Hunt-Wesson, Inc., headquartered in Fullerton, California, manufactures a variety of food products through its seven independent operating companies. As a leader in the US domestic food manufacturing business, Hunt-Wesson follows rigorous procedures to insure consistency of product quality, product and employee safety, compliance with regulatory requirements, continuity of operations, and product availability. These procedures, and the accompanying recipes, ingredient specifications, and regulatory documents, are managed by the Technical Services group, which is part of the Quality Assurance, Food Safety, Regulatory Affairs Department (QAFSRA).

The Problem

Prior to a recent reengineering effort, any time a change was requested in one of the strategic documents, the Technical Services group retrieved the affected paper document from the files, copied and manually routed it through a formal chain of approval involving about half-a-dozen committees. If the change was approved, the Technical Services group had the task of finding any documents that would require similar changes and revising them as well. Updated documents were requested by phone and copies faxed to each location. Typical cycle times for approval were 60 to 90 days. In the interim, manufacturing could be interrupted, new product development slowed, or opportunities missed. In 1992, Hunt-Wesson initiated a process-reengineering project to streamline the management of change.

The Solution

As a result of the reengineering study, the formal committee approval process was replaced by a Change Manager, and the manual document handling systems by an automated document management and routing application called Electronic Document Approval System (EDAS).

The EDAS program is built on a document management platform using DOCS Open, with custom Microsoft Visual Basic routines, Sybase SQL Server, and Banyan BeyondMail used for workflow, electronic routing, auditing of change, and electronic publishing.

A change to a recipe, ingredient specification, or other strategic document can be requested by phone or electronically by managers in any of Hunt-Wesson's seven independent operating companies. A representative of the Technical Services group checks the request and enters it into the EDAS system.

The EDAS system automatically retrieves the correct document in electronic form from PC DOCS Open and routes the request via BeyondMail to the appropriate Change Manager for the affected product or location. The Change Manager may in turn request food technology, operations, purchasing or other corporate management resources to review the proposed change before approval. EDAS routes and tracks all requests for review, and monitors and reminds reviewers and Change Managers of approval deadlines.

If the document is changed, it is routed automatically back to Technical Services where the original document is formally revised. Anyone who requests a change is notified electronically of the disposition of their request and, for approved changes, receives the new version of the document.

When a document is changed, Technical Services uses DOCS Open to find and retrieve all other documents that will need similar revision. Users can request as well as receive a current version of any document via email. These requests are serviced through the Fullerton DOCS Open library.

Strategic Advantage

Hunt-Wesson, Inc. has responded to a highly competitive marketplace by developing systems that maintain product quality and availability, speed new products to market, and improve profits from operations. The decision making process that underlies these systems depends upon DOCS Open for the management of strategic documents.

Reengineering the management of change process and implementing the EDAS application has shrunk the approval cycle from 60 to 90-days to four to six days. Emergency requests can be processed in hours. Related documents can be updated in a matter of minutes or hours, instead of days, weeks, or months.

For more information, please contact
David Horwatt at General Networks Corporation. (818) 249-1962. dhorwatt@gennet.com