Hello IFSQN,
After being subscriber and frequent user of the IFSQN resources I have found myself needing these resources now more than ever! I say this because much of my use of this site was from the perspective of an administrative assistant to the QA department here at my facility - I was mainly using this site to inform myself while our Food Safety Manager and Food Safety Coordinator took the lead with creating all of the programs/policies and all coordinating documentation. I mainly took the wheel when it came down to revising/filing documentation.
(Also, keep in mind... I have never worked in a processing environment)
However, due to changes in personnel I have found myself in the hot seat - I am now leading the QA department (crazy, right?!)
To begin, I inherited a food safety plan that got us through our first BRC audit (which I was able to participate in - overall it was a great learning experience!) and while this helped us achieve a D grade (ouch)... it was very clear to the auditor and our department heads that a great amount of work would need to be done in order to improve and maintain what is already there.
All to say, I am finding myself feeling overwhelmed - I do not want to "re-invent the wheel" with this Food Safety Plan/Manual but - to be frank - it is not an accurate representation of what processes/policies that are now in place... the QA lead before me was very much a person who merely added things to policies without ever seeing them through (IE; during the audit, if a detail was missing on a policy he would simply sneak off - insert the missing detail - and present it to the auditor as if the missing detail was there all along...). So overall, not a very honest practice and unfortunately now he has wiped his hands clean of QA - leaving me to deal with the mess...
SO - IFSN I ask you all: What advice would you have for me? We are expecting another BRC audit in February of 2018 and, fortunately a consultation with a BRC Representative has been scheduled before then (so that is time for some major Q&A and direction from an expert) but I feel like I need more... I want to excel in this department as I am the last-standing representative for QA but I just don't know where to begin.... I was told by the last guy that "QA is project-based... you get to decide what you would like to work on" and while this mentality is somewhat relieving I feel quick to want to work on EVERYTHING (because it really needs it)!
S.O.S