Please provide me the answers for these questions as soon as possible

they'll send someone to look at it and it will work for a Directions day or so before it breaks down again." Prepare a brief written report (maximum 4 pages excluding cover page) to an- Compound room operator: "Before I start the batch, I swer all of the following questions. The report should have 4 sections to address check to see if this product will be sent out for external testing. If I see that it is, I make sure I'm a little bit more each of the questions. Use the four provided question subjects as your report sec- careful." tion heads (without numbers). Do not repeat the questions. Bagging room operator: "Sometimes the buzzer on the x-ray machine doesn't work.Unless the machine was Answer the following questions. on the edge of stopping, I did not even bother calling maintenance anymore." The report is to contain the following: 1. Corporate Culture and Quality Benevento response (2 sentences maximum). With the organization's recent growth and venture into more complicated 2. Cost of Quality (COQ) products (i.e., gluten-free), a solid foundation in quality management and a Provide at least two examples from the case for each of the four types of COQ culture of quality might be critical for BF's future. Discuss Benevento's corpo- Benevento Foods is incurring. Provide a brief description for each of the eight rate quality culture as presented in the case. COQ activities or defects identified and why it fits in the category chosen. . Complete the Quality Concern Explanation for the comments made by em- Two examples of each cost: ployees in the table below. . Write a brief response to Benevento's question about whether the rubber O Prevention costs in the dough is a one-time isolated incident or signs of a systemic prob- O Appraisal costs lem? O Internal failure costs Employee Comment Quality Concern Explanation O External failure costs Compound room operator: Sometimes it just doesn't 3. Risk Analysis add up..Usually we add some extra flour to get to the weight we need and move on. With totes of 1, 000 Provide at least two examples of the quality risks Benevento is facing with each kilograms nobody will really notice." of the following three key business process components? The quality risks are Mixing room operator: "If there is a little bit left in the sifter, I usually let it pass." business activities, practices or events that contribute and perpetuate a poor Bagging room operator: "I've told them many times quality culture and environment. that the automatic filler doesn't work. Once in a while\fBENEVENTO FOODS: WHEN THE RUBBER HITS THE DOUGH Micheline Singh wrote this case under the supervision of David Wood and Stephan Vachon solely to provide material for class discussion. The authors do not intend to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of a managerial situation. The authors may have disguised certain names and other identifying information to protect confidentiality. This publication may not be transmitted, photocopied, digitized or otherwise reproduced in any form or by any means without the permission of the copyright holder. Reproduction of this material is not covered under authorization by any reproduction rights organization. To order copies of request permission to reproduce materials, contact Ivey Publishing, Ivey Business School, Westem University, London, Ontario, Canada, NEG ON1; (1) 519.661.3208; (e) cases@ivey.ca; www.iveycases.com. Copyright @ 2015, Richard Ivey School of Business Foundation Version: 2015-09-29 Marco Benevento, president of Benevento Foods (BF), hung up the telephone and put on his lab coat, safety shoes and hairnet to enter the company's production plant in upstate New York. He never could have foreseen the current situation. It was June 2014 and he had just received a call from the Quality Assurance manager at Rockwell Bakery reporting several pieces of rubber found in BF's baking mixes and informing him that the bakery would be placing all incoming BF orders on hold until the issue was resolved. As Benevento walked through the plant, he questioned whether there were quality issues with any other products or if this was an isolated incident. Regardless, with the annual British Retail Consortium (BRC) Food Safety audit occurring at the end of the month, he would have to work quickly. COMPANY HISTORY In 1981, Antonio Benevento founded Benevento Foods, a manufacturer and distributer of food products to hotels and restaurants. Just two years later, the company declared bankruptcy and Marco took over the business from his father. At 17 years old, the younger Benevento became owner and president and sought to develop a presence in the bakery industry, developing and manufacturing baking mixes and bases. The baking mixes that BF developed and manufactured were distributed to commercial bakeries or bakery departments within retail stores. The products were shipped as dry mixes with an average shelf life of 270 days. They were then baked in the customer's store on an as-needed basis after wet ingredients were added. BF's customers ranged in size from small stand-alone bakeries to national grocery chains, resulting in varying order quantities. BF's products were all manufactured in the upstate New York plant about 30 miles from Plattsburgh and shipped across North America. All orders were delivered by truck, resulting in potentially long delivery times. Some customers ordered months in advance when they had a strong predictive ability and understanding of their sales forecasts. However, orders from small customers took a fair share of sales and came with a request for delivery as soon as possible because they did not have the space to hold inventory. As Benevento said:\fat the beginning to see that all the ingredients are the right consistencies going in, I won't waste time trying to pry open the sifter door. I know it will get sifted again in the bagging room. If I don't catch it now, he will in the bagging room later. Once the product was mixed according to the MO, it was transferred into another 1,000 kg tote and kept outside the bagging room in the holding area. Once the bagging room operator was ready for that batch, he brought it into the bagging room and opened the bottom flap of the tote to access the product. While he did, he checked to ensure there were no loose threads hanging from the tote that could contaminate the product. The product was then sifted again before it was ready to be divided into large brown paper bags. The product traveled down from the sifter to a large funnel, called a hopper. Below the hopper, the operator held a paper bag and entered the desired weight on the screen. This allowed the product to flow through the hopper in increments of the specified amount, using an automatic filler. After Benevento received a complaint from a customer about under-filled product bags, the operators were trained to make sure there was always more than the required amount in each bag. The weight of the bagged product needed to be at least as much as the weight specified on the label. Ensuring this required additional labour because the automatic filler weight in the bagging room was often incorrect and the operators had to weigh each bag on a portable scale and adjust the amount manually. The bagging room operator expressed great frustration with the maintenance employees: "I've told them so many times that the automatic filler doesn't work. Once in a while they'll send someone to take a look at it and it will work for a day or so before it breaks down again. Then they complain I'm taking too long to get product out. It's because I have to do everything manually!" Once the bag was filled, weighed, stitched and sealed, it went through the X-ray machine. Finally, the bags were stacked on a pallet, wrapped and taken to the storage area where they stayed until they were shipped to the customer. QUALITY CONTROL Food safety became a prevalent public issue following a number of serious incidents in the industry. In 2008, Maple Leaf Foods voluntarily recalled a number of meat products after a widespread outbreak of listeriosis and 21 reported deaths. " Benevento knew that any erosion in consumer confidence would have a long-standing effect on sales. As a result, BF employed a rigorous quality system to avoid a similar situation. The weight of the product in the paper bag was a key indicator of potential foreign material contamination. If there was variation from the desired weight, there could be cause for concern. The bagging room operator weighed three bags from each batch (one at the beginning, middle and end) to ensure consistency. The records were then collected by the Quality Assurance Department to be filed in BF's information technology system at the end of the week (see Exhibit 3). A sample from each batch was also baked and tested by an internal quality control technician, who checked to make sure the product adhered to the characteristics set out by the customer (density, colour, taste, etc.). Some samples of randomly selected products were shipped to an external lab for additional allergen and contamination testing. This was particularly important for gluten-free products that must have gluten content of less than 20 parts per million (ppm). According to the compound room operator:Page 4 9815D014 "Before I start the batch, I check to see if this product will be sent out for external testing. If I see that it is, I make sure I'm a little bit more careful. Generally we don't hear about the results unless they are really bad. No news is good news around here." MAINTENANCE With the rigorous demands on production, one of management's greatest concerns was the amount of machine downtime. From the moment they arrived at 2 p.m., the two part-time maintenance employees were chasing machinery. The production supervisor was often found filling the role of the maintenance employees in the morning. He commissioned temporary fixes until they arrived. The mandate of the maintenance team was to keep the line running so that the operators could get product out the door. As a result, preventative maintenance was limited, and machines were patched up as quickly as possible so that they could keep running. A bagging room operator complained: Sometimes the buzzer on the X-ray machine doesn't work. There is an alarm light for backup but now I have to manually weigh the bags so sometimes I don't see it. Unless the machine was on the edge of stopping. I did not even bother calling maintenance anymore. They never really fixed the problem and they took too long. By the time they were done, I was already two batches behind and my supervisor was breathing down my neck! CONCLUSION BF had received minor complaints before, but nothing near this severity. Benevento wondered whether this was an isolated incident or if it was systematic. Regardless, with the BRC audit around the corner and customer orders piling up, he quickly needed to get to the bottom of this problem.EXHIBIT 1: PRE-OPERATIONAL INSPECTION FORM Benevento Foods Compound Room Daily Pre-Operational Inspection Wheregens ivorifleet and proved property Down bagi cleared of covered In pooling water on the Roar we Start Super Rout ToH May 5/14 if arewered N to any please comment Corrective Author NA NOTE: Please Inspect all equipment and gasket part for loose material and damage and report any damage to area suparaiser to All out the deviation and comective action on table show Superytion Initial May 4.2014 Date: 272at- 8/2014 Source: Company files.Page 6 98150014 EXHIBIT 2: PRODUCTION PROCESS Measure & compound ingredients according to MO Check weight of tote with ingredients Sift & mix ingredients Add other ingredients (containing allergens) Sift & divide product into paper bags Check weight of full paper bags Move finished bags to storage area for shipment Source: Company files.Source: Company files. AAn 12- 2 20-10 1 90./2 20- 06 901 18 4 EXHIBIT 3A: BAGGING ROOM DATA COLLECTION 1 2 7 7 7 7 7 -235 2 6 7 7 7 7 7 1 / 3:15 2414 7 7 7 7 7 1 7 4 6 7 7 7 7 7Page 8 98150014 EXHIBIT 3B: BAGGING ROOM WEIGHT CHECKS BATCH # WEIGHT CHECK (KG) BEGINNING MIDDLE END 96396 20.00 20.00 20.00 96397 20.16 20.00 20.00 96398 20.00 20.15 20.10 96399 20.20 20.15 20.11 96400 20.00 20.10 20.20 96401 20.11 20.13 20.00 96402 20.00 20.15 20.00 96403 20.00 20.11 20.00 96404 20.10 20.00 20.00 96405 20.16 20.04 20.00 96406 20.13 20.04 20.11 96407 20.12 20.00 20.10 96408 20.00 20.10 20.00 96409 20.00 20.00 20.10 96410 20.05 20.13 20.07 96411 20.14 20.06 20.07 96452 20.13 20.08 20.14 96453 20.17 20.11 20.02 96489 20.10 20.11 20.00 96490 20.00 20.00 20.10 96375 20.00 20.10 20.15 96376 20.10 20.16 20.00 96309 20.00 20.17 20.10 96421 20.00 20.13 20.00 96446 20.15 20.14 20.11 96447 20.00 20.00 20.10 96448 20.07 20.13 20.02 96445 20.12 20.06 20.01 96369 20.00 20.16 20.00 96570 20.15 20.00 20.00 Note: Weight checks were conducted on individual bags at the beginning, middle and and of each batch during the bagging process. Source: Company Miles