Stock Rotation - Who is really responsible?
Searching for wisdom,
Debate: QA department claims they are not responsible for Stock Rotation Procedures. it is an Accounting function. Accounting Department claims that their procedures goes as far as to controlling raw material inventory transaction and FIFO is followed. QA Department must oversee Food Safety during Stock Rotation.
Question: Who is responsible? I am curious to see how other Food Processing Companies handle procedures like this in their environments.
Thank you in advance,
Kelio
Dear kellio,
Re - Practical Implementation > Production. Re - Monitoring Implementation > QA.
Re - Procedure, typically QA because Production always say they have no spare time to think about such things. (Too busy generating profits).
Re - Revised Procedure - typically QA + Production after the latter say that the first version is impractical to implement and wastes their "valuable" time.
And so on. :smile:
(IMEX Accounts Personnel never leave their external, comfortable, office except for Cold Room / Annual Stock-Taking Inventory and lunch)
Rgds / Charles.C
Dear kellio,
Re - Practical Implementation > Production. Re - Monitoring Implementation > QA.
Re - Procedure, typically QA because Production always say they have no spare time to think about such things. (Too busy generating profits).
Re - Revised Procedure - typically QA + Production after the latter say that the first version is impractical to implement and wastes their "valuable" time.
And so on. :smile:
(IMEX Accounts Personnel never leave their external, comfortable, office except for Cold Room / Annual Stock-Taking Inventory and lunch)
Rgds / Charles.C
Dear Charles
You are so correct, there is never a day that Accounts Personnel leave their offices to cold room to do Stock Taking. Us at our company we have a team leader appointed for cold storage he is the one doing stock rotation when dispatching
Thanks
Thanks
Dear kellio,
Re - Practical Implementation > Production. Re - Monitoring Implementation > QA.
Re - Procedure, typically QA because Production always say they have no spare time to think about such things. (Too busy generating profits).
Re - Revised Procedure - typically QA + Production after the latter say that the first version is impractical to implement and wastes their "valuable" time.
And so on. :smile:
(IMEX Accounts Personnel never leave their external, comfortable, office except for Cold Room / Annual Stock-Taking Inventory and lunch)
Rgds / Charles.C
Thank you Charles and Ruhama for your comments. I had a feeling that I was in the right track from the food safety point of view. I will keep an eye for any other comments.
Thank you,
Kelio
I agree with Charles:
It needs to be the expectation for operations/warehousing personnel to FIFO properly through a manual or computer aided system.
When inventory is done keep track of lot numbers and the purchasing people can notify quality if lot numbers are being used before older lot numbers.
Whatever system Quality shouldn't have sit out there and point at the correct pallet and tell operations what to use in what order that's a waste of their time. Quality should put pressure to do the right thing not supervise it directly... that's what managers are for.
I agree with Charles
It needs to be the expectation for operations/warehousing personnel to FIFO properly through a manual or computer aided system.
When inventory is done keep track of lot numbers and the purchasing people can notify quality if lot numbers are being used before older lot numbers.
Whatever system Quality shouldn't have sit out there and point at the correct pallet and tell operations what to use in what order that's a waste of their time.  Quality should put pressure to do the right thing not supervise it directly... that's what managers are for.
We follow the procedure MerleW has mentioned above.
Operations / Warehousing is in charge of FIFO stock rotations, QA does a routine inspection to make sure this is being done and reports their findings to management.
Hi Kelio,
IME generally:
Accounts - Order, Manage Costs, Report & Audit
QA - Check, Inspect & Audit
Warehouse - Manage Stock, FIFO & Count
Regards,
Tony
Hi,
QA normally sets the requirement by getting product shelf life from suppliers, setting minimum acceptable shelf life on delivery etc. Acceptable limits are agreed between supplier/purchasing/warehousing.
Once on site warehousing and production are solely responsible for FIFO and QA monitors the effectiveness and provides feedback.
QA also intervenes when warehousing or production has slipped off FIFO and expects some shelf life extension to avoid cost. This is usually dealt by raising a NCR, follow up RCA and training.
In my opinion, the quality depertment is better aware of the shelf life of all the products present in the store. Threrefore, the quality department must recriut people for stock rotation.
Typically if ingredients are received in the order they are shipped and lot codes are created sequentially there shouldn't be any question about what ones to use in what order. The problem that I've seen, typically, is lazy operators or bad ingredient storage systems that cause ingredients to be used out of order allowing older product/ingredients to sit around. I've never worked in a place that employed enough quality technicians to sit around and tell the operators what lot numbers to pull which is why it's the warehouse operators job to make sure they are pulling the correct older lot codes first. Then when the warehouse operators performed inventory, including lot codes, that information went to the demand planner who would be able to make sure that lot codes were being used appropriately.
Of course any system could be made to work in any fashion so if you wanted to employ more quality lab techs, typically at a higher rate than warehouse operators, to police FIFO... more power to you. But I haven't seen that personally.