 | Watch the full interview at ProFood World for more insights on acceptance testing in food production. |
Bryan Griffen: What's an example that you can share of one of these opening night surprises and, and how your crew handled it?
James Couch: Good point. Some of the things that always happen on opening day with the start of the equipment is, now you've actually got product coming to it.
You've got it coming at it at the pace that the line's feeding it, unlike what you may have experienced within a very small window during the FAT. And you end up with a jam-up or things don't transfer correctly. You're interacting with other integrated equipment, which you didn't have that opportunity to deal with during the FATs.
So, you're right. Do they happen? Absolutely. And they happen more times than they don't. But that's where you just, you know going in and you prepare and you assume the worst, and you plan for the best. You've just got a great team around it, you know, the OEM brings all the right people; they help in operating their equipment. You're dealing with some of the other stresses that may be causing some of the pain in the process, working with your in-house facility operators, maintenance staff are there.
We've had things that ran great at FATs, started on the plant and lost a component. Brand new piece of equipment. And I wish I could tell you how many times I had a floor supervisor or plant manager say, “how could we lose a motor? This thing's brand new.”
Of course, these things fail, you know? I wish I could predict all that, but they happen. So, you just go into it as prepared as possible and you deal with it.
