7 replies to this topic

[astro]

Hi

 

Currently I am in a bit of a poor state with close out of non conformances.

 

Because my operations team and upper management are a bit naïve i have over 400 non conformances outstanding and I mention it everyday in morning meetings and nothing.... no response.

 

We are due to carry out our annual meeting which should be fun as our Food Safety target was 5% outstanding for non conformances where we are at about 60% outstanding.

 

Now do I just record this as a fail and start from 1 for 2022.

 

I know this is not good for BRC but what can i do?

 

HELP

[Charles.C]

Hi

 

Currently I am in a bit of a poor state with close out of non conformances.

 

Because my operations team and upper management are a bit naïve i have over 400 non conformances outstanding and I mention it everyday in morning meetings and nothing.... no response.

 

We are due to carry out our annual meeting which should be fun as our Food Safety target was 5% outstanding for non conformances where we are at about 60% outstanding.

 

Now do I just record this as a fail and start from 1 for 2022.

 

I know this is not good for BRC but what can i do?

 

HELP

Hi Astro,

 

Is it possible that many of your 400 NCs are insignificant ?

[astro]

Hi Charles

 

No I do not think they are.

 

Most of the non conformances are repetitive as they are not completing from previous months.

 

We are finding hygiene issues, FB control, Allergen controls, Poor wood control, leaking pipes etc etc 

 

so no my findings are significant enough to have my BRC grade dropped from AA to a pretty bad score 

[mgourley]

If your site is BRCGS certificated AA, and you have 400 significant NC's that are not being addressed, I would call into question the competency of your auditor.

Also the commitment of Senior Management.

 

Marshall

[astro]

Hi Marshall

 

Thanks for your comments....

 

Regarding the competency of the auditor I am pretty fine with this and of my team. I would say this is lack of support to the cause.

 

The 400 odd outstanding is more to the fact that they are repetitive each month as the previous months have not been addressed so it will get picked up on the next audit. These are outstanding from over several months so this is not the auditor as they are following the standard and it either conforms to the standard or it doesn't... no grey areas!

 

My question is do I close these outstanding non conformances for this year logging the outstanding % as a fail and start from scratch 2022

[classic]

Hi Astro

 

Have you set a KPI or Objective for closing out NC's?

 

Are you completing Root Cause Analysis?

 

When I started at my current company, I inherited a system where about 400 NC's were being raised per year.  These were in addition to NC's from Internal Audits which tended to be forgotten about.  Over time the 400 have come down but many of these were not what I would call NC's but rather events happening which required action to stop them happening again but not affecting Food Safety, legality and Quality.  Also NC's at the time were used as a way of recording less significant happenings.

 

I would start to categorise the NC's you are having problems with and try to make the close out of these a priority.  Also you need the support of your senior management and escalate to them if close out is beyond your control.  Do you do any written report to senior management?  Sometimes seeing data in red and the fact that this could become a major on your next BRC audit with a reduction in grade may get senior management to do something.

 

Good Luck

 

Its difficult to draw a line under the ones you have already got but if you can justify why you have had to do it then it may be worth a try.

[mgourley]

Hi Marshall

 

Thanks for your comments....

 

Regarding the competency of the auditor I am pretty fine with this and of my team. I would say this is lack of support to the cause.

 

The 400 odd outstanding is more to the fact that they are repetitive each month as the previous months have not been addressed so it will get picked up on the next audit. These are outstanding from over several months so this is not the auditor as they are following the standard and it either conforms to the standard or it doesn't... no grey areas!

 

My question is do I close these outstanding non conformances for this year logging the outstanding % as a fail and start from scratch 2022

I don't see how it really matters.

1) Write them off and start anew, but be prepared to show evidence how you addressed the failure. And then start again writing things up and not get any closure.

2) Continue to write up the same thing month after month, never closing out anything.

 

My suggestions would be:

1) Take a serious look at why the same non-conformances are happening month after month and find and fix the root cause(s).

2) Demand that Senior Management be a part of this effort.

3) Hold someone accountable. If there are no consequences for inaction, many people will take no action.

 

Good Luck,

Marshall

[Duncan]

I've been in a similar situation at a previous place of work.

 

I ended up doing an internal audit against senior management commitment and I raised a non-conformity against the MD because insufficient human and financial resources had been dedicated to the food safety and quality management system. To be able to close out his non-conformance, the MD issued a set of priorities to all the department heads with targets for bringing down their own action points, with weekly progress meetings.

 

Addressing the issue in this way turned out to be pretty effective, because the MD took it personally that the non-conformance had been levied against him, and we made sure everyone in commercial positions understood that the consequences of failing to solve the problem would probably include loss of certification - so business continuity was at risk.

 

Another useful tactic is to report the number of outstanding non-conformities per department at each quality review meeting, so department managers have a sense of accountability for non-conformance close-out by their team members. You might find that the individuals responsible for carrying out actions don't always have a lot of decision-making authority over how they spend their time, but the department managers do... So building CAPA into departmental KPIs can be quite helpful.