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Motivating to follow Approved Supplier Program

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brblack2454

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Posted 21 September 2016 - 06:12 PM

Hello All,

 

Looking for suggestions to motivate a Senior Management team who says that they want to do the right thing when it comes to following the policies & procedures necessary to produce safe products. However, at the end of the day when it comes down to following through the commitment is not there.

 

One area is in the Supplier Approval Process. I have several scenarios where the President of the company refuses to buy from approved suppliers and uses the raw materials in our products without having received any or all of the required documentation. Although there are other members of the senior management team they refuse to hold him or anyone else in the organization accountable for their actions or lack there of. I should also mention that we are a small company but have a huge profit margin so the bottom line is not being affected nor has anyone determined what our bottom line truly is.

 

Another area for motivation is in the development of product specifications - weight measurements of raw materials. As the FSQA Manager I have no idea if products are being made correctly because the President refuses to allow the creation of any specifications for products. There have even been times where production was stopped due to the fact he did not provide the day's recipe for our products.

 

You might be able to tell that I can go on and on with the things in my facility that are causing big headaches but I'll spare the rest of the details, unless you ask for them. I am looking for suggestions on how to motivate the senior management team so we can move the organization in the right direction for Food Safety & Quality. I also need to learn and gain experience as a young FSQA Manager but in my opinion I haven't gained the information I expected when I first took this job 18 months ago. I was hired under the premises that I would be preparing the facility to be compliant to a GFSI scheme but as you can see from above we are a long way away from that. What advice would you give on continuing to stay motivated myself during this challenging time?



redfox

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Posted 21 September 2016 - 07:26 PM

Hello brblack,

 

Seems you are facing a very colossal task. GFSI scheme like BRC standard is so detailed that every line or sentence on the book must be complied. Auditor are looking for CoA/CoC, risk assessment, VACCP  traceability,and etc. that signify your product is purchased from approved supplier. Auditor also looks for your procedure how you approve your suppliers. Otherwise you do table working. Show him the news and article about PCA incidents he may wake up how serious food safety compliance is all about. When senior management commitment is zero, forget about certification.

 

regards,

redfox



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brblack2454

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Posted 21 September 2016 - 08:20 PM

Hello brblack,

 

Seems you are facing a very colossal task. GFSI scheme like BRC standard is so detailed that every line or sentence on the book must be complied. Auditor are looking for CoA/CoC, risk assessment, VACCP  traceability,and etc. that signify your product is purchased from approved supplier. Auditor also looks for your procedure how you approve your suppliers. Otherwise you do table working. Show him the news and article about PCA incidents he may wake up how serious food safety compliance is all about. When senior management commitment is zero, forget about certification.

 

regards,

redfox

 

We have a Bi-weekly Food Safety Team meetings and I cover recalls, best practices, etc. During our meeting last week he got up from the table and walked around and then stood behind me while I was going over best practices we need to consider. His comment afterwards was how much more did I have on the agenda because he was busy, the meeting lasted 50 minutes. Is an hour every other week too much to ask for? Should I consider condensing the meeting, we can barely get to everything in one hour and forget it if people decide to talk a lot during the meeting. I've tried videos versus the standard meeting format and it was an epic fail. I am making some adjusts to the way it was presented and going to try again next week, we will watch a segment of a IFSQN Food Safety Friday presentation in hopes to facilitate some conversation & action among the team.



redfox

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Posted 22 September 2016 - 07:11 AM

hello brblack,

 

You can have monthly meeting with production staff and every three months you have the management review meeting which the presence of senior management is mandatory. Like BRC the minimum is at least annually. So if you do once a year management review meeting you did not violate any requirements.

 

regards,

redfox



Gerard H.

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Posted 22 September 2016 - 08:38 AM

Dear Br. Black,

 

Important is to communicate the business risk by acting in such way.

 

By sourcing from unapproved suppliers the company can get a raw material which can lead to a massive recall. Such recalls put the future of your company at risk. It's like playing "Russian roulette". It's better to avoid to enter in such situations.

 

I wish you good luck!

 

Kind regards,

 

Gerard Heerkens



Charles.C

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Posted 22 September 2016 - 12:37 PM

Hi brblack,

 

I realise this is not a very constructive post but assuming yr description is accurate, it is disturbingly similar to various others previously posted here over the years which mostly tended to end not so well.

 

I recall this is a long-established family business based on one seasonal product.

 

The most common advice for previous analogous situations has been to LEAVE as soon as possible.


Kind Regards,

 

Charles.C


Tony-C

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Posted 27 September 2016 - 03:33 AM

Drop a list of the issues and a copy of this on the President's desk Peanut exec gets groundbreaking sentence

 

Kind regards,

 

Tony

 



Scampi

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Posted 28 October 2016 - 01:02 PM

You can't win here, particularly when you don't have a financial angle to push. You can A- leave or B give a short list of dire consequences of what could happen and cross your fingers for change.....but in my experience if the financial hit won't be felt you have no legs to stand on to change how things are done

 

Good luck


Please stop referring to me as Sir/sirs


jportz

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Posted 29 October 2016 - 11:28 AM

I have the same problem with senior management ordering ingredients or packaging materials before we have the information we say we need for the vendor approval program.  I have told him we need the documents before he orders from new suppliers or orders a new ingredient or packaging material from a current supplier.  Once the items are received and we request the information needed the suppliers are not sending the information.  Senior management continues to say that they will order then let us know and won't listen to me.  I am working SQF certification and I don't see how we are ever going to pass our audit if senior management is not on board.



redfox

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Posted 29 October 2016 - 09:32 PM

Hello jportz,

 

Senior management has the resources. If they are not on everything is useless and you can never achieve whatever goals you want.

 

regards,

redfox





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