Clarifresh provides a simple and intuitive tool to create specification standards. Before starting, make sure to review the post Understanding Clarifresh's Standard Specifications.
5 simple steps to create your standard:
- Click the 'new standard' button and name your process
- Add attributes grades
- Apply grades for defects
- Apply grades for checklists
- Apply grades for package-related attributes
Let's review each step separately:
1. Starting your new standard creation
From the top menu, select the spec option [1], then click on the Standard tab [2]. Make sure you create your standard for your desired produce. Lastly, click on the 'create standard' button [4]:
In the pop-up that appears, fill in the standard name [1] and click the 'next' button:
This will create a new standard. The default configuration by be easily modified with the following settings:
[1] Linked process: Associate this standard with an existing process. This enables to automatically inherit all attributes set in the process, saving you the need to add them manually
[2] Description: Add a clear and concise description about this process
[3] Grades labels: By default, the grades of the standards are labeled A, B, and C arranged from the best grade (leftmost) to the worst grade. You can change it into 'Good', 'Average' and 'Bad'.
[4] Color of the Grades: Modify the color grade by clicking on the pencil icon and choosing a different one.
[5] Number of Grades: The default number of grades is 3. Clicking on the [+] button allows you to add more grades as needed.
[6] Click on the button to save your modifications.
2. Adding attributes grades
To set grading for existing attributes or add new ones, click on the pencil next to the produce name [1]:
For each attribute, fill the values that will define the grades:
[1]Positive or Negative Direction -Based Grading: Define if the attribute is a positive (upward arrow) or negative (downward arrow) quality attribute; indicate whether better grades correspond to higher or lower values:
- Positive - Increasing Values: Higher values represent better grades.
- Negative - Decreasing Values: Lower values represent better grades.
[2] Optional for Overall Grade: Specify whether the attribute is optional for the overall produce grade.
[3] Intermediate Grades:
- Each attribute grade, except for the worst grade, can have a boundary value in its respective cell, acting as a limit for that grade’s range.
- in case of a positive-increasing value attribute: anything beyond the entered value will be considered as good
- in case of a negative-decreasing value attribute: anything below the entered value will be considered as good
- Ranges between consecutive boundary values are presented accordingly on the display mode.
[4] Lowest Grade Range - Bad Grade Value:
- Automatically includes all out-of-bound values not covered by other grades.
- in case of a positive-increasing value attribute: anything below the entered value will be considered as bad
- in case of a negative-decreasing value attribute: anything beyond the entered value will be considered as bad
[5] Upper Limit for Best Grade:
- For increasing values, values above this upper limit fall into the Bad grade.
- For decreasing values, values below this upper limit are assigned to the Bad grade.
For more information about reading standards, please refer to the post Understanding Clarifresh's Standard Specifications. To add attributes that are not listed, scroll down the list of attributes and click on the icon .
Clarifresh allows you to override attribute grades for specific produce varieties. Simply add a variety by clicking the 'Add Attribute' button on the right side of the screen and choose the needed variety.
You can change those attributes that are specific to the variety:
In this example, we changed the acidity value for the Common Red Apple variety (see [1] and [2]). The Brix value was not changed and appears graded out [3].
3. Apply grades for defects
The user interface and logic for defect grades are identical to those for attributes. Refer to the post Using defects feature with Clarifresh for more information. Note that defects are always negative quality attributes. Therefore, the upper or lower arrow will not be shown. Defects have an 'All' line on top of each defect, which is required and provide a distinctive value on how to address the combination of defects. Please refer to this paragraph of the post for more information.
4. Apply grades for checklist
The grading of checklist is based on the number of negative checklist items answers.
- Good Column [1]: Add the number of bad answers that would still be considered good - 'A'.
- Average Column [2]: Add the minimum number of negative answers that would be considered bad - 'C'. Everything between these values will be considered 'average' - 'B'.
For example, if a maximum of 3 negative answers are considered good and a minimum of 6 is considered bad, an inspection with 5 negative results will be graded as 'average':
5. Apply grades for packages
Clarifresh understands that the grading of an attribute may depend on the type of packaging. For instance, the weight of produce in a small or large box may differ significantly. Hence, the possibility to add grading granularity based on the package.
To add a package click on the 'Add package' button:
If the button is greyed out, it is likely that no packages have been created. Review the post Creating Packages for more information.
Choose the produce variety [1] and the package type [2] and click on the 'add' button [3]:
Select the relevant attributes to evaluate for the package and add the values as in other panels:
You can add as many packages as needed. Note that packages allow only 'Good' or 'Bad' values, without intermediate grades as 'average'.