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lhuff1

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Posted 15 November 2019 - 02:21 PM

Hi all - 

 

Ok we are currently a small facility producing from one machine - we organic documents 

 

0000s - Polices 

 

1000s - SSOPs

 

2000s - SOPs 

 

 

 

We are currently opening a second facility and I am trying to find best way to organize documents with least redundancy and work. I will keep all policies are they are generic and apply to both 

 

Do I duplicate the whole system for the new facility? Do I add numbering that makes the SOP and SSOP site specific ??

 

HELP! 

 

 

 



Njaquino

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Posted 15 November 2019 - 02:36 PM

Good Morning Ihuff1,

 

I recently went through this, this year except for we opened a distribution and 2nd manufacturing. Wow was this year hectic. What I did is, for the policies on the footer I just added the other address. In total I had 3 addresses. For the SOPs and SSOPs, I did duplicate them and add their specific address. I did this because not all were exactly the same. As far as numbering, I honestly kept the same numbers so I would not get confused but when I filed them I filed them under their specific site. 

 

I do not see why you can't add a specific number to ID. 



lhuff1

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Posted 15 November 2019 - 03:07 PM

Good Morning Ihuff1,

 

I recently went through this, this year except for we opened a distribution and 2nd manufacturing. Wow was this year hectic. What I did is, for the policies on the footer I just added the other address. In total I had 3 addresses. For the SOPs and SSOPs, I did duplicate them and add their specific address. I did this because not all were exactly the same. As far as numbering, I honestly kept the same numbers so I would not get confused but when I filed them I filed them under their specific site. 

 

I do not see why you can't add a specific number to ID. 

 

So say you had SOP number 2001 in both locations and then had 2002 in location A but not at location B. Would you use this number for only one location A and then skip this number at location B to avoid confusion ?

 

Thanks for your help!!! 



Njaquino

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Posted 15 November 2019 - 03:09 PM

So say you had SOP number 2001 in both locations and then had 2002 in location A but not at location B. Would you use this number for only one location A and then skip this number at location B to avoid confusion ?

 

Thanks for your help!!! 

 

Yes, because then when I was conducting training I would just refer to one number. 



BostonCream

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Posted 15 November 2019 - 07:40 PM

2 places I worked with:

 

A. one "doing business as" corporate company, 3 individual facilities (5min drive from each other). We did one SQF audit for all facilities, detailing each site location in that one audit report.

 

Most QA docs are universal btw 3 plants, and we use the corporate letterhead with document #SOP-001

Some docs such as cleaning procedure are different in each plant, then we use particular facility letterhead, #SOP-001a, SOP-001b, SOP-001c.

 

 

B. one "doing business as" corporate company, 2 individual facility in different cities, 2 separate SQF audits. 

 

QA manager here is in process of standardizing all QA docs btw 2 plants. Program docs will be the same, with corporate letterhead. All others will be plant-specific.


Edited by yiyi, 15 November 2019 - 07:43 PM.


FoodSafetyPlanet

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Posted 17 November 2019 - 05:09 AM

Hi Huff,

If the processes are more similar than dissimilar, I recommend using the same one and defining it under “scope”.

Another option is adding a . and location code to each SOP. Ie:

1010.CHI
1010.CIN



kenzml

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Posted 18 November 2019 - 04:28 PM

Hi lhuff1, 

 

I would recommend looking at how you will implement the training as well.

 

Will new employees be cross trained to be able to work at both locations? Or will they be trained to only work at one location? 

 

If they are to be trained for both locations, it may be beneficial to keep one set of documents and specify the differences within the documents. 

 

My previous experience is in the pharmaceutical industry and where I worked we had 4 different packaging lines. As many of the functions were the same, but there were minor changes, these variances were called out in the same SOP or on the job training document. Each of the packaging lines were assigned a different colour and so that section specific for that line would have a bolded statement at the beginning of the paragraph with the associated colour. The colours were also posted on the lines, and specific tools only used for that line were colour coded with tape or shrink wrap so it was ingrained across the board. For example, it could be like this

 

General instructions for both sites here blah blah blah...,...

 

FOR SITE 2 ONLY - ensure that the switch is placed in the on position before starting the mixing process

 

continue with general instructions......

 

You could also do something like the following

 

FOR SITE 2 refer to SOP-2-2100 (with the 2 representing site 2) for mixing process set-up procedure

 

-------

 

Both allow you to call out the difference in procedure but if your general processes are the same, this reduces unnecessary documentation. 

 

Overall, learn your processes and know the DIFFERENCES between the sites. If they are essentially the same, don't make work and duplicate everything since going through and making major updates will take more time to have to update the same document effective at the two different sites. If there is a procedure that is vastly different or not even applicable at one of the sites, pull that document out, assign a site specific code and make it its own document. 

 

I have learned the more redundancy you have in a documentation system, the more work you make for yourself and the team if that process has to be changed across multiple documents. You are more likely to miss a reference and increase employee confusion and potential NCs. 

 

 

GOOD LUCK tackling this and do what works best for your sites & employees. Ask management and the employees USING the documents so you can get the buy in you need to support you in this transition!!



resendiz_reyna

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Posted 18 November 2019 - 08:26 PM

hello

 

i work for a company that has to building one in Georgia and one in Colorado. 

 

we are similar in many aspects.

 

we use something call Dropbox where we share our SOP.

 

where we can we use the same SOP we just change the address. 

 

we go by the numbers of the question in the PrimusGFS and we put that in the footer of the documents, this helps us identified them better and keep more organisation. 

 

hope this helps let me know if you need an example. 

 

i will be glad to provide you with one. 





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