How often should we review Quality Manual Policies?

Please can someone refresh me in teking me how often I should review my company policies. Although nothing has changed they are currently dated 2010 is this ok or do i need to put 2011

The reasons I ask is I have a BRC audit in 3 weeks and i need to box off

Thanks

Please can someone refresh me in teking me how often I should review my company policies. Although nothing has changed they are currently dated 2010 is this ok or do i need to put 2011

The reasons I ask is I have a BRC audit in 3 weeks and i need to box off

Thanks

Hi aps,

Seems to me you just completed your review and recommended in "no change" or "continuation" of the policy. and could put in today's date!

(hopefully, you have mentally accounted for last years performance, listened to the opinion of the powers that be, any regulatory changes you have been affected by, considered your customers requirements, looked at your product charcteristics, scope etc... when you say nothing has changed)

Please can someone refresh me in teking me how often I should review my company policies. Although nothing has changed they are currently dated 2010 is this ok or do i need to put 2011 The reasons I ask is I have a BRC audit in 3 weeks and i need to box off Thanks

I cannot speak for BRC but from ISO 9001 viewpoint.

5.3 Quality Policy
e) is reviewed for continual suitability

The common practice isthat the QP review usually being done during management review. So, it depends upon your frequency of management review. When you review it and find it is still ok, suitable for your company that could be fine. Just show in your Management Review minutes that it was reviewed and reaffirmed.

Hope this helps.

It is good practice to review the Quality Policy once per annum and make reference to it when you condust you management review meetings and that should suffice.

Regards

Ajay

I review our entire Quality Manual annually.

Where changes are made, they are implemeted with a review date of 12 months time. Where changes are not made, it is documented that procedure reviewed and 'No changes required' and a date is set to review in a further 12 months.

This shows that you are continually checking the validity of the manual, rather than sitting it up on a shelf until your next audit.

Hope this helps.

Pops

I totally am in agreement with Poppysnoos as one should review the whole manual at least annually but do try and oversse it twice per annume as you may want to improve and change things in various sections.

aps,

Ah, I just realized that you were talking about the whole QMS documents, not just Quality Policy. ISO does not say how often a review needs to be done. The standard says "...review and update as necessary..." So if there are no changes made, you could note in your “Document Review Form” that you reviewed all your documentation and no update is necessary.

Personally I try to review all documents at least annually. QPulse is a great tool for doing this and prove you do it. It's probably ok not to, I am a bit anally retentive at times but it is a good idea to read through every document at least once a year and say to yourself "is this still relevant?" "Does this still meet the standards?" "Does this match other documents in our FSQMS?" etc. You'd be surprised how many times I've audited a site and found documents contradict each other! It's very easy to get through a year and not have reviewed some documents.

That all said if you have thoroughly reviewed a document during an audit and, say, made a change as a result, I would ignore that document until the next year unless it crops up again. Don't create work!

An interesting question - to which there is no correct answer.

Reviewing annually is essential.

But reviewing more frequently is good practice; it depends upon what's happening inside your processes. You say that nothing has changed - I can't believe that! No new employess, new suppliers, new equipment, new recipes/products, etc?

The best time to conduct a thorough review is not a few days before the assessment. The assessor is seeking evidence that your management system is under control - doing reviews, and taking corrective actions, immediately prior to an assessment shows that your system is not under control.