食品檢驗實驗室自動化策略之探討-以S公司為例

Abstract

隨著國人對於食的安全意識提升，對於食品衛生的要求亦越趨重視。而政府在近年亦不斷強調食品安全政策，衛生福利部明令要求食品業者進行源頭管理及自主管理並於後市場進行抽樣檢驗。而業者於源頭管理及自主管理主要為委託第三方檢驗實驗室進行檢驗，另在後市場檢驗部分衛生福利部常以標案方式委由第三方代理實施的方式執行。由於檢驗數量龐大且品質要求較高，故各食品檢驗業者在檢驗能力、檢驗容量、檢驗速度及檢驗品質皆被嚴格要求。 在食品產業鏈中，因作業環境所造成微生物污染之問題屢見不鮮，故可預期微生物檢驗將為主要項目之一。食品微生物檢驗流程中，培養基配製所需時間及所耗人力佔整個測試中極重之比例。如何在維持檢驗品質的前提下，縮減人力、精簡檢驗流程將為未來食品檢驗業的新契機。 綜合本研究結果，可得以下結論: 1.政策面 配合政府食品安全政策，在堅守檢驗品質的原則下以自動化設備進行培養基配製。擴大檢驗容量及縮減檢驗時間，以因應未來政府單位可能委託檢驗之標案需求。 S集團為維持持續成長的推力，隨著國家推展工業4.0 (生產力 4.0 )的政策而制定TIC (Testing, Inspection, Certification) 4.0的願景與策略。強化競爭優勢及提供客戶更佳、更迅速的服務。培養基自動化配製即為其中重點項目之一，本研究顯示自動化方式應用於大食品服務中，將可提供解決檢驗瓶頸的有效方案，降低人力的損耗。 2.流程改善面 自動化配製培養基除將原實驗室例行的繁瑣工作交付由設備取代進行外，亦引入中央廚房的概念將各部門所需之培養基集中生產。利用規模經濟將製作成本降低，亦可降低供應商的議價能力。 3.經濟效益面 MPR設立後產生之效益為:增加微生物檢驗營收23.07 %，而對食品服務部總營收則增加 2.81 %。以自動化設備製備培養基來節省人力、降低製作成本、減低供應商議價能力等來增加營收，將可維持並增加S公司之競爭力。 單純提供客戶檢驗服務已無法滿足現今客戶的需求，如何提供客戶total solution已為檢驗業之趨勢。S公司為將自動化設備應用於食品檢驗工作，此經驗將可提供給其他業者參考。

As the people become more aware of the safety of the food they consume, a stronger emphasis has been placed on the requirements for food hygiene. Additionally, as the government has stressed food safety policies in recent years, the Ministry of Health and Welfare has required that the food manufacturing regulate the Source Management and Self-Management, and carry out post-market sampling inspections. The Source Management and Self-Management must commission inspections carried out by a third party laboratory, while post-market inspections will also be conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare through a third party agent. Due to the increase in inspection numbers and quality requirements, the same increase in speed, capacity, and quality from the inspection industry is strictly required. In the food industry, it is common for the environment to cause microbial contaminations. Thus, it can be expected that microbiological testing will be one of the major projects. Within the microbiological inspection process, the time required for the preparation of the culture medium along with the manpower requirement account for a large proportion. Streamlining a new inspection process, in which the quality of testing is maintained while manpower is reduced, will be a new opportunity for the future food industry to explore. Based on the results of this study, the following conclusions can be drawn: 1.Policies To cooperate with the government’s food safety policies, automatic preparation of the culture medium under the principle of high quality of inspection is necessary. Both increasing the capacity of inspection and reducing the inspection time are required in response to the large amount of food inspection from government. S Group has developed a vision and strategy for TIC (Testing, Inspection, Certification) 4.0 in order to sustain its continued growth as well as accomplish the national policy of promoting industry 4.0 (productivity 4.0). This will strengthen the competitive advantage and provide clients with better and faster services. The development of medium automation is one of the key projects. This study shows that the application of automation in large food services will provide an effective solution to the bottleneck of testing and reduce the loss of manpower. 2.Process Improvement In order to reach the goal of medium automation, the routine work of medium preparation can be replaced by machines and the manufacture is carried out by the central production center. Using economies of scale will reduce production costs while also reducing the bargaining power of suppliers. 3.Economic Benefits The establishment of MPR has reaped the following benefits: increased revenue in microbiological testing by 23.07% and a total increase in revenue of food services by 2.81%. Increasing the revenue by automating equipment to save manpower, reduce production costs, reduce supplier bargaining power, etc., will maintain and increase the competitiveness of S company Taiwan. Simply providing clients with inspection services has been unable to meet the needs of today's customers, and the ways to provide clients with a total solution has been the trend of inspection industries. S company Taiwan provides automatic equipment for the food inspection, and our experience can be reference for other industrial companies.