9 replies to this topic

[kfromNE]

Curious of what others do for the surprise audit window and vacation requests. I have 9 QC with one of them being my backup SQF practitioner. 

 

None have requested but I know they will. 

 

Thanks. 

 

[MDaleDDF]

I guess it depends on your place, but for me, it doesn't matter at all, other than myself or the backup being here if I'm not.   Everyone else in here is important, but we can operate without them if needed, we've got a deep bench in that way.    I'm really the only one that's a must have, as my backup is still really green.   Still, I think he could get through it, or I could deal with whatever CARs it would trigger.    Everyone else is free to take vacation time when they want to take a vacation....

[GMO]

Agree.  When I worked at a site with 10 days of unannounced audits per year, we had three people who could lead an audit, a fourth at a push.  Make sure that you have enough people trained and set rules around holiday, i.e. who can and can't take off time simultaneously.  

[Lynx42]

My backup and I don't schedule time off on the same days during our audit windows, and keep each other informed of the days we want before we actually schedule anything (even outside the audit windows).  Neither of us have yet actually scheduled any time off during the window.  SQF if only a 2 month window, which I super appreciate knowing that BRC is a 4 month window.

 

Can you get with HR about vacation blackout dates, or to limit the number of people in the department that can schedule at a time?  My husband has blackout periods where he can't take vacation at all (Oct-Dec) and the rest of the year is first asked first granted with only 2-3 people allowed to be scheduled at the same time, so he locks in his dates early, and I (for peace of mind) make sure it's outside my company's general audit windows. 

[kfromNE]

My backup and I don't schedule time off on the same days during our audit windows, and keep each other informed of the days we want before we actually schedule anything (even outside the audit windows).  Neither of us have yet actually scheduled any time off during the window.  SQF if only a 2 month window, which I super appreciate knowing that BRC is a 4 month window.

 

Can you get with HR about vacation blackout dates, or to limit the number of people in the department that can schedule at a time?  My husband has blackout periods where he can't take vacation at all (Oct-Dec) and the rest of the year is first asked first granted with only 2-3 people allowed to be scheduled at the same time, so he locks in his dates early, and I (for peace of mind) make sure it's outside my company's general audit windows. 

 

I approve their requests. I can deny if I wanted too. I will if too many people request the same date. I have tentative vacation set, audit pending, during that window. But only because my sister and her family are visiting my parents, who live near me, for the first time is 2 years. 

 

I have an idea of what my plan is going to be but I wanted to check with others to see if it was on par. 

Edited by kfromNE, 02 June 2025 - 08:05 PM.

[MDaleDDF]

FDA audits worry me more, simply because they can shut us down if they want.    I've actually been off work for quite a while with health issues, and the first Monday I'm back, the FDA pops in for unannounced, lol.   Did the audit, passed without any issues, and had to be off work for a week again that Wednesday.   Dodged a bullet!

[GMO]

The problem we have in the UK is about 20 years ago, a lot of factories were dedicated to 1-2 retailers.  Even BRC wasn't unannounced back then.  The only audit I had at the time which was unannounced was (then called) PIU (Tesco).  

 

Then loads of other retailers bring in unannounced or insist on unannounced BRC.  Before you know it you have several.  Then you have several retailers because the landscape of food production changes.  In each of their standards, I kid you not, none will leave site if there is already an auditor there unless it's BRC (and even then I'm not sure M&S would leave as they don't recognise it as a worthwhile standard.)

 

I can't remember whether it was 3 or 4 auditors we had on one day at some point.  I think it was 3.  

 

At one point the same metal detection record was shuffling between three meeting rooms.  Actually no, two meeting rooms and my then Technical Director's office as we didn't have another one nice enough (lol).  What value is there in that the same metal detector operative was being checked by three different people.

 

We nailed it.  We were so audited to death at that factory that we just got really good at it.  Which to be fair to the site, they weren't bad at food safety either but being good at audits doesn't necessarily mean that.

[TimG]

I'd imagine it really depends on how many people you 'need' during that audit. For me, it was just 2 of us.

Thankfully it's just SQF and FDA for me in the unannounced audit realm. I have one or 2 'big' customers who have it in their purchasing as a clause, but it has yet to ever happen and if it does then it does.

This is the first facility I have been in where I solo'd the SQF audit (I usually have a document runner/retriever) and it was surprisingly fine. My assistant did the daily stuff she does for me when I'm on vacation and I did the audit.

[KellyQA]

FDA audits worry me more, simply because they can shut us down if they want.    I've actually been off work for quite a while with health issues, and the first Monday I'm back, the FDA pops in for unannounced, lol.   Did the audit, passed without any issues, and had to be off work for a week again that Wednesday.   Dodged a bullet!

 

I got really lucky this year and had an unannounced SQF audit AND an unannounced FDA audit on the same day. Both went really well. No issues with FDA and just a handful of minors with SQF. That was beyond stressful though. Glad it went well for you!

[jfrey123]

Some companies I've worked with were jerks, no vacations for any supervisors or managers during SQF window.  Others were smarter and just made sure a department's manager and direct assistant or supervisor were not on vacation at the same time.  In a well-regulated FSQMS, there should be sufficient cross-training that one person from a department being out won't tank the department during an audit.  OP, if you've got sufficient training in place and confidence in your team, just be careful allowing multiple vacations at the same time.  Worth mentioning, even outside of your unannounced window, you and your backup should never both be off on vacation at the same time.