Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Good afternoon, everyone, or good morning, depending on your location. Thank you so much
for taking time out of your schedule to join us for the webinar. We are committed to providing
updated information to you as we begin looking at our business processes and how we can improve
them and how we can communicate with you a little better, especially in the area of resolving
issues that come up about USDA Foods. While we know that we strive to provide quality
products to you, from time to time there may be a situation where you receive something
that does not quite live up to expectations or there's obviously a problem with the product
that you receive, and we want to give a chance for you all to understand there is a process
to resolve problems that come up with our products. We are looking forward to not just
this webinar, but an additional series of webinars throughout the rest of the calendar
year to help give you updated information about different topics pertaining to USDA
Foods. I'd like to turn over the presentation to Andre Orange. Andre is the Team Lead for
the complaints process here with Food and Nutrition Service, and I think you'll enjoy
and get a lot of good information from the presentation today. Thank you, Laura. Welcome
again, everyone, to USDA Foods Complaint Process webinar. I'd first like to discuss a few housekeeping
slides with you regarding the tools we're using for today's webinar. If you look in
the right-hand corner of the screen, there is an icon with a piece of paper where you
can click on to download the one handout I have for today's webinar, and it's regarding
the complaint contact information which I will discuss later on in the presentation.
In addition, we have in the upper left-hand corner of the screen, we have the Q&A tab
whereby you can type in your questions as we go through the presentation today. Before
we get into the presentation, I'd like to open up our first polling question for us
to answer. And it is, have you completed a USDA Foods complaint webinar before? Take
a moment to answer that. Okay. Based on the results we have quite a few that say they
have not attended a webinar. Hopefully we'll provide some good information for you that
you can definitely take back. Getting into our slide presentation now, USDA Foods Complaint
Team goals are to resolve state distributing agency and receiving agency problems with
product quality and packaging. Also to improve product specifications. This would be low
fat, low sugar, low sodium and no sodium offerings. And also working with our sister agencies,
which I will get into in our next slide, as they monitor vendor performance. This next
slide gives you an idea of the complaint process and how it works. These are the agencies that
are involved in the complaint process. FNS, which is us, we receive the complaints, and
where the Web Based Supply Chain Management System is housed. We work very closely with
our sister agencies AMS, the Agriculture Marketing Service, who purchases beef, fish, pork, poultry,
and fruits and vegetables. We also work closely with our sister agency the Farm Service Agency,
or FSA, and they purchase dairy, nuts, grains, flour, and oils. When there is a complaint
that warrants vendor action, the respective sister agency contacts the vendor regarding
the specific food item and then coordinates the appropriate action with the vendor. And
before moving on to this slide, I'd like to open up our second polling question regarding
filing a complaint. Take a moment to answer this. All right. Based on the results, it
looks like a little more than half have entered a Web Based Supply Chain Management complaint
before. And I do provide information as we go along here to get into how to do that and
the screens that are provided. So in terms of filing a USDA Foods complaint, the SDA
receives complaints from RAs, or Recipient Agencies, and submits electronically through
the Web Based Supply Chain Management System, or WBSCM. If, for some unforeseen circumstance,
the system is down, there are alternative methods whereby you can reach us to file your
complaint. The first one is email, and the email address is provided there. You can fax
us, or you can call and email the USDA Complaint Team Specialist, which I'll provide the list
for at the end of the presentation. Problems that qualify as a USDA Food complaint are
the following: product quality, which entails taste, odor, appearance. Foreign material
in the product. Could range from bones, metal clips, machine parts, anything that should
not be in the food item. Poor packaging. Bags split, bags not sealed properly, bottles leaking,
bulging. And finally, cooking/preparation. That would be off color, when it says pasta
not cooking up properly. These are quality issues that would be submitted in a WBSCM
complaint system. There are other types of complaints that may arise not necessarily
in the scope of the complaint system. These would be program issues, such as food offerings,
distribution frequency, funding allocations. Shipping issues, product not shipped on time,
delivery of wrong product, condition of the truck or trailer. All right, complaints about
receipt, storage handling and delivery problems or product held too long in storage. FNS works
closely with state and regional offices to resolve these types of issues; however, they
fall outside the rim of a true USDA Food complaint, and these types of complaints would not be
submitted in WBSCM complaint system. What information is needed to file a complaint?
That would consist of the following list we have here. material number, lot number, sales
order number, purchase order number, nature and extent of the problem, the physical address
of the remaining product, quantities involved, quantities remaining, digital photo or photos,
and contact information. That would be telephone, fax number, email address. Food safety complaints.
The Office of Food Safety receives and reviews all complaints entered in the WBSCM complaint
system for potential food safety concerns. The Food Safety Office is the first line receiving
all complaints. Things to include when reporting food safety complaint. Identification of the
product. This would be lot numbers, specific brand items if applicable, if you know it,
foreign materials, dimension of the materials, any more details you can provide regarding
the material found in the food. Any illnesses, injuries, allergic reactions, and again, all
we're after. As I mentioned previous, again, digital photos where possible. I'd like to
stress here that digital photos play a huge part in identifying the specific problem and
getting resolution, so we encourage as many photos as you can possibly provide. Another
important note I want to bring to your attention as well, your timely response to the USDA
Foods Complaint Team is very important. Failure to respond at the specified time given by
the Complaint Team will result in closing the initial complaint. The point here is that
we are committed and our goal is to resolve these complaints quickly and be able to get
the information to vendor as soon as possible. So any delays here (inaudible) from not doing
that. Leaking and bulging containers. We ask that you isolate the leaking and bulging product.
Include all product in the same case as the leaking and/or bulging product. Do not attempt
to separate and distribute product that does not appear to have defects. And, again, do
not discard the isolated product. Products should be kept isolated until further guidance
is received from USDA. Evidence of insect infestation. Our goal here is to provide a
quick decision to insure infested food does not contaminate other food items. Here, again,
we ask you do not discard infested isolated product unless instructed by USDA. Before
filing a complaint, insure you have the following information: material number, lot number,
sales order number, case count, digital photo or photos, and a contact information. Before
we proceed to the next slide, I'd like to open up the poll for our third polling question.
Okay, the correct answer, two one three on the cases, boxes, and on the packaging/container.
And the third answer is prevalent because we realize with schools sometimes the product
is taken out of the initial case or box and just to reassure you that we can also find
that lot number on the item itself. So that's why both two and three were the correct answers.
Okay, the next set of screens I'll take you through will provide logging on to Web Based
Supply Chain Management System and what the actual screens look like when you're filing
your complaint. This first screen here is the web portal getting you into the system.
Next screen, you would log on, using your e-authentication login, user ID and password.
The next screen will take you to the home screen or home page of the Web Based Supply
Chain Management System. Once in this screen, if you do not have available the sales order
to file a complaint against a particular food item, this screen here is where you would
do that by selecting the orders. You would click the Operations tab, Complaint Administration
tab, and Create Display FNS Complaints. In the middle screen here, under your Criteria,
you would select Orders under Search For, Completed Orders under Status, Orders Created
by Myself, which would be by you, the state, and then the Creation Date. And I'd (inaudible)
bring up, at this point the Creation Date is actually the date the sales order was created.
This is not the date it was receipted -- the date the sales order was created. And you
may or may not know this date, but selecting this particular field, you'd be able to enter
a date range if you did not specifically know the exact date. So this is where you would
do that. You would select Go, and to the right of your screen is where you have the list
of food items that you have a complaint on and you must select that particular food item.
Once you've selected and submitted the complaint, this screen shows what it looks like when
we go into the system here at FNS when we get the complaint. We would go under Search
For and change it from Orders to it would be Complaints at this point, Created by All
Business Partners, and Creation Date in this particular screen, and field for our purposes,
is when the date of the complaint was created. So, again, here in our cases, where we may
know the exact date, we may not, we just simply do a date range. Press Go, and what will be
displayed is a list of complaints that have been filed in the system. The transaction
number is the complaint number. Partner number is the state agency's information, usually
contact name, number, address. Your reference number is the sales order associated with
that complaint and complaint number. Before we go on, I would like to open the poll for
our fourth polling question. All right. The correct answer is the first one, you receive
a confirmation in web. And how you know that, on the confirmation page you'll be given a
complaint number notifying you that the complaint has been submitted and therefore has been
officially submitted in the WBSCM complaint system. This screen here, again is a screen
that we see here at FNS, based on the information that you've inputted. (Inaudible) in here
as much information that you have needs to be put in at this point. What we have in here
-- any incomplete information we have to give back to you regarding the complaint. But this
is the part we see here, claim information that you've entered previously. Next screen
here. Again, it's our portion, what we see. Everything up to resolution code is what you
would have provided. And here is where we would take the complaint, analyze it for,
first, complete information. After speaking with the state and then providing our information
in terms of resolution code, (inaudible) our sister agency, AMS or FSA, will the information
only, vendor response, vendor replacement, those items would go here. Any additional
details we can provide based on the complaint and after talking to the state. We provide
internal notes here, and a history of the notes are kept as well. Further along in the
page, show the product information, it will give you a status history of where the complaint
is. And toward the bottom portion of the screen is where you would have uploaded any digital
pictures that you had available, and those are displayed here. And you know you successfully
done it when you have a file name and the link for the actual picture will be displayed
here and the file name. What you can expect in resolving a complaint. USDA FNS Complaint
Team will send an email to the state within 24 hours acknowledging receipt of the complaint.
Requests for additional information will be included in this email if the complaint information
submitted by the state is not complete. Again, our goal and commitment here is that we resolve
these complaints in a timely manner, and having the necessary information helps us in that
process. If vendor response or replacement is necessary, the FNS response team works
closely with our sister agencies AMS or FSA, who in turn contacts the vendor. When replacing
product, the vendor will notify the recipient directly to coordinate pickup and/or delivery
of replacement product. The FNS Complaint Team will provide a resolution to the SBA.
FNS Complaint Team will provide email and phone contact to recipient of pending resolution.
FNS Complaint Team will enter documentation in Remarks section of WBSCM. And to add in
some instances where resolution may take longer than 30 days, the FNS Complaint Team is committed
to providing weekly updates to the state in these cases where the complaint is going longer
than 30 days. After the documentation Remarks section, the complaint then will officially
be closed. I would like to open up the poll for our fifth polling question. What food
category received majority of complaints in FY13? And the correct answer was fruit and
vegetables. Actually doing a tally of that, 47% of our complaints last year were in fruits
and vegetables. And that's a large volume of our foods that are ordered as well as the
agricultural crop that it is. Okay, this is the USDA Food Complaint Team, comprised of
myself, Andre Orange, and David Leggett. And our phone numbers and email addresses, as
well as our regional assignments, are provided. And even though we have specific regional
assignments, we do urge that you, in your follow-up correspondence, you do include both
of us on your follow-up emails or correspondence with us. That way we're assured, again, complete
and timeliness of resolving your complaint. And also I provided a download in this presentation
of the actual listing and, again, phone numbers and contact information as a handout for you
in the presentation. Okay, operator, at this time I'd like to open the call line for questions.
Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one.
Please make sure you unmute your phone and record your name clearly when prompted so
I may introduce your question. And if you would like to remove your question, you may
press start two. We'll take a few moments to see if we have any at this time. We have
a question here from Alan Smith. Your line is open. Department of Agriculture. My question
is I know you had mentioned that you guys get back to us within 24 hours and within
30 days the complaint is resolved, but I don't -- we don't hear anything from you after we
send the complaint, and I know last year we had an issue where you guys showed up and
took fruit mix out of our warehouse and we didn't even know about it, so can you give
us more clarification on that? Yes. Thank you for the question. We are committed, as
I stated in the presentation, that we will be making a commitment to within 24 hours
be in response with the state regarding acknowledging the complaint, and as I also mentioned, weekly
updates should the complaint go longer. So we want to be committed to having that communication
channel open and strengthened. We haven't had any of that. I'm just saying we haven't
received any of that at all. We're in the dark. Okay. All right. Well we will definitely,
again, strengthen our efforts in that vein here. So that's what we're committed to do.
Okay. It's -- and actually thank you very much. This is Laura Walter again. What we
realized in looking at our complaint process over the last year is that we needed to do
a better job of keeping state agencies informed about not only did we get the complaint, that
we're working on it with the procurement agency, and give you some interim steps along the
way in terms of we've reached out to the vendor, the vendor is planning to contact you, following
up with our procurement agency contact to make sure that that information loop is intact.
And we know that we haven't done as good a job in the past, but -- Well this particular
vendor went out of business. It was Alan's Incorporated with corn that had traces of
peanuts in it, so we know we're not going to get a replacement, but we need something
from USA to say what do we do with these 790 cases in our warehouse -- 1,790 cases. We
just want you guys -- what do we do with it? We actually -- we're working through our regional
office to find out what the best way is to make that product available. We actually got
a letter from the vendor that said that the product is actually good. And apparently for
some people the risk there because of the incorrect label was just too much of a risk
to take. Right. So we were working through the regional office to come up with another
outlet that would be willing to take the product. Okay. Well we wait for your response once
you guys decide what we should do. Thank you very much. We will make sure that we have
a call with the regional office and you as soon as possible. Thank you. We have no other
questions at this time. Okay, if no further questions, thank you for attending. And if
you have anything in the future, you have our name, contact information, feel free to
contact us. Thanks again for joining.