Setting Food Safety and Quality Objectives
Hi everyone,
This is my first post and there are a lot of different forums here so I'm pretty sure I'm in the right one. I'm the QA Supervisor of a small QA team in a food manufacturing environment. I've been tasked by my technical manager to create some objectives for the team that would help build their knowledge and confidence. The team are relatively new to the business with almost no previous QA experience.
I'm struggling a little bit in creating some smart objectives. I've had a search through the forums and I can't really find anything that relates to my environment, maybe I'm not looking hard enough.
Could anyone point me in the right direction please, or give me some pointers on creating the objectives?
Thank you
Hi Benty,
Not sure what kind of objectives you are looking for.
But good ways to get to know the business and QA could be
- GAP analyses of the standards
- Internal audits
- (External) HACCP / QA supervisor training on HACCP, PDCA, RCA, microbiology etc. etc.
You could also task them with improvement project which would force them into the QA mindset. Example:
- Improve the incoming goods procedure
- Rewrite the TACCP/VACCP
- Improve on whatever recurring complaints you have.
Improving knowledge and confidence takes time, opportunities to fails safely and success stories.
Hi Benty,
I would use the department objectives and break them down in to aspects that your QA team have influence over. This should help drive your own objectives whilst not giving your staff a fools errand.
For example... If a smart quality/food safety objective is to reduce customer complaints of a certain nature by X amount... How does the actions of your QA staff affect this target? i.e. Increased sampling, additional temperature checks, additional packaging checks, additional document checks etc...
Obviously there are loads of areas that can be quantified, just be mindful to set meaningful targets. I've seen businesses that have given their QA team corrective action quotas which isn't helpful at all.
Kind regards,
Ry
I'll go away, have a think and probably come back with some of the ideas I've already jotted down. One of my own objectives was to conduct a gap analysis across site and look to improve staff focus.
I've been in this position for about 4 years now but as there has always been a high turnover in the team it's been difficult for me to progress further.
I would also really look into your high turnover.
Some turn-over is too be expected, and off course it also also very easy for QA personell to change jobs.
But keeping your team for longer is very important for your business.
Look into what is important for your team and provide that. It being training, work-life balance, work independence or fair compensation etc.