Importance of documenting team work in the development phase

I am the primary person in charge of developing a HACCP plan for our plastic bag manufacturing company. However, I am not fluent in the language spoken by most of the employees, and I am not sure they are willing to contribute time for group meetings. I can get information that I need with the help of my boss and manager (both bilingual) but all the literature that I am looking at says that a team should be assembled, names and responsiblities should be recorded, etc. etc.

If I develop the plan, and later they are made to understand the purpose and importance of it, and are trained how to put the plan into action, is it necessary for me to actually document an active team in the development process?

I'm not looking for a answer on how well I can develop the plan without them... I'm looking for an answer that will tell me an auditor's opinion of having little documentation of teamwork and little or no documentation of research or problem solving by other members of the company.

Hi Caitlin,

There are some members who are Certification Body Auditors for BRC/IOP hopefully they will see this and give you their perspective.

Regards,
Simon

Caitlin,

The reason for establishing a team and confirming the responsibilities is to ensure that all areas of the company have representation (EG: Maintenance, Cleaning, Procurement, New product development, despatch, laundry, lab) as well as production. If you are happy that you, the boss and the manager understand all areas of the company sufficiently to be able to carry out effective hazard analysis then there is no problem with the team being only you 3 persons.

BUT: - if you don't feel confident covering all of the areas and continue anyway you may find that you have missed a potential hazard which later will cause you a lot of re-work. This is why often for the hazard analysis more people are involved after the initial analysis some of these people may not be required except for jobs in their specific area of responsibility

I hope this helps, just out of interest what sort of company do you work for and how big (no. employees)

James

Thanks for the input. I appreciate it.

Since I posted the question, I've looked at the AIB (American Industrial Baking?) website and their checklists that their auditors use. I've found some things that look like they take a look at documentation and if it is not a good team effort it could be a problem.

I suppose there is some sense behind it. I'm sure one could argue that HACAAP systems put in place by teams are more likely to succeed and are better understood, etc. etc.

Anyway, I think I will try to include more people with informal mini meetings. I don't think the different branches of the team really need to communicate face to face unless we reach a road block. I'll keep them all updated on what is going on in other ares with copies of policies and memos.

Caitlin

Thanks again for the advice.

The fact that you've considered this and are trying to involve relevant personnel in the development process (within your obvious constraints) demonstrates some due diligence. Along with the training you carry out when you implement the HACCP system should be enough to satisfy a pragmatic auditor.

Good luck!
Simon

Since I posted the question, I've looked at the AIB (American Industrial Baking?) website

We are certificated to the BRC/IoP standard and the AIB standard and find that paperwork is not scrutinised so much by an AIB inspector as their visit spends around 75% of its time visually inspecting the work-place.

The BRC/IoP standard requires more documentation to be in place and spends about 75% of its time inspecting the paperwork. If you have a certificated Quality Management System a lot will be included within this already.

Bonno