Archive for May, 2009
Fantasy Football in ISO 9001 Terms
I am a great fan of fantasy football so, tongue in cheek, I have applied principles of the ISO 9001 standard to our Fantasy Football League.
Our Fantasy League’s quality policy is to provide a competitive product and services of the highest standards of performance and reliability. By achieving this goal the League will consistently satisfy the needs and expectations of our customers and friends.
To ensure success of this policy League Management are directly responsible providing organisation and support, equipment and facilities, training and education of all members, reviewing and auditing performance, and driving continuous improvement in our own teams.
The League Management’s Quality Objectives are:
a) To maintain an effective League Management System complying with International Standards if possible
b) To provide a competitive product and services of the highest standards of performance and reliability, thus enhancing the League’s reputation with customers and friends
c) To ensure compliance with relevant customer, statutory and regulatory requirements. (The Rules)
d) To endeavour, at all times, to maximize customer satisfaction but still win all the prize money ourselves
e) To pro-actively promote and encourage a culture of continuous improvement for our own teams within the league whilst at the same time recommending disastrous transfers to other members
The Fantasy League League Website provides control of documents (Clause 4.2.3), records (Clause 4.2.4) and the rules. External Document Control (Clause 4.2.4) was provided by OPTA statistics as these were approved as the authority to judge player performance by the League Management.
Team scores on a weekly basis were subjected to Internal Audit (Clause 8.2.2) a record of results and follow up actions were documented.
Management Commitment (Clause 5.1) was demonstrated spending precious time watching every game available, Customer Focus (Clause 5.2) was intense, especially as we wanted to beat all our customers and run off with the prizes.
There were many painstaking hours of Planning (Clause 5.4) taken in preparation for the weekend’s games: who was on form? Who was injured? Who was playing who? Again corrective action was required: I need to get rid of Bramble he’s a liability and Wigan’s defence is leaking goals like a sieve!
Responsibility & Authority was allocated to each member. They had their own team name and password so it was their own problem if they forgot to sign out! I also noted that my nominated deputy would have taken great pleasure in stitching up my team by making excessive transfers and buying players who were injured.
Internal Communication (Clause 5.5) was based on quantity rather than quality especially after watching football for 5 hours in the bar. Follow up on performance was regularly conducted via forums and e-mails although clearly the League Internal Auditor had his work cut out here.
Management Review (Clause 5.6) was conducted at the end of the each month when a Manager of the Month was nominated and then the end of the season where team awards were given out.
Resources (Clause 6.1) Cash and Management Time to collect cash, Design and Development (Clause 7.3.2 -7.3.7) set up of the League, Training (Clause 6.2) How to use the Fantasy Football website, Infrastructure (Clause 6.3) Bar computer and Work Environment (Clause 6.4) Bar again! were all provided to ensure the League ran smoothly.
Purchasing (Clause 7.4) was the easiest of chores thanks to Budweiser’s free website and a little of our management resource.
Production (Clause7.5.1) Seemed to be the difficult part: How has Downing missed a penalty again? (and why did I leave him in my team?), Why did I chose Ronaldo as captain the week Ferguson decides to give him a rest?, and why has O’Neil taken Knight off after 59 minutes, surely he knows I’ve got him in my defence?
Identification and Traceability (Clause 7.5.3) was straight forward, everyone’s performance was available to all at the touch of a button you could see disastrous transfers, silly nominations as captains etc.
Customer Property (Clause 7.5.4) (Cash) was held and managed by the League nominated Management Representative.
Calibration (Clause 7.6) and verification of measuring equipment were provided by OPTA statistics as these were the approved International standard.
Monitoring and Measurement (Clause 8.2) and Analysis of Data (Clause 8.4) was carried out weekly after each set of games, when each player would seek some improvement by taking preventative or corrective action the following week.
Non-conforming product (Clause 8.3) was dealt with by immediate transfer out and the purchase of a more consistent goal scoring product.
Customer Satisfaction (Clause 8.2.1) was apparent at the end of the season when the prizes were given out. If only it was as easy to get the cash off them at the start!
Amylase nearly ruined my Career
I was working with a starch stabilised ambient yogurt with a few months shelf life. It was a great product it looked good, tasted great and was easy to manufacture. We had no problems with the product quality for many years then all of a sudden the Laboratory Manager called me “You have to come and look at the shelf life samples”. I rushed down to the Laboratory and there they were all completely separated. We gave them a stir but within minutes they were separated again. “Check the previous week’s production” I said trying to think what the problem could be. “Those idiots in production haven’t put the right stabiliser in” was my initial thought!
The previous weeks were the same. In fact as we checked back we found that separation started after a few weeks. We checked the recipe sheets for each batch and reconciled orders and usage of stabilisers against production volumes. Everything was in order. We checked processing temperatures and times. Everything was in order. We checked base holding times and temperatures. Everything was in order. In fact we checked everything that could possibly go wrong in the factory and could not find anything out of the ordinary.
We consulted our suppliers. We had used several different ingredients batches but quarantined everything and ordered new batches of ingredients.
Still the problem persisted.
Everything looked great on day 1 but a month later they were separated. Our stabiliser supplier was a highly reputable company with an exemplary record, their retained samples of stabiliser performed perfectly under test.
We analysed the separated products and found amylase activity. The only logical conclusion after our extensive investigation and actions but where had it come from? Amylase is heat sensitive, how could it have got into the product after our process? The short answer is it couldn’t.
We researched far and wide into amylase activity and stability. “Surely as an enzyme and protein based any amylase would be completely denatured by our process” I said.
We analysed all of our ingredients for amylase activity and found it in several. Our process involved high temperatures and holding times and reprocessing of the yogurt base so we subjected all of our ingredients to the same conditions in the Laboratory. The result was a complete surprise. “It’s in the Sugar” the Laboratory Manager exclaimed.
We used Cane Sugar and now believe that amylase may be used in third world countries to help extract the sugar or it is present in diseased plants. The refinery assumed that any enzyme activity would be destroyed by the refining process. It was not. It was a freak of nature. Somehow, someway the enzyme had managed to develop heat resistance to survive our process.
We were able to source another supply of sugar which was clear of amylase activity and after a month I was able to sleep again!
Background Information
Amylase is an important metabolic enzyme. Its function is to catalyze the hydrolysis of starch into glucose. Normally at high temperatures, Amylase becomes denatured. Denatured amylase no longer catalyzes the hydrolysis of starch into glucose. Amylase is present in human saliva, where it begins the chemical process of digestion. Foods that contain much starch but little sugar, such as rice and potato, taste slightly sweet as they are chewed because amylase turns some of their starch into sugar in the mouth. Plants and some bacteria also produce amylase. Specific amylase proteins are designated by different Greek letters. All amylases are glycoside hydrolases and act on glycosidic bonds.
Posted in Food Quality | 
Tags: Laboratory Manager, Product Quality, Recipe Sheets, Reputable Company, Shelf Life, Stabiliser, Starch, Temperatures, Yogurt | 
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