Thank you all. Without divulging too much info, I will give a rundown of what happened.
My company produces all RTE foods, some acidified foods, etc. Our facility is only 2 years old, but it was hurriedly designed and there are some flaws such as non-coated glass that were not taken into account upon construction. The glass was a major hit. A new machine was designed in Europe and shipped here with very little testing. It is a one of a kind thing and was in my opinion, poorly constructed. This was also a major hit because the official sanitation manual for this does not exist.
Minors were simply housekeeping items. Open boxes, primary containers for secondary use, MSDS book not updated, etc. Noted was the training register, not the training program itself, though I did mention my frustration at this on another thread. A few other maintenance issues, including the drain. But they all added up to a total fail. We had a desk audit and passed with flying colors (which is why the training register bothered me now because it should have been caught then) and this was the second phase for certification audit.
As I mentioned, we are a small company. A small company with big dreams and a mom-and-pop mentality. This needs to change. We are so short staffed that it's almost laughable how many hats some people wear. As an example, I do everything from managing the SQF/
HACCP program, micro testing, exporting, government regulation and designing box labels, in addition to my regular role of food safety. My boss is a VP, reporting only to the president of the company. My boss is well aware of these problems and he has spent so much of his time trying to fix it, with little support. So basically it is he and me against the world. In my opinion, this is why we failed. None of the other managers were even present in the opening and closing meetings, which speaks volumes.
There is a lack of focus on the things that matter. We can't possibly consider being globally certified and continue to keep up bad habits. When I started 1.5 years ago, there were no official programs, poor record keeping and total disorganization. We have come a long way but we are still not there.
Putting this into financial terms will be the most effective. Not only the 60 hours a week I've been putting in for the last 3 months, but the audit cost and potential loss of business. You can't sell what doesn't exist.
Charles, thank you for the idea of the postings in the room at the stations. I know for a fact that many of the employees do know what they are doing and why they are doing it but with such a high turnover rate and use of temporary employees, it is an almost impossible hurdle to overcome.
