QMS & EMS London

Most foods sold in the developed world contain substances added for a desired beneficial purpose. In the case of food preservation, many compounds are added to foods that curtail the process of oxidation and kill pathogens. With respect to winemaking, additives are used although not for the exact same reasons. It is important to remember that oxidation is always a problem with winemaking. Pathogens however do not present a problem due to the makeup of wine itself. The presence of alcohol as well as the acidic nature of wine presents an environment where pathogens cannot survive.

A culture of quality along with specific business programs must exist within a winery if quality control procedures are to be effective. Quality initiatives must be understood and practiced by all employees of the winery. From the workers handling the grapes in the field to the filling machine supervisors, all individuals involved have an equal part to play in maintaining the quality of the final wine. The successful winery realizes this and implements systems designed to naturally promote quality procedures at every point within the winemaking process.

Contained dust collection equipment is used in pharmaceutical facilities for a variety of reasons, from environmental compliance and employee health and safety to preventing cross-contamination of materials in multi-product manufacturing facilities. Given these concerns, and the fact that many pharmaceutical dusts are potent and/or hazardous, contained dust collection systems are found in the majority of pharmaceutical processing facilities today. Such systems typically utilize safe-change containment for both the filter cartridges (bag-in/bag-out) and the discharge system underneath the collector (continuous liner technology). 

Continuous improvement is a basic element of modern industry and there are many tools and methods available to help with continuous improvement. Some situations, such as reducing manufacturing costs by 10%, may require the use of the Six Sigma methodology. For other situations, such as root cause analysis, the Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA) and basic quality tools may be sufficient.

Too many companies continue to rely on rigid, archaic management models. Recent analysis from Gallup shows that six elements can help drive a company’s transformation to a high-performance culture. Business growth in the Arab Gulf offers a good example. In recent years, the Corporation Council for the Arab States in the Gulf, also known as the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), has seen an ever-expanding footprint from companies around the world—a result of the inherent demand and growing mobility of the marketplace and the economic slowdown in North America and Europe. To investigate how managers create high-performance cultures in the GCC region, Gallup studied 3,477 managers from companies in the oil and gas, banking and finance, property development, tourism, automotive, and telecommunications sectors.

A new MIT study on supply-chain risk shows no correlation between the total amount a manufacturer spends with a supplier and the profit loss it would incur if that supply were suddenly interrupted. This counter-intuitive finding defies a basic business tenet that equates the greatest supply-chain risk with suppliers of highest annual expenditure. When applied to Ford Motor Co.’s supply chain, the quantitative analysis by David Simchi-Levi of MIT’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Systems Division shows that the supply firms whose disruption would inflict the greatest blow to Ford’s profits are those that provide the manufacturer with relatively low-cost components.

Restaurants and supermarkets could save millions of dollars by hanging on to bug zapper bulbs instead of tossing them every year as they normally do, a new University of Florida study has found. What’s more, the benefits could extend to the environment by keeping some of the bulbs’ mercury out of the waste stream.