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.