right now, the company is PPAP-ing all CapEX and direct material suppliers that are providing components critical to quality—and it’s still doing it with spreadsheets. Once the supply chain module is implemented, the supply chain team will be able to collaborate and achieve traceability over the step-by-step process of the PPAP, which will represent yet another enormous time savings.
Lastly, an important aspect of the Reliance implementation is that it has helped accelerate the development of a culture of quality at the company. A few short years ago, it had just one quality-related full-time employee in an office of 300 people. Quality management, at that time, was all audit focused. Now, the company realizes that quality can be the bedrock for more than just audits. A focus on quality will drive food safety, crop yields, consistency, and more. By using ETQ Reliance to promote quality throughout the organization, the company is achieving measurable acceleration towards its goal to efficiently and cost effectively produce healthy and nutritious foods for the world’s growing population.
RESULTS
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Terms and conditions
ETQ, part of Hexagon, is the leading provider of quality, EHS and compliance management SaaS software, trusted by the world’s strongest brands. More than 600 customers globally, spanning industries such as pharmaceuticals, electronics, heavy industry, food and beverage, and medical devices, benefit from ETQ to secure positive brand reputations, enable higher levels of customer loyalty and enhance profitability. ETQ Reliance offers built-in best practices and powerful flexibility to drive business excellence through quality. Only ETQ lets customers configure industry-proven quality processes to their unique needs and business vision. ETQ was founded in 1992 and has main offices located in the U.S. and Europe. To learn more about ETQ and its various product offerings, visit www.etq.com.
Hexagon is a global leader in digital reality solutions. Learn more about Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) at hexagon.com and follow us@HexagonAB.
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Food & Beverage
CASE STUDY
Manual Processes
Superior Audit Readiness
Easy Compliance with global quality safety standards
QUALITY JOURNEY
For many, vertical farming represents the future of agriculture. This method of farming makes use of the tall and narrow urban footprint to produce vast amounts of food while using 95% less water and 99% less land than traditional farms. Although this burgeoning industry is rife with startups, a California-based agritech company has taken an early lead. The company has taken in more than $200 million in funding and is a supplier to major grocery retailers.
ETQ Reliance Helps Promote Food Safety, Higher Crop Yield, and Improved Compliance for Vertical Farming Venture
Global Quality Manager
The team at ETQ told us, ‘We’re going to start with a gap analysis. We’re going to review your workbooks and understand exactly how you want to roll this out.’ And it’s a very quick process. Everything was incredibly well-defined. I’ve never been a part of such a smooth software implementation before.
“
Food & Beverage
CASE STUDY
Manual Processes
Superior Audit Readiness
Easy Compliance with global quality safety standards
QUALITY JOURNEY
For many, vertical farming represents the future of agriculture. This method of farming makes use of the tall and narrow urban footprint to produce vast amounts of food while using 95% less water and 99% less land than traditional farms. Although this burgeoning industry is rife with startups, a California-based agritech company has taken an early lead. The company has taken in more than $200 million in funding and is a supplier to major grocery retailers.
ETQ Reliance Helps Promote Food Safety, Higher Crop Yield, and Improved Compliance for Vertical Farming Venture
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Terms and conditions
Contact us
Contact us
ETQ © 2021
ETQ is the leading provider of quality, EHS and compliance management software, trusted by the world’s strongest brands, like Kimberly-Clark, Herman Miller and Chobani. More than 570 global companies, spanning industries including automotive, biotech, food and beverage, manufacturing, medical devices and pharmaceuticals use ETQ to secure positive brand reputations, deliver higher levels of customer loyalty and enhance profitability. ETQ Reliance offers built-in best practices and powerful flexibility to drive business excellence through quality. Only ETQ lets customers configure industry-proven quality processes to their unique needs and business vision. ETQ was founded in 1992 and has main offices located in the U.S. and Europe. To learn more about ETQ and its product offerings, visit www.ETQ.com.
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CHALLENGE
Food quality and food safety have always been watchwords at the organization. Fortunately, the fact of the matter is that vertical farming has intrinsic safety advantages compared to traditional methods. Contaminants and pests from the outside world can’t find their way into the farming space—obviating the use of pesticides. As the crops are irrigated, nutrinized, harvested, and packaged by machine, the end customer at the grocery store is the first pair of human hands to touch the stock directly.
This hermetically sealed growing environment also lends itself to an extremely high degree of traceability. During a nationwide romaine recall, the company was able to keep all its stock on the shelves because they had full traceability of all seeds and growing medium. The company can take a randomly selected clamshell of lettuce and then trace it back to the barcoded seed tray that it originally came from. Even the water used to irrigate its crops is traced and analyzed throughout the entire growth cycle. If there’s ever a food safety incident, this organization is perfectly poised to intercept and recall the affected food items.
As such, the challenge isn’t necessarily in the realm of improving quality or safety (although the company is dedicated to continuous improvement). Rather, their challenge has been to effectively utilize the wealth of data that their facilities generate.
For example, the company is subject to frequent audits from foo
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Food & Beverage
CASE STUDY
Manual Processes
Superior Audit Readiness
Easy Compliance with global quality safety standards
QUALITY JOURNEY
For many, vertical farming represents the future of agriculture. This method of farming makes use of the tall and narrow urban footprint to produce vast amounts of food while using 95% less water and 99% less land than traditional farms. Although this burgeoning industry is rife with startups, a California-based agritech company has taken an early lead. The company has taken in more than $200 million in funding and is a supplier to major grocery retailers.
ETQ Reliance Helps Promote Food Safety, Higher Crop Yield, and Improved Compliance for Vertical Farming Venture
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Privacy Policy
Terms and conditions
Terms and conditions
Contact us
Contact us
ETQ © 2021
ETQ is the leading provider of quality, EHS and compliance management software, trusted by the world’s strongest brands, like Kimberly-Clark, Herman Miller and Chobani. More than 570 global companies, spanning industries including automotive, biotech, food and beverage, manufacturing, medical devices and pharmaceuticals use ETQ to secure positive brand reputations, deliver higher levels of customer loyalty and enhance profitability. ETQ Reliance offers built-in best practices and powerful flexibility to drive business excellence through quality. Only ETQ lets customers configure industry-proven quality processes to their unique needs and business vision. ETQ was founded in 1992 and has main offices located in the U.S. and Europe. To learn more about ETQ and its product offerings, visit www.ETQ.com.