3 replies to this topic

[carolinedougan]

Hi

I am wondering if someone can help me. We employ a trained external auditor to carry out our internal audits and he is saying that no-one has been trained against parts of the quality manual.

My understanding is that the quality manual outlines the general policies as per the BRC standard and then a SOP is written for anything that requires specific training i.e. How to operate a piece of machinery. Therefore people are not trained against every aspect of the quality manual.

Can you please confirm if this is the case and therefore to audit a section of the quality manual is done so by checking through relevant paperwork rather than quizzing a member of staff.

Many thanks

[Charles.C]

Hi

I am wondering if someone can help me. We employ a trained external auditor to carry out our internal audits and he is saying that no-one has been trained against parts of the quality manual.

My understanding is that the quality manual outlines the general policies as per the BRC standard and then a SOP is written for anything that requires specific training i.e. How to operate a piece of machinery. Therefore people are not trained against every aspect of the quality manual.

Can you please confirm if this is the case and therefore to audit a section of the quality manual is done so by checking through relevant paperwork rather than quizzing a member of staff.

Many thanks

 

Hi Caroline,

 

have a look at this thread regarding the BRC objectives of a Quality Manual -

 

http://www.ifsqn.com...manual-brc-311/

 

I'm not sure if this matches yr own interpretation.

 

There are a few examples of typical quality manuals on this Forum.

[BrummyJim]

Hi Caroline,

 

When you read your quality manual, you'll see that beyond the SOPs, there is a need to make people aware of some of the policies and procedures there such as supplier approval, complaints/non-conformances etc. As part of your training records, you should ensure that these people confirm that they have read and understood the procedures and policies relevant to their job. You probably want all employees to sign off on your food safety policy.

[trubertq]

Whilst in an ideal world everyone should be offay with the Quality manual, in reality that ain't gonna happen. It is important that managers and supervisors are aware of the policies in the manual as they are responsible for their implementation, and that is a struggle as they generally believe that the "Quality Manual" is for the "Quality Department only". I overcame this issue once I started bringing the relevant manager for each section into the audits to answer the questions, they weren't long becoming up close and personal with it then!!

 

I would think it unnecessary to train all staff against the quality manual per se, but I would be training general operators on sections from it such as chemical control, personal hygiene, foreign body control and things like that, while training in managers on the sections relevant to their jobs.