SQF Audit

We completed our SQF audit yesterday, with a score of 99!!

The only thing he dinged us on, what some of CA, I didn't go in-depth enough on root cause. 

Some of them were pretty minor (weeds growing near building, hard to come up with a root cause other than landscape service failed)

Congratulations, Miss Frankie! Some root causes cannot be analyzed that deep due to the nature of the non-conformance, so - don't get stressed out much. One auditor from NSF recently told me "Honestly, I never give my auditees zero findings, I'm proud to say I can always find something!"

Yes, congratulations! That's a great feeling.  I think if you get a 100% , there's nothing to aspire to! 

Coincidentally, we had our SQF audit through SGS last week (unannounced) and also got a 99.  Really proud of our production team especially, they are amazing.  

Congratulations Miss Frankie!

Thanks!  I will admit, this auditor was pretty lenient. This was his 3rd time here, so I know next year could be a tougher auditor.

I'm glad we've had a fairly strict USDC auditor this year.  Keeps up striving for better.

The USDC auditor we get next year is pretty lax (I've known him for several years from my last job, nobody here knows him) and they were happy to hear he's lax.  I'm not happy, as they will let things slide when they shouldn't.  Going to make my job harder. 

Congrats!  Lax auditors or not, a 99 is a score you should be proud of.

Root cause investigations are always somewhat difficult with auditors.  Some will claim you haven't gone far enough despite pages of documentation, others will literally accept a two sentence statement as sufficient.  Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of leeway and interpretations there.  Though for such a finding, it seems like the auditor just needed to "find something" since it doesn't look good on them to write 100's very often.

Specifically to your example of the weeds growing, sure the root cause can be laid at your landscaper's feet.  But it would also occur to me that there was some type of check that should've been performed by QA to make sure the landscaper is completing the tasks required, which is where internal audit programs can be developed to catch the issues before your auditor does.

Congratulations Miss Frankie, a great score! 

Kind regards,

Tony

Congrats!  Lax auditors or not, a 99 is a score you should be proud of.

 

Root cause investigations are always somewhat difficult with auditors.  Some will claim you haven't gone far enough despite pages of documentation, others will literally accept a two sentence statement as sufficient.  Unfortunately, there is quite a bit of leeway and interpretations there.  Though for such a finding, it seems like the auditor just needed to "find something" since it doesn't look good on them to write 100's very often.

 

Specifically to your example of the weeds growing, sure the root cause can be laid at your landscaper's feet.  But it would also occur to me that there was some type of check that should've been performed by QA to make sure the landscaper is completing the tasks required, which is where internal audit programs can be developed to catch the issues before your auditor does.

I agree, we had the same auditor last year (before I joined the company) and he gave us a 100%.  I think he felt he had to ding us on something as it would be pretty unusual to receive 100% in back to back years.    He could have found rust on a couple pieces of equipment if he had looked harder.

During the internal audit, I was really looking for something in each area for every department to take care of something.  Our operations guy is pretty young and laid back.  He doesn't understand the importance of SQF (or any of our audits really).  I had noted some torn weather stripping on an outside door, right next to some weeds and a used latex glove.  Our op. guy took care of the weather stripping, but 'didn't see' the weeds or glove. I did point that out to him and he didn't think it was a big deal. 

The weeds had been sprayed and were dead, just hadn't been cut down yet.

During the internal audit, I was really looking for something in each area for every department to take care of something.  Our operations guy is pretty young and laid back.  He doesn't understand the importance of SQF (or any of our audits really).  I had noted some torn weather stripping on an outside door, right next to some weeds and a used latex glove.  Our op. guy took care of the weather stripping, but 'didn't see' the weeds or glove. I did point that out to him and he didn't think it was a big deal. 

The weeds had been sprayed and were dead, just hadn't been cut down yet.

Its great that you had noticed the non-conformance before the auditor did! (even if it didn't get corrected)

Brownie points for you!

Hi Miss Frankie,

You are fortunate that yr "Ops" guy refrained from suggesting a Risk Assessment on Weeds. Probably coming with more experience.

Regardless my Compliments  on the 99 + Going with the Flow.

Hi Miss Frankie,

 

You are fortunate that yr "Ops" guy refrained from suggesting a Risk Assessment on Weeds. Probably coming with more experience.

 

Regardless my Compliments  on the 99 + Going with the Flow.

Well, first the Ops guy would have to know what a Risk Assessment was.  He's only 25 and this is his first time working in a food manufacturing facility.

We have the Facility grounds on our Master Sanitation Schedule. We check it monthly. One of the items for outside is that the grounds are kept up in good order, no weeds. You might want to add that to your Master Sanitation Schedule.

We have the Facility grounds on our Master Sanitation Schedule. We check it monthly. One of the items for outside is that the grounds are kept up in good order, no weeds. You might want to add that to your Master Sanitation Schedule.

We have 2 SQF practitioners here.  We both do a walk thru both inside and out, then compare notes before our monthly meeting.  
The grounds are noted on our checklist. We have a service that comes on a set schedule.  Supposedly, they spray the weeds, then once they are dead, they cut them down.  Our walk around was in between spraying and cutting down.  We've has a super dry summer, so while they did look dead, I didn't know if they were dry dead or sprayed dead.  Either way, I noted it and it's looked at every month.

Hi Miss Frankie,

i think you should be applauded for your attention to minutiae.

I think your ding was perfectly explained by Post 2. When auditing internally/externally I have always implemented this Guideline.