Milling & Baking News - April 28, 2015 - AIB7

Focusing on effi ciency
and quality for clients
I
One such product, called "Inspection Only," was designed
to fi ll the gap between what happens on the plant fl oor and
the offi ce review of programs required in certifi cation audits.
"The AIBI Consolidated Standards for Inspection, our
proprietary GMP inspection, is predominantly focused on
a physical inspection of 'on-the-fl oor' production activities
and includes program review information," Dr. Olewnik
explained. "Since those program reviews are being covered
in GFSI certifi cation audits, we've stripped program reviews
out and are now offering just the physical inspection piece of
that activity. We are seeing very nice growth in that activity."
Another major product AIB International rolled out in 2014
is called FS360.
"It's purely a problem solving approach," she said. "The
inspector goes into a facility and may spend the entire time
in one area, helping folks within that facility identify and
defi ne where a problem may be occurring and come up with
concrete ways of fi xing the problems they fi nd. It's very educational,
very hands-on, and not forced. It's a product where
we offer help to facilities in problem solving."
In addition to new products, the past year has been one of
several successes for AIB International.
Dr. Olewnik said one of the big successes coming out of
the end of last year was a net increase of 15 food safety professionals
worldwide.
AIB International went through a substantial restructure
in 2014, where many of the food safety professionals were
moved into management and quality assurance positions.
This change in structure allowed the organization to focus on
improving and maintaining the quality and consistency of
the food safety offerings.
"Net 15 new hires doesn't sound like a huge number, but
when you look at the growth based on the number of other
people that had changed and moved to management and
quality oversight positions, replenishment of the working
food safety professionals, was a substantial activity," she
said. "It was in excess of 30 people we brought on board, put
through training and got back into the fi eld as full blown
food safety professionals. That was a big success from our
managers' perspective."
Dr. Olewnik also was pleased with the signifi cant investment
AIB International put into training. With the ramping
up of certifi cation audit activity, and with some of the training
it had to do with new food safety professionals coming
on board, the investment in training was no small task, she
said.
"We had substantial training that impacted over 60% of
our fi eld staff," she said. "We have always required 100% of
our staff to go through continuous improvement training every
year. In 2014 we invested in additional training activities
for over 60% of the food safety professionals. This training
was above and beyond what we have as our baseline for our
continuous training. Again, it was a very large investment
t was a busy 2014 for the food safety services department
at AIB International. Not only did the organization
undertake a major makeover, it worked hard to fi ll industry
gaps by introducing key products into the m arketplace,
said Maureen Olewnik, senior vice-president of food safety
services.
from AIB International's perspective and really spoke to the
commitment of the general managers to make sure that we
had the right people and the right qualifi cations in place for
our clients as we rolled out this new structure."
AIB International moved to an organizational structure
that features fi ve global regions. The intent is to improve
regional client support while improving the effi ciencies of
the food safety professionals (FSPs), thereby improving the
quality of life through work/life balance. Dr. Olewnik said
the organization has made strides in this area, but it remains
a tough task given the rigid requirements of the auditing/
inspection process.
"(Improving the quality of life for our FSPs) is still one of
our No. 1 goals, and it's challenging," she said. "One of the
biggest challenges is certifi cation audits and the requirements
on the auditors for very specifi c knowledge and a background
in certifi cation auditing. These requirements cause
many of our auditors to travel outside of their home region.
Expansion in numbers and positioning of qualifi ed auditors
is improving this situation. We have better management of
travel than we did last year, but we still have some distance
to go. Quality of life for those food safety professionals, and
making sure we have the effi ciencies in place from our clients'
perspective go hand in hand so it's still very high on
our list of critical control activities."
Grain-based foods remains AIB International's main
market, but beverages, dairy, packaging, warehousing and
ingredients also are important areas. What the organization
has done is recognize where its expertise is and focus more
intently on those areas.
"We've backed out of activities that are not in our wheelhouse,
like fi sh and meat, some of the fi eld agricultural practices-type
audits," Dr. Olewnik said. "We're really moving away
from those and focusing on our core strength markets." MBN
OLEWNIK
AIB International 2015 / 7
Milling & Baking News - April 28, 2015

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