Crisis management plan example
Hello guys can you help me out with some material for my crisis management plan?, for example, let's say my equipment got damage from a tornado or whatever, I know that the company has an insurance and everything, however, do you have an example procedure that I can use for guidance? equipment is only I'm worried about since raw materials and the final product will be fine if the stretch-wrap film remains intact.
I'm going to ask an auditor question..........how do you know your product will be ok from a tornado, is the product sealed to prevent the entrance of microbes during a powerful storm? Stretch wrap is strong, but it's not impermeable
My auditor asked specifically about "business continuity" and I said that's none of your business (because it has zero to do with food safety) and recovery from disaster is a financial question that only the owners can make.
I will be applying for exception from the test portion on grounds that all of our products would be condemned (and they would---packed in glass jars not risking the seal) so there's nothing to test
I also researched my geographical area to see how many major events had occurred in the last 100 years (1 tornado 50km away 20 years ago) and deemed we were not at risk.
If you don't plan on condemning your materials then make sure you clearly state that all materials will be placed on hold pending lab analysis
If you are in a floor plain then you won't be able to recover anything.....mold grows very very fast
HI Jeanc, not enough details for input to be done.
I do like Scampi's take on it - having been a long term Auditor myself that was my first reaction before I even read Scampi's comments.
sorry that should say flood not floor
My auditor asked specifically about "business continuity" and I said that's none of your business (because it has zero to do with food safety) and recovery from disaster is a financial question that only the owners can make.
Scampi,
You are a rock-star :rock: ^_^
My auditor asked specifically about "business continuity" and I said that's none of your business (because it has zero to do with food safety) and recovery from disaster is a financial question that only the owners can make.
I'do rather don't go that far with the auditor but ok hahaha!
really don't know what to do about that procedure that they want to see :uhm:
HI Jeanc, not enough details for input to be done.
I do like Scampi's take on it - having been a long term Auditor myself that was my first reaction before I even read Scampi's comments.
Auditor in the pre-assessment just told me that we need to have a procedure in place, for example, what if the product is affected? what if raw materials are affected or what if the whole line is damaged.
Auditor in the pre-assessment just told me that we need to have a procedure in place, for example, what if the product is affected? what if raw materials are affected or what if the whole line is damaged.
Jean,
IMHO, all product in query should be handled as a non-conforming product, placed in a quarantine/Hold, inspected and should be disposed off based on the nature of the crisis. The equipment should also be re-evaluated post-crisis for proper functionality, just like an amplified pre-op checkup.
Example: as mentioned earlier, stretch wrap product should be re-evaluated in case of a tornado while in case of flooding it should be thrown out immediately.
Consider that your roof blew off and your product ended up in the parking lot or another part of your facility in semi dilapidated pallets. Your wrap will not save the product.
Scampi, i'm curious how you came to your conclusion. We opted for flood for our crisis management plan test this year because even though we aren't in a flood zone, the parking lot and neighboring grocery store once flooded due to a backed up sewer down the street several years ago. I was under the impression that you needed to pick something plausible. In our case, flood seems plausible (not from weather but everyone has sewers).
I agree with you on the business continuity and wonder how that is part of the code. Maybe next update????
Here are few of the examples/templates shared on the forum earlier that might be helpful:
I tend to agree with Scampi and Glenn in principal here, but in terms of GFSI I don't think it's going away, but it may get retooled to focus more on food safety impact.
We had a nice discussion about this here, copying my response below:
They way I always choose to interpret it (and how I subsequently design my plan) is that there's an assumption that in times of crisis your company's willingness to follow all the food safety guidelines you normally would will be stressed/tested. E.g. there's flooding in the plant and it's going to be 4 weeks before the damage can be fully repaired...the equipment is still working however.... it's going to be harder in that situation for management to say "well let's just shut down and not ship anything to [national chain with private brand contract] for a month and eat the cost of the repair with no revenue stream."
Having a plan in place to get safe products and/or already have management agree in writing how they will communicate to customers that products will not be shipped in that situation will make those decisions easier and made in times of rationality instead of crisis.
Similar to having corrective actions prescribed in your HACCP plan so everyone already knows the product will be thrown away, rather than have a CCP failure and make management decide "in the moment" whether it's acceptable or not when they're staring at an outstanding order.
I dislike the assumption that a business will ship garbage out and/or has not had conversations with customers. Let's say you supply PepsiCo with something.........do you really expect that in negotiations a BUSINESS plan wasn't thought out???
But one has nothing to do with the other.............good business decisions are made on ALL the facts
For the record.............we have a plan...........but I will NOT test it yearly....we are a very small company so there is no VALUE in the exercise of redundancy
I came to the conclusion by doing my due diligence
Not on flood plain...........not on city water...........in a rural area..........on septic system.................no septic system where products are stored (separate building with no facilities)
AND if there were a tornado and the roof blew off.........I wouldn't risk the seals never mind that my jars, or at least some of them would be smashed on the floor from the soaking wet cartons falling apart
If there were a fire, the jars would explode and those that didn't would still get turfed as the contents will have gotten too hot
I will say some things again that i've said before
The GFSI are good for companies not even running a basic HACCP plan to get them up to speed; but only works if they actually understand basic HACCP done well
GFSI's were created by RETAILERS!!!!!!!! Not food safety specialists (did you know the manufacturer pays the retailer is a jar gets broken by a customer?)
GFSI's need to manage the food safety portion really well first, before they go adding phrases like "business continuity" to their repertoire
Words matter in the food safety world (shall vs will etc) and these GFSI need to be careful about the words they chose
The difference with regulatory language is it's vetted by lawyers so that the meaning is clear(er) ......usually
I dislike the assumption that a business will ship garbage out and/or has not had conversations with customers.
I don't disagree with you Scampi...but I always remember that PCA was a supplier for Kellogs, the size of customer didn't really matter there.
I think the tornado thing is stupid. But I do think that thinking about power outages in a refrigerated facility makes sense.