Food & Pharma

Within food and pharma, quality is non-negotiable. A single deviation can mean a recall, a production halt, or worse.

Symbol helps food and pharma organisations to control and continuously improve processes without disrupting production.

Deploy experts with a background in Food & Pharma

Food and Pharma demand processes that are controllable and predictable

The food and pharma sector is under high pressure to guarantee constant quality and safety, while production must remain efficient and flexible. Strict regulations, increasing traceability requirements, and complex production chains make processes challenging. At the same time, product variation, high quality standards, and limited capacity put extra pressure on organisations. Small deviations can have major consequences for product safety, compliance, and reputation. Companies must therefore increasingly control and continuously improve their processes to safeguard quality, safety, and delivery reliability.

Structured quality and improvement methodologies help organisations to better control processes and reduce risks. GMP and HACCP form the basis for safeguarding product quality, safety, and traceability in production processes. With Lean and TPM (Total Productive Maintenance), companies can increase the reliability of installations and reduce unplanned downtime. By combining these methodologies with process improvement and clear working methods, an organisation is created that produces more efficiently, delivers consistent quality, and better meets the high demands of the sector.

Compliance, digitisation, and efficiency in one approach

Academy

Symbol develops professionals in food and pharma with training in Lean Six Sigma, quality management, and continuous improvement. Teams learn to design processes more efficiently, reduce variation, and safeguard quality within strictly regulated environments, with attention to GMP, HACCP, leadership, and data-driven improvement.

All training sessions

Consultancy

Symbol supports organisations in improving production processes, quality management, and compliance. With Lean Six Sigma, performance management, and Continuous Improvement programmes, we help companies produce more efficiently, reduce risks, and meet high requirements regarding quality, safety, and traceability.

Deploy expertise

Interim Management

Symbol provides experienced interim professionals (Green and Black Belts) for operations, quality, and continuous improvement within food and pharma. Our experts support process optimisation, quality assurance, project management, and the implementation of improvement programmes, so that organisations strengthen performance and realise sustainable results.

Deploy capacity

Results from the field

Sealed Air: 100k jaarlijkse besparing door Lean Six Sigma

Sealed Air start met Lean Six Sigma in de vestiging in Enschede: 16 medewerkers opgeleid en vier verbeterprojecten gestart. Het Mixing-project levert €100.000 besparing per jaar op en werd internationaal genomineerd. Enschede fungeert als pilot voor een Europese uitrol en meer dan 10 medewerkers hebben zich aangemeld voor een vervolgopleiding.

Penske Logistics: QMS redesigned to work for the organisation

Penske Logistics had an ISO-certified quality system but was unable to work with it effectively. Processes were documented but cluttered and difficult to find. Symbol helped redesign the entire QMS in the Penske corporate identity. Result: successful recertification for ISO 9001, ISO 14001, and HACCP, and a system that is also used for customer communication.

Scoober: Lean foundation established in fast-growing delivery organisation

Scoober suffered from silos: branches did not work in the same way and could not learn from each other. Symbol helped set up a Lean plan, strategy plan, process plan, and training plan. Result: key business processes standardised, management trained as Lean Champions, and three Lean employees active in the organisation.

BMI Netherlands: mapping the production process with PFMEA

At BMI Netherlands in Woerden, not a single production process had been put on paper. With an ERP migration and staff turnover approaching, this became a risk. Symbol proposed a PFMEA and provided an interim consultant who fully documented the process from clay to roof tile. The foundation has now been laid for onboarding and quality assurance.