Health is a basic need for all people around the world and it has been realized at Nestle, USA. Nestle has been striving to provide the best quality food to the consumers, not only to meet the customer demands that are rising on the daily basis but to make sure that health is the one main theme that can be kept focused in all cases.
In the general words, quality can be defined in many ways and one of the ways that can define quality is the completeness of all the characteristics that are associated with a product as these are the main characteristics that can help meet the needs and the demands that are placed by the customers. Total and complete correspondence to the expectations of the customers is named as quality (Beckford, 2003, p. 15).
The greatest markets that have been reached by Nestle are United States. Reaching into such big market has made Nestle recognize the main challenges in the case of the quality of the processed foods. It has been estimated that around 40% of the population in the US uses the processed foods. In addition to this the quality principles and procedures that are being applied by Nestle are the ones that have helped them gain a market share in the markets of the United States (Tothill, 2003, p. 44). The strategic polices that are being implanted at Nestle have been the ones that can make Nestle win in the global markets; as the one main fact that has been realized by Nestle is that the customers are the valued stakeholders for all organizations.
For meeting the expected quality standards there are many techniques and technologies that are implemented by the organizations and the businesses all around the world. The most important category of these organizations are the food organizations as these are the ones that can assure health of the end consumer by producing the best quality products (Schwarz, 2002, p. 55).
Nestle foods is one of the most renowned organization based in USA and it has been known to the customers for giving a large variety of food products. Milk, baby food products are some of the main food items being sold by Nestle around the world. These are the food products that are critical to the health of a person who is using these products and this has been realized at Nestle with all the relevant consequences. The quality standards of all the food products need to be maintained in a proper manner and this can help in fulfilling nearly all of the customer demands.
The second most important reason for the maintenance of the quality in the food industry is that customers in these days are more health conscious as compared to the older days and this makes the organizations work at a higher level on the food products and their higher quality standards. These are the health conscious consumers whose demands need to be met by implementing the highest quality standards in all the food products (Tothill, 2003, p. 60).
Every food product of Nestle in the market, as well as every customer, though in any corner of the world are the ones who shape up the entire image of Nestlé and this has been realized by Nestle. All of the companies that are joined with Nestle are the ones that have promised to maintain the highest quality standards of all the products so as to satisfy all the customer needs. In this case it is to be realized that quality is not only to be implemented as well as practically utilized by the manufacturing units; but also by the management, distribution and sales, purchasing as well as marketing as these all have an important role to play in providing the highest quality products to the end consumers.
Within Nestle, there are different quality units and these are the ones that have the responsibility to provide the support as well as to increase an awareness of quality within an organization. These are the quality units that take the roles of guardians and they audit the quality related systems to have a check on all the available faults and errors in the current quality units. Quality units and the quality departments in Nestle have been known for their best performance and it has been seen that the strategies that are implemented at Nestle help them to maintain the best quality standards at Nestle and this is reflective in their food products (Vollmann, Berry, and Whybark, 2005, p. 44).
Quality departments in Nestlé are responsible for cross checking all the manufacturing units, all the distribution units for the agreed quality standards. The main objects that are checked by these departments are that are the food standards must be exactly according to the standards that are being demanded by the consumers in the end, the standards that can assure the health safety of all the valued customers.
There are standards for the quality principles that are to be met by Nestle, these are the principles that are being followed by Nestle. The quality principles, the tools that are related to the quality maintenance and the quality standards are being strictly adhered to by Nestle (Rangan, Quelch, and Herrero, 2006, p. 33).
Within Nestle, the food is not produced in one unit as it has been noticed in nearly every firm that manufactures the food based products. In food manufacturing systems, there are many third parties involved along with many units and these are the suppliers, the raw material suppliers as well as the manufacturers, contract manufacturers, distributors and these are all the parties that are expected to adhere to the highest quality standard principles in all cases.
It has been added by the authorities at Nestle that the quality maintenance at the quality units is one of the greatest challenges that they have to face in the manufacturing units and this has to be dealt in a very strategic manner. It has been said that the roles have been played by the strategic decision makers at Nestle but still more needs to be done in case of the support from the governments. It has been said that the government have been supportive in this case. Physical as well as the managerial sources are the ones that need to be implemented to maintain all the possible quality standards in the products (Institute of Medicine (U.S.)., and Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, 2001, p. 33).
The quality management strategy that is being applied by Nestle is the quality management as well as the quality maintenance system which is proactive, as well as process based and this is the process that helps ensure the quality of the products with safety and all the health related compliances that are necessary to meet the demands of the customers.
Quality has been defined as the commitment of the management at Nestle. It has been said that the management at Nestle has the commitment to set the quality standards for all kinds of food products. The management in Nestle is responsible for the decision making that is relevant to the quality standard maintenance. The value chain at Nestle has been the one in focus in regards to the quality and all the regulations that have been set by the international organizations are to be followed in the strict manner. The quality standards that are being followed by Nestle in the quality maintenance units, the raw material supplier units are the ones that have been designed by the world health organizations. The international quality standards that have been defined by WHO are Codex Alimentarius and these are the rules that ensure the food safety as well as quality that reaches he end consumers (Tothill, 2003, p. 55).
Filtration, bottling, disinfection, heating, pasteurization, packing are all the processes through which the food is processed. These are the processes that are carefully regulated in many ways. In the case of bottling of the food products, the quality and the health related issues are all dealt in a great detail as in the case of the Nestle Pure Life. Moreover it has been seen that the disinfection plants are the ones that are checked by the monitoring system quiet frequently for any leakages and any faults that may cause problems in the production of a high quality products (Beckford, 2003, p. 33). All of the products are tested for the bottling procedures and these are the ones that have to comply with the international quality standards. In this case in addition to the quality standards that have been set by WHO, the strict quality standards that have been defined by the Food and Drug Authority are also met.
The plant operators that are being used at Nestle are the ones that have been checked as well as the certified by the quality checks. In addition to this, the personnel who are responsible for operating the plants are the ones who are highly trained and are checked frequently while operating the plants for the production of foods (Schwarz, 2002, p. 99).
International Bottled Water Association is an organization that makes the checks on the quality of all the bottled products of Nestle. The rules and regulations that are designed by these third parties are the ones whose rules are being adhered to by Nestle.
Product traceability requirements are the ones that are being met by Nestle in the current time. These are the current demands in the markets that are made by the customers and it has been seen that these are the demands that are being met by Nestle in an organized manner (Vollmann, Berry, and Whybark, 2005, p. 97).
At Nestle it has been seen that for the maintenance of the quality the main strategy that is being used by the quality units is the NQS, Nestle Quality System as this is the system that defines the consistency of Nestlé for the quality maintenance. Nestlé uses all the present and advanced performance standards while implementing all the monitoring standards that are associated in producing the high quality products. All the samples, raw materials, the final products as well as the semi finished products are the ones that are checked at constant levels by Nestle quality checking systems. The implementation of NQS, for Nestle has been seen to increase the quality and safety, and it reduces the risks related to the production of lower quality products for the end consumes (Stevenson, 1996, p. 44).
In addition to this it has been seen that the additional advantages that have been provided by the implementation of NQS at Nestle include a decrease in the cost of quality maintenance of the raw materials that are always supplied to the manufacturing units by the certified suppliers. In this case the business relationships that have been built by the authorities at Nestle with the suppliers of the raw materials have been shown to play important roles. Nestle always has an authority to question the raw material supplier in case of the production process that is used for the raw material (Institute of Medicine (U.S.)., and Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, 2001, p. 99).
In order to ensure the safety of the products that reach the customers it has been seen that the legislations that have been designed by Nestle include the certifications that have to be passed by the raw material suppliers but the main issue that is being faced in this case is that not all the suppliers can be the ones who can pass the certification. Thereby Nestle has a lesser number of suppliers and these are the ones who provide Nestle with highest quality raw material that makes sure that the end products is of higher quality.
The raw materials that are provided to Nestle must meet the legal quality standards that have been defined by the health organizations as FDA as well as WHO. The raw materials that are being provided to Nestle are the ones that are produced by all the approved farming methods which imply to the cleaner environment policies (Tothill, 2003, p. 33).
Nestle has an aim to strive in the process of manufacturing in which all the raw material is converted to the final shape and is than delivered to the customers. The natural resources are always taken into account when the manufacturing is being done from the raw materials and these natural resources include water and energy. Waste generation and the emissions that are usually produced during the food productions are the ones that are reduced to a minimum level by nestle. Recycling is the main aim that is being achieved by Nestle in all costs as the waste that is produced is recycled in all priorities (Rangan, Quelch, and Herrero, 2006, p. 101).
Packaging is the main way in which the final product reaches the customers and for this purpose the best quality materials are the ones that are used by Nestle to pack the final food product so as to ensure safety and guarantee the customer’s health and safety ((Tothill, 2003, p. 93). It has been seen that the features that are provided by the packaging include the tamper evidences. The aim that has been realized at Nestle is to deliver the best quality products to the customers by making use of the best quality packaging materials. Some of the main rules that are being followed by Nestle in food packaging include the use of the lowest weighing packaging material ensuring the highest quality that must be assured by all the testing procedures that are carried out on the packaging materials. It has been seen that the packaging at Nestle undergoes constant assessment and the quality checks so as to ensure the quality foods (Schwarz, 2002, p. 125).
Ensuring safety to the health of the customers should be the one main fact that has to be realized by the companies that are entitled to produce the processed foods. These are the days of awareness and the advanced technologies and these are the resources that can be used to achieve the aims and the success.
References
- Beckford, John. (2003). Quality. 2nd Edition. Routledge.
- Institute of Medicine (U.S.)., and Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. National Academies Press.
- Rangan, Kasturi, V., Quelch, A. John., and Herrero, Gustavo. (2006). Business solutions for the global poor: creating social and economic value: The Jossey-Bass business & management series. John Wiley and Sons.
- Schwarz, Friedhelm. (2002). Nestle: The Secrets of Food, Trust and Globalization. Key Porter Books.
- Stevenson, J. William. (1996). Production/operations management: The Irwin series in production operations management: McGraw-Hill Series in Information and Decision Sciences: Irwin Series in Marketing. 5th edition. Irwin.
- Tothill, E. Ibtisam. (2003). Rapid and on-line instrumentation for food quality assurance: Woodhead Publishing in food science and technology: Woodhead Publishing in Food Science, Technology and Nutrition Series. Woodhead Publishing.
- Vollmann, E. Thomas., Berry, L. William., and Whybark, Clay, D. (2005). Manufacturing planning and control systems for supply chain management: The McGraw-Hill/Irwin series in operations and decision sciences. 5th Edition. McGraw-Hill Professional.