Digital PSM Programs: Saving Your Food Facility Money, Time, And Headaches

By Melissa Lind, contributing writer

You can shorten your food facility’s process safety management (PSM) audits by a considerable amount of time by utilizing a PSM program.  Whether it is the FDA, OSHA, or other organizations, digital PSM technology can save your company a lot of time, effort, and money.

Management of audit processes in the food industry has typically involved a lot of paper.  In the food industry, your company is potentially subject to a number of audits from various agencies, depending upon the specific type of food you process.  Auditors are required to examine a number of different types of data, including data and reports from previous audits and not every auditor or agency wants to see the same thing.

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Preparing paper documentation takes a considerable amount of time and management of those documents can be nothing short of painful. Preparing for different types of audits may not allow you to develop much of an organizational system.  Even if you have already switched many or most of your data-heavy storage or sanitization processes to a computerized system, they still need to be available for auditors to examine.

If you have multiple systems to manage your food-processing and packaging lines, having data trapped in numerous places presents a real stumbling block when it comes to regulatory observance.  Even more so, management of individual platforms can present a day-to-day challenge, making it difficult to take a global view of your company’s operations.

The answer to addressing these dilemmas may be a digital PSM program as it allows your company to electronically access and present data to inspectors rather than handing over physical books. The inspector simply asks for desired documents you immediately grant the request.  Unlike paper systems, the auditor no longer has to wade through all 50 of your Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). Instead, the inspector can view the particular procedure, along with the corresponding data, in the order that is most efficient.  With the digital PSM, all of your company’s audit documents are filed in a central electronic folder and easily accessible.

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Other data-driven systems can also be integrated by either importing the data on-demand or automatically.  Some systems also allow for management of maintenance and other processes within the same platform so that the obstacle of matching two or more systems can be avoided. This not only saves your facility a good deal of time during an audit, but can provide cost savings as well by avoiding the cost of multiple software installations. However, one of the biggest advantages of implementing digital PSM is the added ability to see and manage all of your company’s information from one platform.  This gives a view across all of your company’s systems, making it easier and more efficient to identify and correct deficiencies.