In the aftermath of high-visibility foodborne illness outbreaks during the past year, some restaurant chains are leveraging for enhanced food safety or improved crisis communications technology that might not immediately come to mind for those purposes.
The Web-based Instill Quality & Compliance Management system being used by the Subway chain's Independent Purchasing Cooperative, or IPC, is one such technology, as is the GroupCast LLC voice messaging tool being used by the Cheyenne, Wyo.-based Taco John's chain.
Miami-based IPC is the procurement and distribution operation controlled by the owners of the more than 22,000 franchised Subway sandwich restaurants in the United States, Puerto Rico and Canada. It deployed the Instill software and service over a six-month period beginning in June 2005.
"We have been able to notice improved food quality, and along with that, we believe there is improved food safety," Rick Buttner, IPC director of quality and purchasing, said of his group's experience with the Instill system. Without providing details, he acknowledged that IPC has "had some food safety concerns highlighted by the system," which helped the cooperative "manage [potential problems] effectively."
Addressing the view of the supply chain provided by the Instill technology, Buttner added, "When we do have a problem, we can focus in on the [manufacturing] plant, the [production] line having the problem and even the time of production."
Such traceback capabilities often are cited by supply chain experts and public health officials as necessary components of a comprehensive food safety program.
According to Instill, IQ&CM software is designed to efficiently aggregate and analyze supply chain information for the purposes of early detection of product quality problems, the formulation of action plans related to those problems and the tracking of compliance with those plans. It is also intended to resolve more quickly product problems and disputes among operators and trading partners by providing accurate information in a timely manner and by supporting online collaboration among those players.
To work, the IQ&CM strategy requires that an operator-user's distributor and manufacturer trading partners take part by providing access to product and production information.
For improved accuracy in data collection and ease of use by IPC's thousands of Subway operator/cooperative owners, IPC is executing IQ&CM using a call center rather than a reporting website or e-mail. Buttner said call center agents are trained to efficiently coax key information from franchisees and help them find important details on invoices and packaging.
"High severity complaints [logged into the system] pop up on e-mail [to IPC officials]," the IPC executive explained. Citing possible examples of what might trigger such alerts, he pointed to developments ranging "from a bone in a chicken breast to something allegedly being undercooked [by a processor]."
"In the past," noted Buttner, "it might have taken days, if not weeks, to see these problems."
By simplifying reporting and combining a centralized database with analytical tools and the ability to automate the issuance of alerts, IPC has the basis for an early detection system for food safety matters, Buttner indicated. He said IPC is "ramping up" its use of the IQ&CM system and has a goal of incorporating into it data from supplier plant audits and lab tests, among other information.
"Adoption [among Subway operators] is growing," said Buttner.
Unified Supply Chain Inc. of Minneapolis, the purchasing arm for the 5,600-unit Dairy Queen system operating primarily in the United States and Canada, also is using the Instill Quality & Compliance Management service.
IPC and USCI migrated to the Instill package from homegrown systems relying on spreadsheets or off-the-shelf database software.
Representatives of Instill said IQ&CM users pay a basic subscription fee of $3,000 per month. Fees increase if unit-level users are given direct access to the system or if additional departments within a corporation, such as finance, are licensed to use the technology, they said.
Afood safety problem already had been detected late last year when franchisor Taco John's International Inc. used GroupCast's phone-based messaging system to keep the 230 operators of 400-plus franchised Taco John's restaurants updated about an E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. In December three Taco John's restaurants in Iowa and Minnesota were implicated in an E. coli outbreak that sickened at least 50 people and that later was associated by public health agencies with contaminated lettuce.
For a monthly subscription fee of from $150 to $500, depending on the number of individuals on a "to call" list, and a 15-cents-per-minute charge per call placed, GroupCast users can phone a pre-recorded message to hundreds or thousands of individuals in a matter of minutes, if not seconds. An offset equal to the monthly subscription fee is applied to the per-minute charges run up by a user in any given month, GroupCast executives said.
GroupCast users can compile their messages by calling a toll-free phone number and following the prompts and can, if they wish, store on GroupCast's system a number of generic pre-recorded messages.
"It was incredibly valuable to us to reassure our franchise partners in the face of an unexpected issue and tragedy; it enabled us to get a message out to people quickly and comprehensibly and to tie them into a conference call," Taco John's Brian Dixon recalled of his chain's experience using GroupCast.
Update messages and invitations to conference calls were sent using the GroupCast system and e-mail, said Dixon, Taco John's vice president of marketing.
"The fact is, we have a hard time keeping track of e-mail addresses, because people are now [changing them] to dodge spam and regularly change service providers," Dixon said. Beyond questions about possibly incorrect e-mail addresses, he said there were additional concerns among chain management that e-mail might miss the mark in many instances because restaurateurs "are not just sitting in front of their computers all day."
Dixon said Taco John's call list included the work, cell and home phone numbers for franchisees, their unit managers and TJI corporate personnel. By using GroupCast and e-mail, the chain was "able to get information to multiple locations" and greatly increase the odds of making a connection, he said.
The Taco John's marketing executive estimated that the chain made six to eight GroupCast assisted calls during the six-week "height" of outbreak activity. Those calls were made simultaneously to up to 250 individuals across 25 states, GroupCast sources reported. Dixon said recorded outgoing messages were relatively short, with none exceeding five minutes.
"Most updates" Dixon said, included such information as "where we stand, what we've heard about potential numbers of illnesses, reminders of safety practices, where we were with [dealing with] the media, and how we were working with regulatory agencies."
GroupCast representatives said users can access the system to record a message and launch a broadcast using any phone that can dial an 800 number, including cellular and satellite phones. That, they said, makes the system easy to use and attractive in situations where manmade or natural disasters foul Internet service or landlines.
Marketing and workforce notification are among the non-crisis applications for which GroupCast customers have used the company's technology, sources at the St. Louis, Mo.-based services firm said.
