Business Continuity, using an uncertified location

As I go through our policies/procedures here, I noticed our Business Continuity Plan does not provide a procedure to maintain product supply to our customers in the event of a disaster.

I have discussed this with senior management and in the event of a crisis that would render our facility/equipment unusable/unsafe, I was told we would move to a warehouse location to resume production, packaging, and shipping activities. This warehouse currently sits empty and dormant and is unused for regular facility operations and therefore would not be covered in the scope of our SQF Certification.

I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this already, but would this be problematic during our initial certification audit? That is, if I write in our plan that we will move to another building that is not SQF Certified, would that be a non-conformance?

What other action plans can we take if the above is not acceptable? We do not know of any current suppliers that are set up to product our product the way we do so we wouldn't be able to product the product elsewhere (i.e. in an existing facility that is GFSI accredited) so the only other option would be to cease all production and product supply, rebuild, and resume after that.

In addition, say a tornado came through and leveled our facility and equipment, etc. Would we need to be re-audited if we rebuilt in the same location?

Dear Idealdreams

U have raised many important questions it appears that senior management thinks that it is not going to happen to to us. Almost all quality systems asking for Business Continuity Plan to protect the business and ensure that your customers will be protected from negative impacts on their businesses.

The chances of complete destruction of the whole site may be minimum but it can happen.

My suggestion to you is find a company with very similar product type even if they exist in another state or country and even if that facility is not SQF certified. Have Ask senior management to have a piece of paper (a formal contract may be difficult to achieve) stating that in case of complete stop of production due to destruction of site they are willing to produce your products as a contractor. If and when this happen the site will be operating under your SQF system.

I have made similar arrangements for one of my clients which operate  HACCP plan and he has supplied products to an international supermarket change which is also operating in Australia.

Kind regards

Dr. Humaid Khan

Managing Director

Halal International Sevices

Sydney Australia

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