I think I’ll arrange to poison some people while I’m at work today!

How many people in the food industry actually head to work with that thought in their minds?

Not many. But we do have continual food safety breaches - and sometimes the people concerned don't even realise what they are doing.

Okay Production Managers, I’m going to show you how to manage your process, not the people, to get the most value from your Quality System . How to make your staff want to comply with the Quality System and be your best advocates for Food Safety.

This will be useful to help you get results from the system to justify the money you spend on maintaining it.

What you’ll learn is how to ensure everyone understands what the system is, why it’s there and why it’s important that everyone – from the CEO to the most junior operator – knows what their responsibilities are and how it affects the end results.

These are the steps you need to take

·        Develop a training plan so that every member of staff knows:

o  What the system is designed to do

o  Why it’s necessary

o  What the impacts are if the system is not followed

o  What benefits can accrue for the company – and therefore the staff (make them aware that if the company succeeds and does well, their jobs are more secure and they are likely to have greater job satisfaction)

·        Follow up

o  Monitor the records

o  Give feedback to staff of wins and gains as well as problems

o  Discuss what has worked well and what needs to be improved

o  Reward those who are going above and beyond

If you follow these steps everyone in the company will understand why the systems are in place and what their role is to ensure the company complies with all standards and continues to improve.

What if there’s a better way than just sitting back and hoping that everything will fall into place and there are no unexpected problems.

I hope this has been interesting and useful. It’s just a small part of ways I help clients to utilise their Quality Systems to do more than just pass an audit. Let’s have a chat if you would like to know more about how to apply these principles to your process.

 
Posted on January 12, 2017 by QA Carol.

Why do you have a Quality System?

We have a Food Safety and Quality System that passes audits – what next?

Most people think that having a Quality System is just essential for compliance – no matter what industry you are in.  As soon as people hear the term ‘Quality System’ they think it’s going to be complicated, expensive and make more work.

In actual fact a good system can make life easier for you.  Sure there will be some work to initially put a useful system in place that does more than just tick boxes.  But, apart from passing inspections, there are three things a well-constructed Quality System can give you:

  • Compliance
  • Consistency
  • Marketability

1.      Compliance

o   Meet the required standard – Food Safety, WH&S, industry specific or customer requirements.  Or have your own internal standard.  You can still put a Quality System in place, even if you never get a third party auditor to assess it independently.  The disciplines will make the business easier to manage and give you traceable records of results

o   Be assured that you have considered all the risks and put the necessary controls in place

o   Advertise the fact that you have a Quality System.  Tell your customers.  Give them the confidence that when they deal with you, you control your process and can guarantee QC1 product, service and delivery – first time every time

2.      Consistency

o   Identify your process flow and document the way it will be done in a Standard Operating Procedure – ensure things are done the same way every time

o   Train all staff in the same way.  Written procedures and training assessments mean that there will be no ‘slippage’ as new staff are shown what they need to do.  Include some understanding of the process so that staff will recognise the need to follow the systems.  Do all staff understand exactly what is expected of them?  Is it clear not only what you want them to do – but why?

o   There are opportunities for improvement.  Ensure staff understand that the system is not inflexible – if they think of an improved way of doing something there is room within the system to make suggestions.  But, they MUST follow the system.  Changes can be made in a controlled manner, one step at a time with an understanding of the consequences of one change before moving on to another one

3.      Marketability / Improvement / Confidence

o   Measure outcomes

o   Rationalise routines

o   Rationalise procedures – reduce staff numbers if you have people monitoring processes, or use them

o   What can you do with data collected? You have to collect the data anyway, what is the point of just noting whether the result indicates product is in spec and filing it away?   You can use data to identify improvements and increase efficiency.

There are bound to be more advantages than those listed here.  What ideas do you have?  Reply in the comments.  I’d love to hear what you are doing.

Posted on September 21, 2016 by QA Carol.

Have you considered this?  Your suppliers could be the weakest link in your food safety system

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Industry-news/Food-safety-plan-importance-highlighted-by-allergen-recalls/?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=28-May-2015&c=gr16PU2dl1okfXnVhAO55Q%3D%3D&p2=

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Llama Blue.

Recalls

Have you considered the number of things that could go wrong with your product during manufacture?

This list is a timely reminder.  Only in the last week around the world:

http://www.foodqualitynews.com/Food-Outbreaks/FQN-weekly-food-recalls-April-2015/%28page%29/8

Posted on April 24, 2015 by Llama Blue.

Butter never killed anyone

Butter never killed anyone. It sure does cut into the profits of the vegetable oil companies, which is why it's been demonized ever since the rise of industrial agriculture. Follow the dollar.

Farmer's Pal

 

Posted on July 18, 2013 by Llama Blue.