How much is it worth not to have errors in HACCP and HACCP record keeping?  How much is it worth not to have errors in quality attribute testing?  How much is it worth not to have errors in KPI data?  How much is it worth to have a perpetual inventory automatically controlled?  How much.............................?

When calculating an ROI for a FoodHorizon system, the first thought is how much labor will be saved.  Can 1 or 2 employees be eliminated from record keeping for HACCP, Quality or Production?  That's the low fruit.  Additional low fruit is eliminating product waste caused by errors which is also manpower waste, eliminating paper  files, file storage, file retrieval and collected data that is stagnant because no one has time to review the data.

Conventional wisdom for determining ROI is how many dollars are added to the productivity in a time frame divided into the cost of the project to determine the time to recover the cost of the project. This is easily calculated with finite returns.  When you are able to eliminate one position for record keeping, that is tens of thousands of dollars of annual wages divided into the cost of the project for a per annum ROI..

It is the infinite returns that are harder to calculate.  Site surveys have been conducted where a FoodHorizon solution would result in saving 6 to 12 hours a day of record review by QA/HACCP Managers and Techs.  As I stated that fact, a QA Manager retorted with, "The job won't be eliminated because now the QA Techs will be doing QA work on the floor instead of sitting in the office reviewing paperwork."

That's an interesting statement.  The work of reviewing the records was obviously more critical than the QA work to be done on the floor.  In fact, the work envisioned to be done on the floor had little or no value because no one was currently performing these tasks.  Granted that there are probably, in fact most likely, food safety aspects that have been addressed with the addition of HACCP and increased food safety programs, but the emphasis on paperwork, paperwork, paperwork by the regulatory agency if inspected by FSIS for meat and poultry or FDA for seafood and juices, and possibly as important for those inspected by the FDA, third-party audits, obviously can have severe effects on the resources of any operation.  Unfortunately this data often becomes stagnant data.  Data that is collected, sparsely reviewed, filed and forgotten. Data collection becomes an exercise to an end, rather than a means for gathering usable information. If you are going to pay to get the information, doesn't it make sense to use it?

Data collection can put a tremendous cost on the operation of plants that want to have or have to have data collected to meet regulatory or customer requirements.  One plant that I am aware of had a HACCP Manager and dedicated HACCP Technicians on both first and second shifts.  Even with dedicated personnel, both managers stated that they spent at least 6 of the 8 hours of their shift on correcting and finding paperwork.  There is a better answer.

If you need that person on the floor, let FoodHorizon eliminate the paperwork.  In fact, you may find that a FoodHorizon solution on the floor will require less man-hours than currently envisioned to perform those tasks on the floor.

Calculating the ROI on a scale that does not immediately eliminate direct costs is not quite as simple as the conventional definition.  Instead it will take a study to determine what dollars would have been saved or would have increased yields if the QC Tech had been on the floor doing real QC work rather than doing record review.  Their will be a lot of intangibles come into play now.  A reduction in customer complaints.  Loss of sales because marginal product reached a customer and 10 people quit buying that didn't complain for each one that did complain.  Batching errors that would not have occurred.  Weight savings from closer control.  Label errors eliminated.  Cost of a recall.

What if all or many of these "intangibles" are monitored by a Sentry9000 system from FoodHorizon?  Automatic data collection points require no intervention.  Even semi-automatic control points are much simplified and become more of the process control easily mastered by operators.  Although everyone strives for more of a Process Control situation than a Quality Control driven operation, it can be difficult to achieve.  The premise that operations personnel "must make product" and not be diverted by checking to see if they are making the product correctly has been around for a long time.  Quality Control becomes the conscience of the operation as well as the scapegoat.

Unfortunately, FoodHorizon cannot create an ROI based on intangibles of your operation for you.  You must make those interpretations and decisions for your operation.  What FoodHorizon can do is provide a means to reduce paperwork which will reduce errors which will reduce waste which will reduce required man-hours for operation.  In this instance it is necessary to see the end of the road to determine the ROI for making the trip.

RETURN ON INTERVENTION

What if you had a recall?  Could you lot track from finished product to all ingredients in less than a minute?  And vice versa?

What if you had a CCP violated?  First, are you even aware the violation occurred?  Second, did the proper Corrective Action steps occur?

What if.......?  You fill in the blanks.

How much is it worth not to have an intervention?

Have you had one?  How expensive was it short-term and long-term?

It is prudent to take the appropriate steps that a "reasonable man" takes when processing food to insure the safety of that food. Do you have readily available the information that shows all the steps taken are what a "reasonable man" would take?

VIRTUAL MANAGER ON THE FLOOR

Sentry9000 is a Virtual Manager on the Floor.  It is designed to collect data, analyze that data, compare it to pre-set limits and take appropriate action if these limits are exceeded.  Every step of that process is on record.  Everyone from the CEO to the machine operator can know when the process is in control and when it is out of control. Can you put a dollar figure on that?

Sentry9000 can also provide a marketing advantage that you can share with your customers.  How much is it worth to provide a digital COA to every customer on each package of product?

There are a lot of dollars to be saved.  There are a lot of dollars in productivity to be added.  There are a lot dollars floating around that can be tied down.