9 replies to this topic

[safetyone]

Hi all,

Unfortunately I have only just found this site, and my BRC is on Monday!. I working for a site that has been standing for the best part of 50 years and has only ever achieved Grade B with 6 minors and a major at most. We have had 4 TM's in the last year and half, with one intrim that mullered the QMS and HACCP. Before January I had had no envolvement with BRC. This year, they gave it to me. I wish I had found you all sooner!!!


Any last minute tips to get me through would be appreciated, I'm feeling the nerves now!


SO

[Snookie]

Prayer and/or alcohol .....although alcohol should be after not during

[GMO]

Stay calm. Mentally prepare everyone for a grade B and no higher. Spend tomorrow and the weekend getting evidence for every section you can on BRC into some files. It's time consuming but with 3 days you should do it. If there are any sections you don't have evidence to prove you're compliant, move on and come back and resolve them if you have the time. This then means you're not running around like a headless chicken on the day. With BRC perception is 80% of the battle, looking in control definitely helps (which is going to be a tough ask for you this year which is why you should manage everyone's expectations...)

I'm the third TM in 3 years and we went from failing (2010) to passing at grade B (2011) to passing version 6 with an 'A'. It's doable but I spent 6 months getting us there. If you've only had weeks, it's not fair of them to expect miracles!

[safetyone]

Thanks for the tips!

A quick update, I am on day 2 with just Complaints, NPDand a few other small things to do tomorrow morning. So far 5 minors, some could have been avoided, one IMO justified and I wouldn't have even challenged had it been a major, so lucky there.

Fingers crossed for tomorrow now.
Thanks again for the tips, hopefully the alcohol consumption will be in celebration of an A tomorrow night!

[safetyone]

Just wanted to let you all know we got an A with 5 minors!!!!!! Good luck to all those due theirs!!

[GMO]

Just wanted to let you all know we got an A with 5 minors!!!!!! Good luck to all those due theirs!!

Awesome! Well done, that's a fantastic result! How hungover are you?

[DocGra]

Well Done Mr One - You're the ONE ...


I was thinking about you when I saw your post - I had 5 months prep for my first BRC audit - and that was bad enough

Did Mr GMO's quite concentrated approach do the trick or did you share the alcohol during the audit???


The secret now is to stay on top of it,

A Grade A is very valuable and your colleagues need to understand what they risk if they don't help you stay at that level. This is where your commercial colleagues can go on a field trip and tell all your customers what you've acheived - and of course, they will want to say the same next year too - so this will help lock in your colleagues' support for the next 12 months (shhh - that's the secret bit)

Congratulations

Graham

[Adam Edkins]

Hi All

I was just looking for some help and guidance really.

We have just started to supply packaging materials into retailers via a fresh produce packhouse and have been asked the question of are we BRC/IOP accredited.

We dont manufacture any of the product in house as all is subcontracted, we simply distribute the finished goods.
It looks like we will need to obtain BRC/IOP accreditation to make everyone elses life easier (and ours as we will be continuously being audited) however with so little happening at our site i think BRC/IOP for us will simply be compiling a lot of our manufacturing partners documentation together and ensuring they have sufficient checks in place, and ensuring we have procedures to check against them.

Can anyone advise where i would be able to download a lot of draft documents required for BRC that i could change to suit our requirements as i dont have much time to get a lot in place and would prefer not to start from scratch. i have tried downloading from here but as i am a new member i havent posted enough to be able to download anything.

Any help or advise you can offer would be extremely welcome, we are also conducting a big HACCP project across the entire manufacturing process so any help on that would be welcomed also.

[Dalways]

Hi all,
Hello
What you want to know about BRC audit can you please detail it.
Deb
Unfortunately I have only just found this site, and my BRC is on Monday!. I working for a site that has been standing for the best part of 50 years and has only ever achieved Grade B with 6 minors and a major at most. We have had 4 TM's in the last year and half, with one intrim that mullered the QMS and HACCP. Before January I had had no envolvement with BRC. This year, they gave it to me. I wish I had found you all sooner!!!


Any last minute tips to get me through would be appreciated, I'm feeling the nerves now!


SO


[/quote]

[Dalways]

Hello
What you want to know about BRC can you please make it more clear .
Deb