The cost of poor quality in manufacturing and why you need to avoid it

Manufacturers are under increasing pressure to deliver quality products to exacting standards, consistently. Given the scrutiny the food processing industry is subjected to, it is not surprising that the market leaders do everything they can to instil a culture of quality control in their businesses.

Those that cut corners to keep costs down risk product recalls, lost orders, potentially lengthy downtime and reputational damage.

When assessing how to manage quality in your business, it is essential to weigh up the cost of good quality versus the cost of poor quality. These are the two components of the metric cost of quality, which every manufacturer needs to assess.

This blog examines the financial and reputational burden of poor quality in manufacturing, why you need to avoid it and how to do it well.

• What is the cost of poor quality?
• What is the cost of good quality?
• What is best practice quality control?
• How do I ensure good quality in my business?

What is the cost of poor quality?

The costs of poor quality in food manufacturing are far-ranging. You need to think about product waste, the wasted energy used in producing a substandard item, the potential impact of downtime on productivity, meeting customer deadlines and supply chain disruption.

Then, there may be labour implications if staff on the payroll cannot do their jobs properly until the quality issues have been fixed. There may be customer penalties for delivering off-spec products, warranty claims, and product recalls. On top of that, there is the cost of putting things right – and this could include legal fees, PR fees to fix reputational damage, not to mention the financial cost of acquiring the correct equipment and putting in place effective quality control and preventive procedures.

Furthermore, there will be an impact on management time and energy: brainstorming what went wrong and why; figuring out the future needs of the business to minimise disruption going forward; negotiating with customers and staff to keep them on-side.

The list goes on.

The cost of good quality

Every food manufacturer needs to think about the metric cost of quality to get the balance right regarding costs and return on investment.

The cost of good quality depends on four main components: prevention, appraisal, internal and external failure.

Prevention and appraisal are the key ingredients for the reliable production of good quality products.

We’ve all heard the adage: prevention is better than cure. And this is undoubtedly the case in food manufacturing.

The implementation of quality systems of various kinds has become a universal necessity in the food manufacturing sector. Indeed, in many countries, enterprises’ adoption of food quality and safety systems is no longer a matter of choice but a legal requirement.

Based on the so-called ‘grandparents’ of quality control systems – the International Organization for Standardization’s ISO 9000 for quality management and the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) approach for risk control – companies have developed increasingly sophisticated approaches to maintaining good quality in food manufacturing.

Prevention and appraisal processes need to ensure the safety of the end product. This requires the installation of inspection equipment that can detect product defects, along with real-time data analysis so that productivity can be continually appraised.

However, there are many challenges when it comes to detection and inspection processes.

What is best-practice quality control?

There are various regulations and guidelines that every good UK food manufacturer should follow to achieve best-practice quality control.

These include the Global Standard for Food Safety, government guidelines on food labelling and composition, and the Food Standards Agency guidance, based on the principles of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP).

Ultimately, it is all about product inspection processes. And this is why installing an inspection system into your production line is critical to success in today’s fiercely competitive world. Food manufacturers that do not include screening and checking of their product as part of their consistent operations risk product defect, contamination and the end consumer’s safety.

Checkweighers: Checkweighers are a vital component in any well-run production line, so you must do everything you can to keep them operating smoothly. They are mainly used to check that the weight of a product accords with customer specifications, rather than identify contaminants. However, the careful and consistent weighing of your product will help you determine whether there are unusual masses in your product. This can help identify unwanted and potentially harmful ingredients. Digital checkweighers use electric signals distributed by the load cells of your weighing system to tell you the weight of your product as it goes through the manufacturing process. If you are producing a regularly made product, you’ll likely need to have set masses to adhere to, and if you spot anything unusual, this may be a clue that there are contaminants in the batch.

However, checkweighers can only be of use in this sense when dealing with contaminants of substantial weight. To ensure a robust process, you will need to combine your checkweighers with another inspection system.

Yamato offers a range of industry-leading checkweighers such as the superbly efficient waterproof I-Series Checkweigher and the fast and accurate J-Series, to help you install a state-of-the-art production line that delivers to customer specs, consistently.

Checkweigher metal detector combination systems: When it comes to contaminants, metal is one of the most common to be found in food. Manufacturers need to be particularly vigilant about metal contaminants as they can enter processing at pretty much any point in the production line. This is why you need to install a metal detection system, to ensure that even the tiniest scrap of metal does not enter your products.

Checkweigher combi systems come in different sizes, typically the full-size combination system and the slim line combination system. These machines ensure accurate weighing and bring peace of mind regarding the detection of potentially hazardous metals within a product.

X-ray inspection: X-ray food inspection systems provide a more thorough and accurate way of checking your products than alternative solutions.

The main reason that an X-ray system is the optimum solution when it comes to food inspection is the large number of contaminants it can identify in addition to metal, such as glass, metal, stone, plastics, bones and produce clumps.

Yamato recently released one of the most advanced X-ray systems on the market. The COP compliant YX20 is flexible across all formats. It can be programmed with unique algorithms that can accommodate special and one-off applications, and its high-speed and wide-format widths suit any production environment. In addition, it can be combined with a checkweigher and hooked up to Yamato Stats, our unique suite of real-time data monitoring systems.

How do I ensure good quality in my business?

Choosing the correct type of inspection equipment to ensure good quality across your food manufacturing business starts with an audit of the products you need to inspect.

There is a vast range of checkweighers, combi systems, metal detector and X-ray inspection machinery to choose from. So, ensuring you have a comprehensive understanding of your product range and the customer specifications you need to meet is an essential prerequisite.

When deciding between checkweighers, you’ll need to consider the size of your loads and whether you need to inspect wet items – in which case you will need a waterproof machine. It is then worth considering the IP rating of the machinery. IP 65, 66 and 67 ratings are waterproof, making them ideal for messy products or multiple applications on the same production line, where you need to wash down the equipment frequently and ease of cleaning is essential.

Different checkweighers have various features, so you will also need to be clear about which are important to you – such as touch screens, error alerts, responsive load cells or adjustable controllers.

When it comes to metal detectors and X-ray inspection machines, you must understand the type of contaminants that your applications may be at risk from.

This is why an HCCP audit is crucial – because it will identify the risks of contamination being introduced into your manufacturing environment and the types of contaminants likely to be encountered.

If the HACCP audit determines that metal is likely to be the only contaminant found, then a standard metal detector is likely to provide the most cost-effective solution.

If other contaminants like glass, mineral stone, calcified bone or high-density plastics and rubber are identified as potential hazards, then x-ray is the only suitable solution.

Sometimes you need to install more than one detection system at different Critical Control Points (CCPs) on the same production line. For example, a metal detector or a bulk flow x-ray inspection system placed early in the processing line can remove large metal or non-metallic contaminants before they reach delicate machinery downstream. This not only removes the contaminants before they break down into smaller less easy to detect pieces, it also protects machinery from potential damage.

This reduces the cost of potential downtime due to broken equipment, as well as product waste.

When weighing up the cost of good quality, remember also to bear in mind lifetime costs – not just the upfront capital costs.

Plus, you’ll want to assess factors such as energy consumption, ease of use, ease of maintenance, availability of genuine spare parts – all of which will impact the cost of good quality in your plant.