Manufacture Smarter Blog

2/23/2018 - BY: JOHN SPILLSON
We’ve been conditioned to desire complete and utter satisfaction in everything we receive.  But why should we be content with being only satisfied? Satisfaction is merely accepting the minimum to meet a desired requirement. It would be even better if we could take it up a notch and truly delight our customers, whether they are buying cars, clothing, food, or anything in between.

12/1/2017 - BY: JOHN SPILLSON
Kaizens have been used in the manufacturing world for years. You’ve probably heard “Kaizen” mentioned around your facility a number of times- but what exactly is a Kaizen? And who can it benefit?

5/12/2017 - BY: JOHN SPILLSON
The Centers for Disease Control estimates that 48 million people get sick, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die each year from foodborne illnesses. Food safety and food testing technology keep getting better, yet recalls have been on the rise. Why? While many recalls are for unsafe/contaminated food, many times it’s due to allergens. In fact, one third of all recalls are due to the mislabeling of allergens in food products.

2/24/2017 - BY: JOHN SPILLSON
High Pressure Processing, or HPP, has gained a great deal of popularity lately driven by foodies demanding higher quality products, increased shelf life and “clean” processing. This preservation process has been known to triple the shelf life of many food products without the use of chemicals, and without reducing the taste or flavor profile of the product itself.

7/22/2016 - THE CENTER
By now, most are well aware of the implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA. The most sweeping change in food regulations in more than 70 years, FSMA aims to prevent food borne illness rather than reacting to it.

3/25/2016 - THE CENTER
The American landscape is changing - literally. Streets once filled with beeping horns and the whirr of passing cars can now be found empty, housing farm equipment. Vacant houses are now functioning as hoop houses. The popularity of Urban Agriculture, or Urban Farming, is growing in response to nearly 86% of consumers preferring LOCALLY grown food.

2/12/2016 - THE CENTER
Where does nearly 22% of the state’s employment come from? What generates over $101.2 billion in economic activity? What is responsible for $3.1 billion in export activity? Michigan’s Food and Agriculture Industry, that’s what.

9/25/2015 - THE CENTER
Since 2011, when President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act into law, both the food industry and the world waited for a glimpse of the final regulations. Following numerous revisions and delays throughout the years, the FDA released the first two of seven proposed rules this month.

7/24/2015 - THE CENTER
Safety is on the minds of Americans every day. When you get into your car, you buckle up. When you go to the lake, you lather on sunscreen. The same expectation of safety is extended to food. Each year, millions of dollars are spent on food safety initiatives. Yet, despite efforts, extensive outbreaks of foodborne illness continue to exist. It leads many to ask: What’s the problem? Is the testing conducted inadequate?

4/24/2015 - JOHN SPILLSON
One of the primary goals of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is to create a food manufacturing process that uses scientific methods to avoid hazards and decrease the chance of recalls. But what happens when the unimaginable FOOD RECALL takes place? Today, we live in the most scientifically, technologically advanced era of all time. However, as we have read about or watched on the news, recalls are real and much more common than we think.