Supply Chain FSMA
Foodborne illness and supply chain disruptions pose risks not just for companies, but for consumers, regulators, and the entire food ecosystem. The Food Saftey Modernization Act was designed to address these gaps, yet many organizations lacked the systems and processes to comply effectively.
Traceability failures create delays in recalls, higher costs, and exposure to reputational damage that impacts all stakeholders. Without digitized compliance, businesses struggle to protect both their customers and their long-term growth.
A compliant and digitized supply chain where every handoff is fully traceable and trackable—both forward and backward—enabling real-time recalls and strengthening consumer trust through transparency.
PROJECT TYPE
9/1/2024
The Problem
The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), signed into law in 2011, requires food retailers like Sam’s Club and Walmart to achieve end-to-end traceability of food products by 2026—tracking a product’s movement forward in real time (trackability) and tracing its history backward through the supply chain (traceability).
By Q2 2024, Walmart had completed roughly 50% of the discovery and design for its FSMA compliance solution. However, when I engaged with Sam’s Club in Q3, we faced a critical challenge: just six months remained to deliver an end-to-end compliance solution spanning 86 applications and 40+ systems. This meant compressing discovery, design, and user acceptance testing (UAT) into a single quarter to meet regulatory deadlines.
The Strategy
With an extremely tight timeline and multiple dependencies, I led a coordinated strategy to drive alignment, streamline execution, and deliver FSMA compliance at scale.
The Results
Successfully aligned Walmart and Sam’s Club on a unified FSMA compliance approach, ensuring regulatory readiness.
Defined and executed Sam’s Club’s roadmap, integrating compliance into 86 applications and 40+ systems in just six months.
Architected a strategy that eliminated manual record-keeping, saving thousands of operational hours annually.
Drove coordination and leadership updates, ensuring visibility, accountability, and timely decision-making.
My Contribution
Established Strategic Alignment
Partnered with Walmart’s FSMA team to understand their vision, strategy, and technical approach.
Conducted discovery sessions with Sam’s Club leadership to assess capability gaps.
Synchronized workstreams between Walmart and Sam’s Club, creating a unified compliance path forward.
2. Led Product Discovery & Solution Definition
Built personas and effect maps to capture user needs and system interdependencies.
Performed gap analysis to identify missing capabilities in Sam’s Club’s operations.
Defined the systems architecture, visualizing in-scope applications and business processes.
3. Drove Execution & Leadership Buy-In
Authored a white paper outlining compliance strategy, technical approach, and roadmap.
Facilitated weekly senior leadership meetings to maintain transparency and resolve blockers.
Led PI Planning and defined Sam’s Club’s MVP for FSMA compliance.
