Senior Management Commitment to Continuous Improvement in Policy

Hi, I have just had an audt where the auditor stated the product safety and quality policy does not exactly state ' shall include a commitment to continuous improvement'. I don't like just regurgitating the words from the Standard and putting them into documents because the next auditor will ask ' well how do you do it!'


Part of the current policy states 'compliance will be achieved through continuously improve the effectiveness of the quality management system'. He said this wasn't enough.

Does anyone have a policy they could share or help out with words I could use instead of our current ones?

Any help would be gratefully received!

Seems a bit harsh, but this is how it is written into the policies of various sites I have worked at:

'...ensuring that senior management are committed to continually improving and reviewing the safety and quality systems.'

This point has not raised any queries from audits in the past.

Hope this helps.

Regards

I can sort of see it from both sides, but whether it warranted a non conformity is debatable.

I realise that we are verging on semantic wordplay but your wording that 'compliance will be achieved ...etc' is a bit of a contradiction. If you comply with something, you meet its requirement and improvement is not needed.

There are countless phrases around in Policy Statements, but my current favourite is something along the lines of " We will continuously critically evaluate our processes to identify opportunities for improvement "

I see more and more companies adding a statement that covers this nicely - the statement shows the exact improvements that have been made to both the physical plant but also the quality of operations/products. What appears on these statements are many times listings of actual improvements that have been made such as adding a line, updating a line to ensure that food safety standards are exceeded, courses/continuing education taken by key management staff members and consulting services such as ours have been seen on these statements.

The statements normally include the names of people that attended the various courses, content information on the course, where it was held, what was spent, time invested, etc.

For backup information most times I see invoices, paid receipts, paid contract copies for our consulting services, etc.

All in all meant to show that a company is continuing with an on-going improvement of their personnel, qualtiy systems, physical plant, etc.

Auditors will look for the correct wording in you policy's, as stated in Scotty's reply.

your comment on how you do that is shown or support that statement you can do in many ways:

• Manage Meetings - not just to the site managers but reporting to the Top Board of Directors, that they understand the sites issues and are supporting that with the sites budget and investment.
• Reporting and having the resources to close off non-conformance, both internals and those given by third parties
• investing in the training of staff when required.
• Ensuring that the departments that drive / control the Safety, Quality and Legality of your product have the staff and experience to ensure it happens.

Remember this is a continue on going process, things change, things ware-out.

So ensure your business has things planned and costed for the long and short term.

For example: if you needed a new changing facility with new lockers and benches, PPE etc, could be very expensive and not something most companies could just go out and get done, it would need to be budgeted for.
SO, you would need to plan and cost the project get quotes in, have it minuted at the weekly, monthly meetings on what is happening and when and get the directors/CEO's agreements/commitment to the projects etc, get a time table in of when and how it is to happen. this may be of 12 months.
This way you can show that the business is moving forward and is planning and investing in the Safety, Quality and legality of the product.

Good luck

Thanks for your help guys.

Hi,

If you have a search for "mesophile" in the forums, I have posted a copy of all parts to section 1 Senior Management Commitment BRC v6.

Print these off and have a read, it should help cover you for future reference.

Thanks

Simon

I see more and more companies adding a statement that covers this nicely - the statement shows the exact improvements that have been made to both the physical plant but also the quality of operations/products. What appears on these statements are many times listings of actual improvements that have been made such as adding a line, updating a line to ensure that food safety standards are exceeded, courses/continuing education taken by key management staff members and consulting services such as ours have been seen on these statements.

The statements normally include the names of people that attended the various courses, content information on the course, where it was held, what was spent, time invested, etc.

For backup information most times I see invoices, paid receipts, paid contract copies for our consulting services, etc.

All in all meant to show that a company is continuing with an on-going improvement of their personnel, qualtiy systems, physical plant, etc.

I dont understand, can i PM to discuss more?