Who should the QA report to ?
I am new to Seafood Quality Assurance and have many questions.
Who should I be reporting to?
I often go through audits with regulators and make corrective actions that are rebutted by the Production Manager even though multiple auditors agree the CAR is a good fix. Is this ok?
Should I train all employees on documentation, GMP's, CCP's etc.. or should it be done by production or both?
There is a lot of tension between departments, It's even affecting my health, I love my job, but management seems to side with Production instead of sound food safety, please help.
QA should not be reporting to Production.
What we see - QA reports to Operations, VP, etc.
Production will always want to push the product out while QA is cautious and will do hold backs - Production doesn't like that.
QA handles the training not Production.
If you company is so messed up - get out.
Everywhere I have worked it's been a straight line to production and a dotted line to QA; and yes it often causes unnecessary tension between departments
I have had hallway confrontations with more than 1 production supervisor because they bloody well knew what was going on and did nothing (except get themselves terminated.....related to this) BUT you have to have a strong conviction to be able to work in this kind of place (things did change once this person was removed and their boss too)
IF top management isn't really on board...........your job just becomes a placeholder and you will fight like this always........
From much personnel experience, if your health is affected get out----they obviously don't care about your welfare
"Who should I be reporting to?"
I have always reported to the 'VP of operations' or the 'general manager' or someone like that. I've never reported to a production employee. I've always been 'equal' to the top person 'on the floor' from the production side of things. We (the top production person and I) would report to the same boss.
It is VERY important that the person you both report to understands food safety and it's importance. This person can't just be a production only person. If so, you're in for trouble.
"I often go through audits with regulators and make corrective actions that are rebutted by the Production Manager even though multiple auditors agree the CAR is a good fix. Is this ok?"
No, this is bad. It's possible, of course, that they might have other ideas on how they can implement your corrective action without being as disruptive to their schedule. For example, you might determine the ultimate fix to a problem is to invest in a new piece of machinery. Production might counter and say that they aren't going to get the budget for that so they'd like to implement a more frequent cleaning schedule or something like that. You need to work with them too, but at the end of the day, you're the 'end of the line' in food safety and the company needs to understand that you're doing these things because they need to be done.
As everyone else said, if your senior management (your bosses boss) doesn't understand your role and back you up, you're going to have a tough go of it and, honestly, your job probably isn't worth the headache you will have and you should start looking for something else. Senior Management Commitment is a big deal.
"Should I train all employees on documentation, GMP's, CCP's etc.. or should it be done by production or both?"
You are the trainer. You train on all the food safety things you want to train on. Production can perform 'task' training - how to set up the machine, how to operate the control panel, etc.
"There is a lot of tension between departments, It's even affecting my health, I love my job, but management seems to side with Production instead of sound food safety, please help."
Time to look for a new job.
I think there will always be tension to some extent between Production and Technical. For me, we (Technical) are the people who prioritise food safety and quality. Sometimes we put a product or line on hold if we suspect an issue, and sometimes insist that product will need re-working or re-cooking. This of course impedes Productions's mission of bashing out the product to meet quantity targets and make profit. The two departments should ideally work together and co-operate but ultimately stay independent.
If it's affecting your health I would seriously consider your employment with that company. Plus, it would be a shame if staying and reporting to production slowly drained your integrity and conviction to food safety. At the interview for my current job I made it clear to the director that my priority above the Technical department, above the directors, above the company, was food safety and the members of the public who eat the food they make, and if that was an issue then I was not their person.