BRC technical standard 2

Dear Simon,

May I congratulate you on a very helpfull discussion room for the packaging standard, although this is my first post, I have been reading all for a little while now.

I have sucessfully passed 3 x BRC inspections (Cat B) 1st inspection I was guided by an expensive consultant, 2nd collected 8 x minor CARs, last inspection only 2 minor CARs. I am now updating all to Technical standard 2 with the help of your guide to the revisions.

The undermentioned may seem a little trivial, however it is more of a "break the ice" question and to introduce myself.

May I ask you views on the following:

2.6 The senior management team shall ensure that processes are in place to determine their customers’ needs and expectations clearly define their requirements and ensure that these requirements are fulfilled.

Present processes in place to determine customers needs and expectations are regular contact of customers from Sales and customer services staff, issue and agreement of product specifications.

 Requirements are not clearly defined other than in agreed product specifications, positive release documentation from production and hourly quality checks ensures requirements are fulfilled, review of customer complaints ensures that requirements are monitored.

Will the above suffice?

May I congratulate you on a very helpfull discussion room for the packaging standard, although this is my first post, I have been reading all for a little while now.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Really great you could join us Steve.

2.6 The senior management team shall ensure that processes are in place to determine their customers' needs and expectations clearly define their requirements and ensure that these requirements are fulfilled.

Present processes in place to determine customers needs and expectations are regular contact of customers from Sales and customer services staff, issue and agreement of product specifications.

Requirements are not clearly defined other than in agreed product specifications, positive release documentation from production and hourly quality checks ensures requirements are fulfilled, review of customer complaints ensures that requirements are monitored.

Will the above suffice? 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Interesting question and one we've not previously discussed. An agreed product specification is the key to gathering the customer's requirements and the technical aspects of the product. Also the systems you have in place for ensuring the requirements are met seem sound enough. There are no hard and fast rules and the only additional things I might consider are:

- Customers key service requirements and expectations; these are just as important to the customer as product quality and safety. How to gather service requirements and what to gather needs further thought. We could try to thrash it out here.

- Customer satisfaction monitoring. Yes you have a customer complaints system which should help to fix problems, but rather than waiting for a failure notification you could try to be more proactive and prevent them.

Just a couple of thoughts.

Regards,
Simon

Dear Simon,

Thanks for your reply, I have discussed this issue with a number of personnel here on site and we came to the conclusion that we "may" well send out a questionnaire to our main customers (distribution centres for a multitude of major supermarkets) to determine needs and expectations - one need was having the BRC accreditation in place, however the replies we are sure to get would be along the lines of reduction in price and longer terms of service.

Kind regards,

Steve

one need was having the BRC accreditation in place, however the replies we are sure to get would be along the lines of reduction in price and longer terms of service.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah nice extras soon become standard features and customers forget very quickly. If they can buy the same product easily somewhere else price will always be an issue; no matter how many bells and whistles you throw in.

Steve, I hope now you've taken the plunge this won't be your last post.

Regards,
Simon