Quality Control

The quality of product or service is ensuring if proper designing process is followed. This designing process needs to be backed by appropriate process design supported by a suitable technology which confirms to requirements of customers. Quality control ensures that defects and errors are prevented and finally removed from the process or product. Therefore, quality control should include; planning, designing, implementation, gaps identification and improvisation. If organization can implement a stringent quality control than following benefits are possible:

§ Reducing product defects lead to less variable cost associated with labor and material.

§ Reduction in wastage, scrap and pollution.

§ Ability to produce quality products over longer period of time

§ With quality maintenance needs for inspection reduces leading to decrease in maintenance cost

§ Large pool of satisfied customers.

§ Increase in employee motivation and awareness of quality.

§ Increase in productivity and overall efficiency.

Above mentioned points are relevant not only for production stage but are equally important for input material, manufacturing process, delivery process, etc.

2 Cheese making facilities at Thomashof in Burscheid

It is an eye opener how these farmers run such businesses and everything of the highest quality. One of the farmers, although small, has a very energy efficient dairy, using a number of systems to reduce energy use. It is not difficult to implement and many cheese makers could reduce their costs by implementing a similar, relatively simple, system.

In Bavaria most of the dairies are small farmer owned co-operatives, processing about 5, 000 litres per day. One of the interesting items on this trip is a cheese vat (plate 4) on a hydraulic lift, enabling the cheese maker to use the vat for a number of different products and without the need to have a gantry, saving space. The Food Centre in Wales has purchased such a system and have found it very useful.

The cheese vat with a plate heat exchanger, just behind on the wall, is shown in plate 4. A boiler is used to make hot water that exchanges heat with the water that

circulates around the vat. When the vat has the right temperature the water in the jacket is removed and used for cleaning. Water from an ice bank is used for cooling and the waste heat from this unit is used to provide a supply of water at about 65°C.

Near Berlin the dairies are on farms and they supply mostly fresh products which are sold in nearby Berlin. The equipment includes a specialised organic soft cheese dairy, a dairy specialised in curd cheese (quark) and a dairy that bottles milk and also runs an Ecolean machine, for producing reduced environmental impact packaging. Curd cheese is not particular popular in the UK, but goat cheese makers making goat cheese rolls often make curd cheese, which they extrude in rolls. The systems using draining through a cloth are very labour intensive and difficult to clean. Many goat cheese makers in the UK have now the " quark" press as used by the Berlin dairies and are pleased with not only the ease of production, they have the opportunity to automate to some degree. Also there is about a 10% increase in yield; when pouring curd in the bags, dry matter is lost, and curd can also be lost due to adhesion to the cloth filter.

Everybody on the trip notes something else they can use in their dairy and by keeping the trips short and affordable we have been able to support a wide range of cheese makers and enthusiasts alike. For more information please visit Jongia (UK) Ltd. For information on forthcoming study tours please see the announcements forum and the calendar.

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