Burg Group

Introduction

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‍Falcony was introduced at Burg Group at the beginning January 2020, after comparing multiple solutions for QHSE purposes and testing two best ones.

Burg Group's QHSE Manager, Eric Zaal, has been extremely happy since day one. His major task was to standardize the way they work and increase QHSE standards across the company to support the growth of the company, which he can now happily say they have succeeded with.

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‍Company

Burg Group is a leading European producer of vinegar, with a history dating back 100 years in the Czech Republic and 70 years as a group. The company operates six factories across Europe, with five sites dedicated to vinegar production and one for syrups. The company's main product is spirit vinegar, which is made from bio ethanol that is distilled into vinegar. In addition to spirit vinegar, Burg Group also produces white and red wine vinegar, apple vinegar, balsamic vinegar and cleaning vinegar.

Burg Group employs almost 250 people across its seven factories and is a family-owned private company. The company's target customers are major supermarkets in Europe and they generally sell their products through supermarkets.

Challenges before Falcony

Before implementing Falcony, Burg Group faced several challenges in managing safety and quality incidents across its six factories. The company relied on local-based solutions in Excel to record tasks and incidents. These solutions were managed by the group QHSE, which distracted the line organizations and led to differences in definitions and practices across the different sites. 

“This resulted in a lack of standardization and consistency in incident management, making it difficult to track and report incidents accurately,” Eric Zaal, Group QHSE Manager recalls.

With a high degree of decentralization in the company, each factory also had a different way of recording and reporting incidents, leading to a lack of a unified solution. Furthermore the Excel-based solutions also led to a lack of ownership and responsibility for incident management, as the group QHSE was responsible for managing the Excel sheets.

"We were facing a lot of challenges with our incident management processes, the Excel-based solutions we had in place distracted the line organizations and prevented them from taking ownership. We needed a solution that would put the responsibility where it belonged: in the factories. That's why we decided to implement Falcony."

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Implementation

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The implementation of Falcony at Burg Group was a relatively quick and seamless process. The company's QHSE Manager, Eric Zaal, had experience with similar systems and was impressed with Falcony's ease of use and flexibility in creating incident categories and checklists. The company was able to go live with the HSE reporting part of Falcony on January 1st, 2020 and added complaints reporting (Quality related) in August of the same year.

During the implementation process, the company was able to standardize its work processes and incident management, which led to increased HSEQ standards across the company. The system was easy to implement and manage, requiring only 5 people working for the group supporting functions, and not in IT. The system was also hosted and managed outside with minimal implementation and management required.

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Results & Benefits

Falcony is now being used by almost everybody in the company, with 250 people having access to log in. The company has set a personal target of six incidents per year per person, with the goal of reducing incidents and improving overall safety and quality. The system has helped Burg Group to track costs, improve efficiency in incident management, and support the company's growth. 

The system allows for easy recording and reporting of incidents, which helps to identify trends and areas where improvements can be made. Additionally, the system allows for easy cost tracking, which helps the company to make informed decisions about incident management processes and resources.

“Overall, the use of Falcony has led to a happier and more responsible workforce, with clear roles and responsibilities for QHSE staff at each site”, Eric Zaal summarized the benefits.