RaceTrac takes control of their supply chain and food safety with CMX1

Supply Chain Quality Management

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, family-owned RaceTrac has been serving guests since 1934 and now operates over 500 convenience store locations in Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and Texas. While operating under its mission of making people’s lives simpler and more enjoyable, many RaceTrac stores feature Swirl World frozen desserts, an expanded coffee bar, seating areas and free Wi-Fi. The company has been named a top workplace across the four states in which it operates, and has been recognized on Forbes list of largest private companies every year since 1998. In 2014, Convenience Store Decisions named RaceTrac as its “Chain of the Year.” In 2018, RaceTrac announced its expansion into Tennessee. For more information, visit RaceTrac on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, or at www.racetrac.com.

Regional Brand | 500+ Convenience Stores  |  Food Safety and Quality

Supplier Compliance | Food Safety & Quality

CMX began working with RaceTrac's Quality Assurance team in 2018. RaceTrac was looking to gain new efficiencies through automating supplier onboarding and improving their ability to manage and monitor ongoing supplier compliance. The team also needed tools to ensure the consistent quality and safety of the ready to eat, and private label food sold in their more than 500+ stores across the southeast.

Additional challenges include:

• With a small QA Team, the need to reduce manual work, add automation and monitoring was needed rather than adding additional headcount
• Too many manual, time consuming processes was keeping the team from working on what mattered most
• Faced with some recent product withdrawals, the team needed more transparency regarding the sources of ingredients in the food sold in their stores.
• The need for standardization of processes and workflows.

The solution

RaceTrac's solution went live in December of 2018 and leverages the CMX1 platform in the following ways:

Supplier Relationship Management (SRM)

CMX1 provides a single source to manage and store all of RaceTrac's Supplier and Distributor information including their corporate offices, facilities, contacts, data, and related compliance documentation. This gives the team a "single source of truth" and consolidated view of their supply chain.

Product Specification | Ingredient Management & Sourcing 

RaceTrac leverages CMX1’s attachment-based Product Specifications option. This configuration still provides all the visibility and control of the more robust fully data-driven option, but keeps things simpler with shorter forms and workflows. Specifications include header information, product categorization, attachments and photos. Revision and Variation capabilities allow RaceTrac to manage and track specification changes over time and keep impacted parties informed of updates.

The configuration also uses CMX1's Ingredient Management and Sourcing functionality. The feature allows the RaceTrac team to identify and track the source of ingredients in the food sold in their stores. When working on a product specification, the team selects ingredients from an Ingredient Database and identifies which ingredients require sourcing information from direct suppliers. Direct suppliers are then required during the onboarding and approval process to provide identification and compliance information regarding their sources. The outcome of this process is the ability to search CMX1 quickly to identify which foods contain certain ingredients and their sources, in the case of a Product Recall.

Supplier Onboarding and Approval

CMX1 is utilized by RaceTrac to coordinate the onboarding and approval process for adding new suppliers and facilities and approving those partners to produce specific food items. Distributors are also onboarded in a similar manner.

Partners interact with the system to provide information and documentation during the evaluation and approval process. Product category and sub-category specific requirements dictate the collection of facility audits, graphics for labeling and packaging, nutritional values, certifications, allergen declarations, and the identification of tier 2 suppliers.

Workflow automation automatically assigns tasks to QA Approvers, who are responsible for reviewing and approving information and documents submitted during each step of the process.

Facility Auditing | Corrective Action Preventative Actions (CAPA)

Through the use of CMX1’s ActivityStudio^tm , RaceTrac's QA Team performs Food Safety audits when visiting supplier facilities. The audit is comprised of sections for Food Safety Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), Food Defense Security, Quality Systems, Good Manufacturing Practices, Facility and Equipment Sanitation, Pest Control, Distribution & Transportation practices, Exterior Grounds & Building Maintenance, and Personnel Practices for Food Safety.

At the completion of the audit, suppliers are provided the results in the form of a .pdf report. Out of Compliance Observations are automatically turned into Corrective and Preventative Action Plans (CAPAs) to ensure closed-loop issue resolution and continuous improvement by partners.

“We’re proud of the food we offer at our stores, and it’s important to us to partner with a trusted company like CMX to manage compliance through their extensive dashboards and supply chain tracking and monitoring capabilities.” 

Ozzie Brooks, Sr. Manager of Food Safety and Regulatory Compliance at RaceTrac.

Expected Benefits:

The team at RaceTrac expect the following benefits:

• Increased Food Quality and Safety – RaceTrac is using CMX1 to define and manage Product Specifications for non-consumables and ready-to-eat, and private label food sold in their stores. This ensures consistency and completeness in identifying and tracking ingredients, formulations, and finished product standards for suppliers.

• Automated Partner Onboarding and Maintenance – RaceTrac is using CMX1 to automate Supplier and Distributor onboarding and approvals, and for maintaining records, contacts, and required documentation. This provides needed reduction in manual tasks, and important automation and monitoring to ensure ongoing supplier compliance.

• Streamlined Production Approval and Ingredient Tracking – RaceTrac uses CMX1 to align and approve Suppliers to supply specific food items to be sold in their stores. This enables the team to review facility audits, product packaging, and sources of ingredients more efficiently for improved product compliance and supply chain visibility, and transparency.

• Improved Partner Compliance and Performance – RaceTrac uses CMX1's ActivityStudio^tm to conduct data rich Audits at Supplier and Distributor Facilities. Automated Corrective and Preventative Action Plans (CAPAs) ensure closed-loop issue resolution and continuous improvement.