CASE-STUDY - THE USE OF STATISTICAL PROCESS-CONTROL IN FISH PRODUCT PACKAGING

The DTI publication 'Code of Practical Guidance for Packers and Import ers' provides detailed advice on the establishment of effective statis tical process control (SPC) systems to ensure efficient and effective compliance with the recruitments of the Average System for food and dr ink organizations. Since this document is non-mandatory, however many organizations opt not to adopt such systems, and rely instead upon the ir checkweigher as a last line of defence. In many cases, this is beca use of the apparent complexity of the systems to the non-statistically trained. This paper presents a case study which demonstrates that sim ple, manual SPC systems involve very little statistical knowledge to e stablish and operate. Such systems, it is argued, can reduce unnecessa ry checkweigher rejections and product giveaway, assist with Trading S tandards inspections and improve customer confidence. (C) 1998 Elsevie r Science Ltd. All rights reserved.