A couple of years ago I worked for a company that had a frozen burrito line that was struggling. When I first walked the floor there were tortillas stacked in awkward piles and filling glooping onto the equipment and dropping on the floor.
My task was to optimize the filling. How could we improve dosing to prevent the filling from squeezing out of tortillas?
Very quickly I found out the main problem was the centerlining of the system - it seemed like we set the system up differently each day. When I reviewed the data the answer to the dosing issue jumped off the page. Consistently setting up the machine would lead to accurately dosing the tortillas. But how could I communicate the need for change in a way that would break through the commotion on the plant floor?
Data alone does not drive change - effective communication does. And on a plant floor, effective communication consists of engagement, ownership, and context.
Engagement: Getting People to See, Care, and Act
The first step was getting people to see and care about the information. For this site I set up a form on an iPad that automatically calculated how well the site produced to the specification. Cpk for the Statistical Process Control nerds out there.
How to maximize engagement for the floor (operators, technicians):
- Provide dashboards or visual displays rather than buried spreadsheets.
- Ensure tools integrate seamlessly into day-to-day workflow (if it’s a burden, it’s ignored).
- Create feedback loops: let them ask, tweak, feel the tool is theirs.
In the burrito plant, when operators used a user-friendly form and saw the SPC chart tied to their work, engagement went up and we saw an improvement in Cpk. But without management buy-in, I was not confident the change would last. So I created a dashboard specifically for management for use in the weekly quality meetings.
How to maximize engagement for management:
- Translate metrics into business language: scrap, throughput, downtime.
- Use clear visuals: trends, before/after, impacts.
- Don’t just send reports — meet, discuss, solicit input.
Engagement means both groups are looking at the data and saying “I get this, this matters to me.”
Ownership: Turning “Their Project” into “Our Process”
Once people engage, the next step is making the initiative theirs. For the floor workers that meant talking with them about how the form was used. Did the form make their lives easier on the floor, or was it an added burden? How easy was the user interface? Did the SPC charts automatically show up, or did you operators have to click through a menu to find them?
For management ownership meant talking with the leadership team about the work I was doing and soliciting their feedback at every step of the process.
How to maximize ownership for operators:
- Involve them in selecting what data to capture and how it’s shown.
- Ensure they understand the numbers: “Why is this target here?”
- Show their actions matter: “Improved dosing accuracy means less cleanup - and an easier job for you”
At the burrito plant, operators helped shape the form, used the dashboard, and shifted from doing “quality’s job” to owning “our job.”
How to maximize ownership for management:
- Involve the leadership team in prioritizing improvements, not just approving them.
- Show them how their decisions shape outcomes: fewer sanitation stops leads to more run time and increased throughput.
- When they own it, the initiative becomes part of the operation, not an added task.
Context: The Why Behind Every Metric
Even the best engagement and ownership stall without context. People must understand why this matters, how it fits into competing plant priorities, and what’s in it for them / for the plant.
For operators:
- Connect actions to outcomes they care about: “Better dosing → fewer interruptions → you finish on time.”
- Show how their part links to the bigger picture: “This line supports our brand; each unit matters.”
For management:
- Tie safety/quality metrics to business metrics: uptime, yield, scrap cost, brand reputation. Dietetics Academy+2Food Safety and Quality Institute+2
- Show the risk of not acting: recall cost, downtime, overtime costs, lost trust.
In the burrito plant example: better dosing → less downtime → more production. That context aligned the plant floor and leadership around the same goal.
A Process, Not a Project
Here’s a key point: food safety and quality communication isn’t a one-and-done initiative. It’s a process. Effective communication plans must evolve. Yes, engagement, ownership, and context are foundational—but you’ll need to revisit:
- Are dashboards still meaningful?
- Are operators still giving feedback and feeling part of the process?
- Have plant priorities shifted, or new leaders joined so the story needs retelling?
Industry guidance affirms this: communication in food safety is ongoing, iterative. Continuous improvement in your communication equals continuous improvement in food safety outcomes.
Conclusion: Back to the Burritos
Remember those tortillas?
By structuring communication around engagement, ownership, and context, SPC charts tightened, overfills dropped, and cleaning interruptions fell. Production rose sustainably.
But it didn’t stop there. We kept refining the dashboard, reassessing what mattered to operators and management, and adapting as the plant matured. That’s how we earned our seat at the table.
When you, as a food-safety/quality leader, drive communication that engages, creates ownership, and places actions in context — you don’t just push reports. You enable decisions. You embed change. And you stay part of the real conversation in the plant. The result? Safer food, stronger operations, fewer crises. And yes, less stress for everyone (you included).
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