Please review my flowchart

Hi everyone,

Fist time posting :)

My company is working towards BRC A&B accreditation. We do not handle any products.

I have attached the process flow chart for your kind opinion.

Must of our products the flow is purchasing, transport, storage , delivery.

One of our products when arrived to the warehouse (third party company that store and further process our products) are sent for steam sterilisation and sometimes we ask them to also clean (sifting) the product before the steam sterilisation and other times we ask them to sort and grind the product.

Another product is sent for drying, bleaching (if required) and filtering.

Hope the above makes sense  :silly:

Our products are spices, botanicals and essential oils.

Thank you so much in advance!

Regards,

Elsa

Process flow chart attached  :headhurts:

Hi Elsa, welcome to our forum! I've reviewed your chart: I would add process parameters (e.g. temperature, time, pressure, etc.), storage temperature and humidity, waste step, QC checks on corresponding steps, and CCP if any.

Welcome to IFSQN :welcome

Some general observations - doesn't mean yours is right or wrong, just a case of differences to what I've done for A&B that has made it through audits every year since issue 1:

You've put more detail into your subcontracted processes than I did - I simply had this as a single point and noted in the plan that this was subject to the subcontractor's HACCP plan, controlled via supplier approval.

I'd be inclined to add a possible rejection step at step 3 - it's not unheard of for shipments to be rejected either for customs reasons or because they've been found to be damaged at this point.

Similarly I'd add a potential rejection step at step 12 as customer rejections are a possibility.

What incoterm(s) do you use for your purchases and sales? Loading onto transport at the supplier might be a legitimate step in its own right, if you're buying e.g. EXW. There is an argument either way on this though, so I wouldn't panic about it.

Is the sampling in step 13 a specific part of your control processes, e.g. release into stock / for sale is subject to results? Might be worth thinking about adding a step of verification of these if so - just to make it absolutely clear to the more pedantic auditors that this is a thing that happens ;)

Thank you so much for your comments!

pHruit I think you are absolutely right about the subcontracted processes! Thank you so much!