You're facing ingredient availability issues. How can you ensure product quality remains intact?

There must be contingency plan and emergency buying with well defined protocols, pre qualification, risk assessment and defined lead time

In my personal opinion we are doing a businesses or running an Industry means we are well in position to plan enough and assure we will get everything as and when required and in required quantity. Though it is so if any time anything happens and we are not able to manage particular ingredient without which we can not complete the current order of production. We needed to be calm and take first step to call or contact the buyer and ask what if the order delays? How much time you can get try to find it out. Keep trying to get the ingredient required meanwhile. See how such situation if occured any time how it can be tackled forever by understanding its root cause.

One thing I've found helpful is have more the one supplier who provides the ingredients I use. One is like an emergency go to because they don't have minimum ordering requirements. This is helpful especially in a pinch.

Enfrentar problemas de disponibilidade de ingredientes é um desafio, mas algumas estratégias podem garantir a manutenção da qualidade do produto: Diversificação de Fornecedores: Manter relações com vários fornecedores confiáveis. Planejamento Antecipado: Prever a demanda e manter um estoque adequado. Inovação: Estimular a P&D a buscar novas alternativas de formulações que mantenham a qualidade do produto.

O ideal é sempre entender se o material que falta pode ou não ser substituído por um alternativo sem que perca a qualidade de entrega.

I think ingredient swapping is the best alternative. If availability of one of your ingredients in your recipe is an issue, you can substitute this with an alternative without any noticeable change in the taste or texture of the final product.

El intercambio de ingredientes no es recomendable si no se han hecho pruebas con anticipacion ya que el realizarlos podria en el momento no verse afectada sus propiedades organolepticas pero con el tiempo en almacenamiento si. Desarrollo de nuevos productos ya debera tener las proporciones alternas modificadas en el caso de falta o desabasto de ingredientes proncipales en formula.

Los ajustes en la formulacion son viables solo en proporciones que no afecten la calidad del producto y sus caracteristicas organolepticas en el consumo del mismo.

Trabaje en una empresa de ABA, contábamos con varias formulas para producir cualquier alimento con diferentes materias primas, formulación se encargaba de los requerimientos nutricionales y mantenimiento de los estándares de dureza y durabilidad.

El ajuste en la formulación no debería significar en todos los casos algo negativo ya que es sabido que a partir de las reestructuraciones de producción o elaboración de un producto nacen nuevas variantes que pueden resultar mas rentables, y tener mayor aceptación de mercado.

La falta de ingredientes son situaciones atipicas que convendria evaluar optimizacion de procesos ya que las formulaciones orginales no deben tener cambios ya que estos cambios afectaran en menor o mayor grado la formulacion original y tambien en estos casos evaluar el costo beneficio al otpimizar su proceso.

Trabajando en un planta Harinera se incremento el rendimiento de 68 paquetes a 78 paquetes obtenidos en base a 100 Kg de Maíz. Manteniendo los estándares de calidad.

Muchas veces la optimización de procesos se enfoca en reducir los tiempos de producción o las etapas de producción dentro de lo posible automatizar las maquinarias para aumentar el volumen de producción, sin embargo los invito a reflexionar también en la optimización de movimientos que realiza el personal de producción, ya que de acuerdo al Lean Manufacturing uno de los desperdicios es el movimiento.

En las empresas de alimentos, dónde se trabaja contínuamente con sistemas vivos de materiales e ingredientes, la variabilidad es una constante. La interacción entre las áreas de Investigación y desarrollo, Calidad y Producción, es crucial. El intercambio de información que permita al personal de producción tomar las decisiones de proceso para asegurar la calidad, aún con variaciones de materia prima, información de calidad en relación a los parámetros críticos de control y los ajustes que permitan mantenerlos. Al final se trata de generar conocimiento interno que ayude a responder a estas situaciones, el objetivo final debe ser que el operador en línea tenga el conocimiento necesario para reaccionar a la variabilidad, sin alterar la calidad

Todo producto en el mercado ya debera de cumplir con la normatividad establecida en la tabla de ingredientes y nutricional en el caso que aplique ya sea una u otra, invariablemente la calidad debera estar intacta, si es que queremos mantener a nuestros clientes satisfechos.

Any time there is any kind of change, not just the ingredient availability. I think extra quality checks work well. I've found it was easier to have the line operators or the line mechanics do the quality checks every 15 min as well as the operators on the line at their station and have material handlers do quality checks as well. With all these lines of checks and balances, it shouldn't be an issue that gets out ahead of you. With that said, it is always a great idea to plan for shortages of any kind from any source, have at least one backup vendor for ingredients. It may take a couple backup vendors more, but it's got to be done to help ensure the most consistent and quality product it can be and not running quality checks for everyone

Se logro mediante monitoreo constante llegar a 0% de rechazo de producto terminado por calidad. Lo cual impactaba directamente a bajar los costos por reproceso y desperdicio de materia de empaque y horas hombres y máquinas para el rempaquetado.

Transparent communication with customers is crucial for maintaining trust, especially when it comes to changes in products. Whether it's ingredient substitutions or formulation adjustments, it's important to explain the reasons behind these changes clearly. Reassure your customers that your commitment to quality remains unwavering. Honesty fosters loyalty, as customers appreciate being informed about the challenges you face and the proactive steps you're taking to address them. By keeping them in the loop, you not only build trust but also strengthen your relationship with your customers.

As a startup there will always be continuous product development stage going on till the formulations of product gets finalized. Also as a startup changing the formulation is not easy as it is cost incurring accordingly we need to make changes in FSSAI and changes in packaging which will cost more. So if at all there is a substantial change in the formulation you need to inform the customer or else it will confuse the customer

1-Informing customers about supply chain issues and any necessary product changes increases trust and consolidates the customer-supplier relationship. 2-Explain the reasons for ingredient substitutions and reassure customers that quality standards are maintained. 3-Emphasize a commitment to delivering safe, high-quality products despite the difficulties. 4-Manage customer expectations through open and honest dialogue. 5-Maintain trust by demonstrating the dedication to addressing the situation effectively.

To overcome ingredient challenges, employ following strategies: 1. Alternative Sourcing: Identify alternative suppliers, ensuring that they meet our quality standards. 2. Ingredient Substitution: Work with our R&D team to explore substitute ingredients that can meet our quality and safety requirements. 3. Quality Control Measures: Add rigorous testing and inspection protocols, to ensure that even with suboptimal ingredients, our products meet the required standards. 4. Supplier Development: Work closely with our suppliers to improve their quality management systems 5. Risk Assessment and Mitigation: Conduct thorough risk assessments and implement mitigation strategies to minimize the impact of suboptimal ingredients on our products.

To overcome this issue , we need to have SOP set for inventory of Raw material and packaging . Based on my experience, I always have finalised the 2-3 vendors for the ingredients and packaging material based on our product requirements. Ofcourse you can’t maintain everyone’s inventory but yes you have now tested source in an emergency. Need to have day today inventory management system to avoid this issue. Place an order for resources 15-21days prior to avoid issues . We always keep 1-2 batch stock in spare to avoid inconvenience due to availability issues .

In manufacturing there is always going to be shortage of raw material at critical time. We need to have 3-4 suppliers mainly from different regions preferred and different cities. over a period of time the issue of shortages will be known. Your products must have redundancy. over dependency on one or two ingredients will create a problem. Mainly ingredients and products must be developed such way that in case of unseen circumstances other products can be pushed in market. so that business doesnt get too much hampered