12 replies to this topic

[garryrana72]

Hello every one,
Thank god for IFSQN. We are just going for implementing SQF2000. I have a presentation to give to management about "challenges in implementing SQF". Can any of the member with SQF implementaion experience, please give some feed back? I highly appriciate the help.
Regards

[Simon]

Hello every one,
Thank god for IFSQN. We are just going for implementing SQF2000. I have a presentation to give to management about "challenges in implementing SQF". Can any of the member with SQF implementaion experience, please give some feed back? I highly appriciate the help.
Regards

Hello garryrana72,

I don't have experience of implementing SQF 2000, but I have experience of implementing other systems and I suppose the challenges are the same. It takes a lot of time, effort and money. There needs to be backing from senior management to provide the resources and support the project and what is essentially a change management program. It involves everyone to 'buy in' if you are to make it work and change the culture of the organization. It's a huge task. And you need a god plan.

Just a few ideas to get the ball rolling.

Welcome to the forums.



Regards,
Simon

[Simon]

Hello garryrana72,

I don't have experience of implementing SQF 2000, but I have experience of implementing other systems and I suppose the challenges are the same. It takes a lot of time, effort and money. There needs to be backing from senior management to provide the resources and support the project and what is essentially a change management program. It involves everyone to 'buy in' if you are to make it work and change the culture of the organization. It's a huge task. And you need a very good plan. Looking at the challenges will help you develop that plan.

Just a few ideas to get the ball rolling.

Welcome to the forums.



Regards,
Simon

[garryrana72]

Thanks Simon,
At least I have got some thing to say. Surprisingly, members with SQF experience did'nt share any thing. I for me am facing lots of problems in keeping track of all the clauses.
Cheers

[Cathy]

Hi there -

I've helped a few companies through implementaiton of SQF. The challenges vary depending on the 'personality' of the company. The biggest challenge is not so much intial implementation but maintaining the system. I think a lot of companies that pass in the first year may struggle in the second year because they made promises which now must be kept. People set up systems that are too complex or they lose track of details. The verification schedule, the internal auditing, the calibration schdule all must be met. The key is to keep all these details in one place and to use the lists (registers) that are required. Most importantly - understand you will make mistakes - and when you do - USE your own corrective action system to keep you on track or get yourself back on track. I hope that helps. It is a hard question since companies can vary greatly!

[garryrana72]

Hi there -

I've helped a few companies through implementaiton of SQF. The challenges vary depending on the 'personality' of the company. The biggest challenge is not so much intial implementation but maintaining the system. I think a lot of companies that pass in the first year may struggle in the second year because they made promises which now must be kept. People set up systems that are too complex or they lose track of details. The verification schedule, the internal auditing, the calibration schdule all must be met. The key is to keep all these details in one place and to use the lists (registers) that are required. Most importantly - understand you will make mistakes - and when you do - USE your own corrective action system to keep you on track or get yourself back on track. I hope that helps. It is a hard question since companies can vary greatly!

[garryrana72]

Thanks Cathy,
I am getting the wind and am prepared to jump. May be after some experience and learning by mistakes, I will be able to understand this system better.
Regards

[Charles.C]

Dear garry,

Surprisingly, members with SQF experience did'nt share any thing.

I may be wrong but i suspect that very, very, few posters here hv implemented SQF. This may be a large part of the reason. I also don't use it myself but you might be interested to search for sqf and filter by my name since I submitted some rather critical comments on the haccp part of the standard (based purely on reading the (free ) text some time ago.

I sympathise if you are experiencing any difficulties in interpretation since this is a similar problem in brc. However, from memory, sqf was relatively non-obscure, language-wise, maybe because it was first developed by Australians ! (I think).

Rgds / Charles.C

[Simon]

No doubt there will be certain technical challenges related specifically to implementing SQF 2000 as oppose to say BRC, but one could almost change the title of the topic to “Challenges When Implementing a Food Safety Management System”.

In my mind the scale of those challenges depends wholly on your starting point on a number of factors.

For example does your company already have a quality management system in place based on ISO 9000? Does it have a HACCP based risk management system; indeed does it have a food safety management system already? In addition what’s the factory like - is it sanitarily designed for food manufacture? Of most importance is the culture of the company, are the people (from top to bottom) professional, forward thinking and willing to change and adapt? Is the company (senior management) willing to provide the necessary resources in terms of time, effort and money to implement and maintain the system?

Those are just a few thoughts.

If you have senior management commitment and resources, then you need a good plan and some hard work. After that you should be ok. As for the technical questions such as is this a CCP or how far should a gap be maintained in storage areas blah, blah, blah are the easy bits as they are prescribed in the standard or can be answered here on the forums.

Regards,
Simon

[Tony-C]

Hello every one,
Thank god for IFSQN. We are just going for implementing SQF2000. I have a presentation to give to management about "challenges in implementing SQF". Can any of the member with SQF implementaion experience, please give some feed back? I highly appriciate the help.
Regards

Hi Garry

SQF produce an excellent guidance document so start with this:

SQF 2000 Guidance - Guidance for Developing, Documenting and Implementing SQF 2000 Systems for General Food Processing

Good Luck,

Tony

[BoomBoom]

Hello Garryana72 -

I am also going for SQF 2000 in the coming months. I have not found many on the forums that have implemented it fully, but I know that we are facing a few challenges in implementation as we move forward. I think to take Cathy's words of wisdom would be a good idea and not make it too big to keep up with.

Also, having been audited to the AIB standards for the past 6 years I already have a number of the PRPs in place and the HACCP plans. This will differ from business to business depending on your starting point as Simon said.

All I do know is that the folk on the forums here are some of the most knowledgeable people in the business and they have helped many people toward their goals for food safety.

Best of luck!

Tom

[garryrana72]

Thanks everyone for their time in replying. Now, we have already jumped for the implementaion of SQF. Surprisingly, in North America, every one wants GFSI now, specially SQF.
I really appriciate every one's effort in replying to my post. I will be back again to bug you all, soon.
Regards.

[ubtoo]

Hello every one,
Thank god for IFSQN. We are just going for implementing SQF2000. I have a presentation to give to management about "challenges in implementing SQF". Can any of the member with SQF implementaion experience, please give some feed back? I highly appriciate the help.
Regards

Have a good HACCP Plan, Show history of verification and validation on all documents, and good luck with any risk assessment items...if you don't have a background for this issue find someone who does. One SQF Practitioner cannot implement themselves...all knowledgable departments need to participate.

SQF is basically to show "Gap analysis" and to prove your "Level of Commitment". Good luck