In the Midst of a Recall: Recall Management and Prevention Strategies for Real World Scenarios

By Robert W. Manning

A product recall can be one of the most stressful situations in today's business environment. Depending on the complexity and products involved, there could be lives at risk, tens to hundreds of millions of dollars at stake, and the company's fate at hand, requiring accurate and decisive decision-making skills.

Robert Manning, who has led teams of operations, quality, and external consulting teams, will take you through the process of what happened, decisions made, and outcomes throughout the recall.

These experiences and lessons learned will provide the reader with concepts, strategies, and tools that will allow them to build a solid, customizable recall prevention plan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Apr 6, 2023
• ISBN: 9781667896205

Book preview

Praise for In the Midst of a Recall and Robert W. Manning

Bob Manning does things right. He is a student of the craft of ‘leadership’ and an expert in ‘food safety.’ Putting those two things together, he has designed an exceptional leadership manual for food safety recalls. I highly recommend it

Douglas R. Conant

Founder and CEO of ConantLeadership

Former President and CEO of Campbell Soup Company

Former President of Nabisco Foods Company

Working for a world leader in the food safety industry, I was proud to provide our in vitro diagnostic solutions for Mr Manning’s experience. This book, based on a real-life approach, is very educational and can truly help companies facing similar situations to overcome quality issues and better drive operational performance.

Angelica O’Shaughnessy

Global Strategic Key Account Manager, BioMerieux

A savvy, from-the-trenches take on how to maximize consumer safety and minimize business disruptions. Robert’s battle-tested command guides his readers, step by agile step, through effective management of a stubbornly unpredictable process.

Peter Biagetti

Attorney, [e-mail]

Great practical guide for anyone who wants to prepare for a recall and learn how to show leadership and minimize chaos caused by a recall.

Peter Ferstl, PhD

Director of Food Safety - Process Authority, Ripple Foods

Everyone who works in the food industry should read this book. It outlines in clear and detailed language not only what to do if you are ever involved in a recall, but also—far more importantly—it helps you make sure such an event never happens to your organization.

Even if your business already has a ‘recall plan,’ my guess is that it is not nearly as comprehensive as Robert Manning’s excellent book.

Daniel Ekström

Founder of Liquid Consulting

Do you want to keep living one recall to another or do you want to get proactive to keep from repeating the past. This book is a great guide to taking a more ‘management system’ approach.

John W. Spink, PhD

Director, Food Fraud Prevention Academy

Assistant Professor, Department of Supply Chain Management, Business

College, Michigan State University

title

To my Mom,

I know you would have been surprised that I actually sat down and took

the time to write this book, but would have been proud of my

accomplishment.

To my Dad,

who was a big believer in continuing education, but more importantly in

helping people, I think you would have been proud of what this could do

to help people get through difficult situations.

I love you both and miss you every day! Your Son

Copyright © 2021 by Robert W. Manning

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in part or in whole or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or via any information storage retrieval system now known or to be invented, without permission in writing from the author, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a print or online magazine, newspaper or broadcast.

For press inquiries, contact the author at manningresource.com

First Edition May 2023

Published by BookBaby

ISBN: 978-1-66789-620-5

Interior and Cover Design by Anneliese Townsend

Cover Photo by Tom Barrett

Editor: Kelly Lydick at The Story Laboratory www.writeeditdesignlab.com

The material in this book comes from experiences learned throughout the process, but does not disclose any confidential information. Situations, names, and positions have been altered as needed for confidentiality.

This book was developed to provide insight into what happens during an actual recall. Additionally, the chapter summaries contain lessons learned to help prevent mistakes and proactive guidance to assist with developing a customized recall plan. The author is not an Attorney and the content in this book does not constitute legal advice.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FOREWORD

AUTHOR’S NOTE

INTRODUCTION

PART 1 - REACTIVE PHASE

WHAT IS A RECALL AND HOW MUCH DOES IT COST AN ORGANIZATION?

EVERYTHING IS DISCOVERABLE IN A COURT OF LAW

THE INITIAL CALL

WHEN ALL THE STARS ALIGN

BE PREPARED FOR A MULTI-YEAR JOURNEY

WHEN THE CALL COMES IN, WHO DO YOU CALL NEXT?

DETERMINING THE FACTS

GAIN CONTROL

GROUND ZERO

TO RUN OR NOT TO RUN? THAT IS THE QUESTION

MANAGING COMMUNICATIONS

WATCH OUT FOR RABBIT HOLES

OH SH!T MOMENTS

NAVIGATING THROUGH POLITICS

THE EXPERTS

THE RESTART PLAN

PART 2 - PROACTIVE PHASE

YOUR PATH FORWARD

PROACTIVE REVIEW OF YOUR OPERATIONS

TRACEABILITY SYSTEMS AND MOCK RECALLS

EXTERNAL SUPPLY CHAIN

COMMUNICATION AND ESCALATION PLANS

CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

NEW TECHNOLOGY

TIMING CAN BE EVERYTHING

COST EFFECTIVENESS

RE-EVALUATING YOUR SYSTEM

URGENCY, FOLLOW-THROUGH, AND FOLLOW-UP

PART 3 - PREVENTION PHASE

CONTINGENCY PLANS AND COUNTERMEASURES

PUSH TO BE THE FRONT OF THE PACK

NEW BUSINESS THE RIGHT WAY

INSURANCE

EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND SCENARIOS

THE HIDDEN CHALLENGE

CASE STUDIES

AFTERWORD

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

APPENDIX

WORKS CITED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD

John W. Spink, PhD

Director, Food Fraud Prevention Academy

Assistant Professor, Department of Supply Chain Management,

Business College, Michigan State University

You are fortunate that you found this book. Inside you will find insight about all the usual topics people cover, but the real value is the details, insights, and recommendations for doing the real work. The processes and methods have been refined over the years from practical experience. What you’ll find is that the basic structure of managing a recall is similar, but the details are always different.

This book is unique in the field of product recall management because a common theme is prevention. In the midst of chaos there is opportunity (a quote by Sun-Tzu), but in the case of a product recall, it takes a lot of effort and foresight to take the extra effort. This is a great example of the big-picture focus.

As for the content, it is presented in a very comprehensible and logical way. The chapters are especially helpful since they each end with a Lessons Learned and Proactive Guidance.

Throughout, there is a process approach based on the quality management principle of plan-do-check-act. This is expanded upon in Chapter 26 on Re-Evaluating Your System.

This book is also unique since it addresses Board of Directors and C-Suite focus topics such as the role of insurance when running your business, managing a recall, and trying to both expand your coverage and keeping your costs down. Chapter 31 on Insurance provides great insight on a topic that is not often considered.

Then, while most books or reports on recall management recommend ‘mock exercises,’ this book provides deeper real-world insight that will help you and your systems be more efficient. By following these recommendations, I have no doubt that you will prevent recalls.

Finally, I’ve interacted with Bob over the years. We first met when he was a mid-career professional expanding his expertise in our master’s degree program. Along the way, I learned a lot from him about efficient operations management. I’ve been impressed and amazed by the energy, commitment, and results that he’s led across many situations and projects. This book is just the tip of the iceberg for the expertise and insight he can offer. I look forward to following this book and future works on recall management and prevention.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

When I began to write this book, my goal was to help businesses and employees get through the stressful process of going through a recall. Then, as I began to develop the content, my focus shifted to preventions strategies, but why? In short, to improve the safety of the food supply, eliminate waste, and feed more people.

Of course, it is obvious why we would focus on preventing a recall rather than reacting to one, but it goes much deeper than that.

When recalls happen, the first focus is on people’s health. The producing company quickly assesses what the issue is and communicates the information to remove the product as quickly as possible. Once this occurs, the securing and reconciliation process is typically conservative, meaning that more products will be pulled from the shelves than needed, which is done in an abundance of caution. Because of this, exceptionally large amounts of product are dispositioned for destruction.

While this is occurring, the ramifications from this information becoming available will cause the public to question your products, as well as the confidence in the company. Even greater, if there are multiple recalls in the food manufacturing industry, the safety of the food supply will also be in questioned and purchases will be reduced. This will cause businesses to reduce their size, close part of the operation down, or go out of business completely. In the end, people will lose jobs and the food supply will be reduced by some amount.

As the world continues to grow, the demands on our food supply will become even greater. In order to build a food supply that is truly sustainable, we must do a few things. First create solid, robust systems that assure us that we will produce error-free products. By doing this, we not only will produce food more efficiently, but we will drive out waste and provide food for more people. Secondly, we need to build confidence in our food production processes and in doing so, will generate more business. This will, in turn, secure and create more jobs for people.

My diverse background has positioned me well to provide insight and guidance to help companies build better programs, allowing them to produce the safest and highest quality products for the world. At the same time, these operations will reduce waste going to the environment, creating more sustainable facilities.

I absolutely believe that I have a far greater obligation to the world and will do my part to do what I can to improve it.

Thank you for helping me on this mission!

Robert W. Manning

THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR HELP

THE GOAL: To provide insights into people, equipment, process, and system failures to prevent recalls world-wide.

If we share findings behind failures, market withdrawals, and product recalls, together we will improve the world one prevention at a time!

VISIT

RECALLPREVENTIONPLAN.COM

TO SHARE YOUR STORY

INTRODUCTION

WHEN CAN YOU GET ON THE NEXT PLANE?

Those were the words that opened the door for my next assignment and a multi-year journey into recall investigations and recall management, that gave me the experience of a lifetime.

It was a late afternoon in early June several years ago, and I was asked to attend a call with senior leaders of our company and the customer, for whom we produced product. It was a call to discuss a product in the field that had premature spoilage. Although there is always the potential to have problems in the field, my first instinct is that there was some abuse in the field and the customer was looking for a quick replacement or credit.

When the team assembled on the call, there was talk of the product in question and that it had various spoilage complaints. More importantly, outside teams had conducted bacterial testing and they believed there was a harmful, possibly life-threatening, bacteria in the product and that it should be quickly removed from the shelf. This statement meant that the customer wanted us to recall the product.

On this call in particular, we were taken off guard, since we did not have any insight into the problem, or how long it had been going on. There was a considerable amount of debate and data presented that took our team by surprise. Due to the potential severity, we were told that we needed to make a decision immediately, and that we would need to reconvene in an hour to outline the path forward.

We quickly had an internal call, and it was chaotic, unorganized, and we were not prepared, despite the fact that we had what we thought was a sound Recall Management Plan. In fact, I cannot even remember anyone referring to that plan through this entire process. If they did, I surely did not remember. More importantly, I would say with fact that any plan provided to me at that time would not have prepared me for what I was about to do.

What I would later find out is that what I had anticipated would be a simple, straight-forward process that could be closed out in a few weeks, perhaps a month at best, was completely unrealistic. I completely underestimated the amount of time, resources, and people that would be getting involved. What would happen is that many highly experienced industry experts would be flying in from many different companies to provide support for a long process.

What happened next was the pivotal time in my career and the opportunity of a lifetime. Let me preface this by first saying that I am not a multi-tasker and anyone who knows me will say that I make this very clear. That being said, while the chaos was unfolding, I assumed I would have to go to the site, so I was in the process of changing my current travel schedule to head out. While we were all trying to figure out what happened, ownership asked when I could be on the