4 replies to this topic

[Andy_Yellows]

Hi all,

 

During a meeting with our food safety consultant this week I was given an amazing tip that I fully intend to make use of should the scenario arise! The long and the short of it was that if, in the buildup to an audit, you find an area of the standard you are not fully conforming with and don't see yourself being able to operate in line with it by the day of the audit, you can stick it in your corrective action plan and give yourself 6 weeks to correct it. This way the auditor cannot give you a non-conformance as you've already identified it yourself and have given yourself a timescale beyond that of the 28 days usually given by the CB to sort it out. GENIUS (naughty, but genius)!

 

So I'll put it to the floor- what other golden snippets of advice have you received from others in the industry (relating to anything at all) that you've treasured and taken along with you?

 

Regards,

 

Andy

[Sweet'n'low]

Hi all,

 

During a meeting with our food safety consultant this week I was given an amazing tip that I fully intend to make use of should the scenario arise! The long and the short of it was that if, in the buildup to an audit, you find an area of the standard you are not fully conforming with and don't see yourself being able to operate in line with it by the day of the audit, you can stick it in your corrective action plan and give yourself 6 weeks to correct it. This way the auditor cannot give you a non-conformance as you've already identified it yourself and have given yourself a timescale beyond that of the 28 days usually given by the CB to sort it out. GENIUS (naughty, but genius)!

 

So I'll put it to the floor- what other golden snippets of advice have you received from others in the industry (relating to anything at all) that you've treasured and taken along with you?

 

Regards,

 

Andy

Something I learned just going through my audit was to be upfront. We had a gap in maintenance filling out their PM's and cleaning logs for about 6 months. That's a huge breakdown that we realized and corrected immediately. Before the auditor even got to the floor, we told the auditor what happened, how we fixed it, and how we plan on continuing down the road with it. The auditor thanked us for the heads up, saw that we were on top of our game after the fact and didn't get a minor. We were sort of at the mercy of the auditors hands, but it worked out in the end. Hopefully I don't run into anything like that again. 

[SQFconsultant]

I don't agree with the OP, I do concur with kkalpakidis -- on the surface the tip looks ok, however I can see it being abused very easily and as a former SQF Auditor I saw this in action several times and it always appeared to be a deception.  

 

On the other hand,what kkalpadkidis mentioned I saw a number of times too, and I would weigh it and most times a minor write off would not occur and a note would be made for followup at a later date - normally beyond the actual cut-off for CAR submissions of 30 days if a plan was submitted for same by the facility.

 

As an Auditor I became very aware of snow jobs.

[Sweet'n'low]

I don't agree with the OP, I do concur with kkalpakidis -- on the surface the tip looks ok, however I can see it being abused very easily and as a former SQF Auditor I saw this in action several times and it always appeared to be a deception.  

 

On the other hand,what kkalpadkidis mentioned I saw a number of times too, and I would weigh it and most times a minor write off would not occur and a note would be made for followup at a later date - normally beyond the actual cut-off for CAR submissions of 30 days if a plan was submitted for same by the facility.

 

As an Auditor I became very aware of snow jobs.

Considering that it was my first audit in a manufacturing setting, I treated it as any audit I had gone through in my previous experience in a kitchen setting. If there were any issues, my plan was to address anything that may be considered a problem first. That way it's out of the way and doesn't pose an issue later on down the road or worse, the auditor finds it. Had great supports as well and scored a 95. 

[john.kukoly]

It may depend on the standard you are being audited against. If the standard in use allows you to simply plan on meeting the requirements in future, it should work.

 

For any credible certification program - the auditor has to follow program rules - if they don't currently meet the requirements, issue a non-conformity. I am not sure if I would ever accept an audit result that clearly shows a site doesn't meet a requirement, but intends to later on. It's certainly the answer a customer wants - certainly if it was a serious issue a customer would be unlikely to continue with documented evidence a site has unresolved risks. in place.

 

I think you need a consultant that takes things more seriously.