5-3 |
Quality management in AMS procurement |
S. OLSON, USDA-Agriculture Marketing Service, 1400 Independence Ave. S.W., Rm. 2603-S, Stop 0254, Washington, DC 20250-0254 A paradigm shift is underway in most public food procurement operations throughout the United States. Purchasing activities need to be innovative to meet their customer’s needs. Since many public food procurements systems are under the watchful eye of the public, science based technology does not always coincide with public policy. We at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) believe that Quality Management Statistical Process Control (SPC) tools provide the best answers to determine when a supplier is meeting institutional customer needs. We purchase approximate 150 million pounds of ground beef each year for distribution to the National School Lunch Program. Our challenge is to convince the public that new science based SPC programs are intended to improve the quality and safety of food products we distribute. Equipped with SPC tools to identify the good producers of ground beef that had low incidence of salmonella, USDA proposed a new science based program to replace a program that is based on accept/reject decisions that are based on the results of single one-pound samples from each date of production. The chief reason USDA technical staff insisted on the change was that we had several processors that had over 10% incidence (rejection) of salmonella. The program requires us to continue to procure from those processors. The public sector roared with disapproval of the new specification. The USDA was forced to drop the new concept and continue with the current specification. In the public food procurement arena, where facts are not true but perception is, the use of quality management tools to meet public perception demands will be challenging. Utilization of common sense seems to be what the public demands of public purchasing officials. We need to convince the public that SPC is common sense that is defined.
Session 5, Supply chain process and quality management in the food industry
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