As we head into the holidays, consumers will soon be craving their favorite seasonal foods. Your operation may be tasked with helping to meet that demand, while continuing to produce your other products, which may have you running at increased capacity. To do so and continue ensuring food safety, here are seven steps you should take now to proactively prepare.
- Assess risks to determine how far production can be stretched, noting that more frequent maintenance and sanitation activities and costs should be factored in. An assessment should also evaluate how often emergency shutdowns may be necessary, calculating production time lost. The results of this assessment can assist in identifying when the facility cannot push the equipment and team any further.
- Build up inventory in advance and then identify ways to store and preserve product until it is needed, while recognizing the potential increased risk of food safety issues associated with holding product. If this is not an option, you can also identify past production demands through advance forecasting. This may allow production to be shared amongst facilities to reduce the need to push production lines and teams far beyond capacity. This may also result in additional offsite leased warehouse cost through the season, so it should be factored into your planning.
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