Recently a major pharmaceutical company had to make yet another recall of a product. The same company has had more than one recall and a bottle may be in your cabinet. This major company is losing credibility with customers and regulators. The CEO was replaced and new promises were made.
How could pharmaceuticals have anything in common with feedstock? I spent several years in a company making both food and industrial products. I was surprised to see how similar the quality requirements were for both. Industrial producers have customers and regulators with large expectations of their suppliers. A final product is very important to a company of high regard and they expect their supplier to be able to trace the ingredients with intimate and accurate data in a matter of hours. Also, remember that their main product is not their only product. There may be other byproducts or intermediate products. Some of those may go into animal feed or some other regulated source.
So what if there is no animal or human intake? Grab a vivid memory in your family of your father, uncle, sister, brother, or perhaps you working feverishly on a car; no, a masterpiece. Now, picture that same person learning that their fuel was contaminated causing significant vehicle damage. What happens to the fuel supplier’s reputation when the news gets around? Also, what about a biochemical company that is supplying a critical industry?
Genera Energy’s Supply ASSURE™ has sophisticated software and systematic tracking far beyond what many would expect from an agricultural company. We are a biomass supply chain partner and we must meet the critical quality control needs of our customers and ourselves at any scale. This is not just about software, inventory control, ingredients, logistics, or even policies and procedures. We train and audit every action, routinely scheduled, so that we can maintain our own integrity. Quality control to Genera Energy is a safety program. Absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. We assure our employees and contractors are doing what we inspect and not just what we expect.
By Keith Brazzell, Chief Operating Officer
