Gramercy’s Quality Control Detail Diva

Christina Gonzalez, Gramercy’s Quality Manager

It’s said that the devil is in the details – That’s certainly true when it comes to making sure that every bit of product that leaves Imperial Sugar’s Gramercy, La., refining plant is perfect.

Bags can rip, for example, or code dates might print incorrectly.

“There’s any number of small, miscellaneous things that can happen,” says Christina Gonzalez, Gramercy’s Quality Manager. “But they can add up to customer complaints quickly. Prior to my arrival, we were averaging several hundred a year. That’s unacceptable. I eagerly accepted the challenge of changing that. And the company quickly invested time and money to bring those numbers down.”

Christina explains operational proceedures to a visiting customer audit team.

Gonzalez joined the Gramercy team six years ago and immediately went into action, personally standing by the production lines and noting where, how and the frequency with which bags tore on the line. She talked to every employee in the refinery.

“I told each person how customer complaints affect the company and our bottom line. If we don’t have customers, we don’t have a business,” she says. She assigned team member Stephanie Bourgeois (Quality Assurance Tech) to walk the plant and loading docks to look for potential issues such as problems with the magnets, the metal detectors or the pest control program, among other items. She instituted Six Sigma continuous improvement techniques on the quality complaints, and posted charts and graphs prominently throughout the plant to quantify awareness with plant personnel. Her work began paying dividends immediately.

Christina's hard work in quality has paid off with a wall full of awards.

“In the first year, complaints came down nearly 80 percent,” she says, “and we’re getting better all the time. Nothing’s perfect, but we’re trying. We will always be concerned about preventing product defect.”

Gonzalez is quick to note that the impressive improvement is a team effort, and that the Gramercy team enthusiastically rallied to the quality improvement theme of “100% Customer First.” She adds that the entire production team welcomes quality audits, both customer and internal, and views them as an opportunity to excel.

“We’ve conducted three major third-party audits (AIB, SILLIKER and SQE) in the past 12 months and are gearing up for the SQF Audit before the end of the year. We’ve done an additional 11 customer audits as well,” says Gonzalez. “They keep us on our toes and we view them as positive challenges. Everyone here is committed to doing the best job possible, and that makes for a healthy, competitive environment where we’re all pulling together to win.”

Lloyd Kliebert, Gramercy's Union President, and Christina work closely together.

Following the AIB Audit, Gonzalez immediately set out to get staff together to rectify problems noted in that audit. She galvanized her fellow employees into action. Their efforts were rewarded in Imperial Sugar being awarded the TARGET account. In a show of appreciation for her perseverance and commitment to the company, she was awarded the CROWN JEWEL AWARD shortly thereafter. This is a sales award which she was nominated for by the sales department at the corporate headquarters in Sugarland, Texas.