Mr. Hans-Dieter Philipowski, International Association ENFIT
EQAsce has spoken to Hans-Dieter Philipowski. He is a master in process engineering and is active as an entrepreneur in engineering design and the construction of technologies for tank and container cleaning systems since 1990. In 2004 he founded the international association ENFIT of which he is the president until today. ENFIT focusses on the continuous development of European and international guidelines and certification standards for a secure and transparent supply chain. In addition, ENFIT develops training standards and programs for the food and feed industry, as well as for logisticians and cleaning stations.
EQAsce: Your association ENFIT has made a cooperation contract with EQAsce in the beginning of February to start ambitious projects and initiatives soon. Which fields of action do you see as the most important in the future cooperation?
Mr. Philipowski: We see the most urgent need for action in the often inadequate training of those involved in the supply chain. This is especially true for industry, e.g. when raw materials and food are loaded or unloaded in transport containers. Often there is a lack of technical competence to assess the suitability of a transport container for foodstuffs or to check whether a transport container provided by a logistician has been properly cleaned and disinfected under hygienic aspects. These deficiencies repeatedly lead to raw materials and food being contaminated during transport.
EQAsce: ENFIT and EQAsce both have a huge international network as organizations. Why is this an essential requirement to convince important decision makers from economy as well as from public bodies of your initiatives for feed and food safety?
Mr. Philipowski: The movement of goods and transport is a global business. If you want to influence this, you have to reach the headquarters of the global players. In the large corporations, important core competencies such as quality management are managed globally.
EQAsce: What degree of influence do corona pandemic and digitalization strategies of EU and national level have on the speed of putting technical-organizational innovations – initiated by EQAsce and ENFIT – into practice?
Mr. Philipowski: We are currently seeing how the corona pandemic is drastically changing the world of work. With bulkvision, ENFIT has developed a digital platform with which all relevant process steps downstream and upstream are recorded. The aim is for the industry itself to have a clear and transparent overview of every step in the supply chain. This is the only way that industry can protect itself from contamination that may result from transport and continuously improve food safety. ENFIT is currently developing further software with which it will be possible in the future to make direct contact between porters, truck drivers, operators for loading and unloading superfluous through digital check-in and check-out processes. An additional side effect: drivers and their companies are digitally and securely identifiable and in the event of a corona infection, the contacts can be tracked.
