A food safety management system and a production plan answer different questions. The FSMS asks whether the product is safe and whether the site can prove it. The plan asks what will be made, when, on which line, with what materials and people. Most sites run them in different places, the FSMS in the quality office and the plan in a spreadsheet or the ERP, and the gap between the two is where a surprising number of food safety problems start. An allergen-containing product scheduled straight after an allergen-free one on the same line. A raw material lot consumed before its release. A CCP check that falls between two runs and belongs to neither. Putting the plan on the same screen as the FSMS closes that gap.
Where the plan and the FSMS collide
There are four points at which a production decision is also a food safety decision. Sequencing, because the order of runs on a line determines the allergen and species changeover risk and the cleaning required between them. Material allocation, because the lot that goes into a run must be released and in date, and the record of which lot went in is the first link of traceability. Capacity, because an overrun delays the cleaning window and the next day’s pre-operational checks. And monitoring, because CCP checks are tied to runs and changeovers, and a plan that moves does not always move the checks with it.
What planning on the FSMS looks like
On ASCloud the production planning add-on puts a schedule view next to the food safety records. Each planned run is created with the product, the line, the quantity and the start and end time. The system knows the allergen profile of each product, so it flags a sequence that puts an allergen run before a non-allergen run without a validated clean in between, and inserts the changeover cleaning checklist as a task on the line. It draws raw material lots from inventory, allowing only released lots within shelf life, and records the allocation so that traceability starts from the plan. It schedules the CCP monitoring for each run and the pre-operational and post-production checks on the line, so that when the plan moves, the checks move with it.
The quality manager’s view
The quality manager sees tomorrow’s plan with the food safety tasks it generates: the changeover cleans, the monitoring checks, the release decisions. Any run planned on a material that is on hold, or on a line whose last clean was not verified, is flagged before it starts. That is the difference between a quality function that approves the plan and one that discovers it afterwards.
The production manager’s view
The production manager sees the same plan with capacity and resources: line hours, people on shift and material availability. Quality holds are visible as constraints rather than surprises. When a run overruns, the system shows which checks and cleans move with it and what that does to the next run. Because it is the same system the operators use for their checks, the plan on the office screen and the task list on the floor tablet are the same thing.
What it is not
ASCloud’s planning add-on is not an ERP and does not pretend to be. It does not do costing, purchasing or finance. It does scheduling, allocation and the food safety consequences of both. If you run SAP or Sage, the planning add-on can take the works orders from there and return the actuals and the lot records, which is quoted per site as an integration. If you plan in a spreadsheet today, the add-on replaces the spreadsheet.
Pricing
Production planning is sold together with traceability, because planning without the lot records it creates is only half the value. Traceability alone is R1,690 per site per month. Traceability with production planning is R2,100 per site per month. Both sit on top of any ASCloud plan.
Plan the run, the checks follow
Allergen sequencing, released lots only, CCP checks tied to runs, traceability from the plan. Traceability with production planning, R2,100 per site per month.
Frequently asked questions
Can I use planning without traceability?
No. Planning is sold with traceability because the lot allocation it creates is the traceability record. Together they are R2,100 per site per month.
Does it handle multiple lines and shifts?
Yes. Each line has its own schedule and task list, and shifts are set per site.
What about packaging materials?
Packaging is treated as a material with lots, so printed packaging and label versions are allocated to runs and appear in the trace.
Can head office see all sites?
Yes. Multi-site groups see every site’s plan and food safety status on one dashboard, with each site working in its own schedule.