Food Quality Magazine ISSUE 03 | JULY 2016
Like policies , objectives and implementation need to be communicated to the personnel of the organisation . This often means their motivation , seeing their company introduces improvements and goes in the right direction . In some cases it is recommended to connect an objective with employee bonuses . Then communication of the results of the objective is even more important . In many cases indicators showing the objectives ‘ fulfillment are used , in this case including for example results of hygiene of operations , compliance with principles of good manufacturing practice and good hygiene practice ( swabbing , results of internal inspections ). Benefits include the possibility to monitor and evaluate such parameters for individual employee groups such as production sites , production lines or shifts .
Objectives are usually defined for shorter periods than policies , which in a great majority of cases applies for several years . The objectives are most commonly defined for a calendar or fiscal year of the organisation . In many cases objectives are evaluated several times in the course of the year , which is certainly correct and necessary preventing negative surprises at the end of the year . IFS standard requires evaluation of objectives fulfilment at least once a year . In most cases this is done as part of the management review , which is described later ( part 4.1.4 ).
Examples of deviations and nonconformities :
• Quality policy did not include ethical aspects and product legality ( deviation )
• Quality policy was not communicated to the employees ( deviation )
• Some quality objectives are not measurable ( improvement of box identification , improvement of work conditions ( deviation )
• The quality objective for total turnover of the company was different from the company`s budget ( deviation )
• One of the corporate objectives ( maintenance of IFS certification ) was no improvement for the company who already holds the IFS certificate ( deviation )
4.1.2 Corporate Structure
The company must have a clear and understandable organisational structure showing the subordinate relations . The requirement for the organisational structure is that the quality and food safety management department directly report to the senior management of the company . In large and medium-sized companies the quality department may be a separate function , while in smaller entities it may be cumulated with other functions .
Senior management of the company appoints an employee responsible for introduction and maintenance of the quality and food safety management system according to IFS standard , a „ representative for IFS “, which is usually but not necessarily the quality manager .
Prepare job descriptions for employees whose work has an effect on product requirements , which is virtually all employees . Job descriptions may be prepared for individual employees or for positions and communicated to the employees .
It is necessary to define methods of deputisation for key functions in case of their absence . Include this in the job descriptions or in a separate document . Some companies address substitutions by individual announcements , for example before leave , but this does not apply to cases of unexpected employee absence ( illness , accident , stay - even short term - in a place without phone signal etc .). This is why deputisation rules should be defined in advance .
This section includes the first Knock Out ( KO ) requirement concerning communication of responsibilities to employees and monitoring of results of their work . The first part of the requirement , concerning communication of responsibilities is usually addressed by a combination of various methods from job description for the individual employees via internal documents including work procedures and work instructions , internal communications including internal announcements , intranet , meetings on various management levels , notice boards , instruction of subordinates by their superiors and orientation and refreshing training of new and existing employees . Control mechanisms then include continuous supervision over employees ( shift leaders , middle and senior management ), internal inspections , internal audits , checks in the context of the HACCP system etc .
To be able to implement the quality and food safety management system according to IFS standard and continue to fulfil its requirements the senior management must plan and allocate funds for these activities . The auditor studying figures of the company budget cannot assess this well . Most companies prepare kind of financial plan and are able to prove planning of funds for maintenance , training etc . Mainly drawbacks are found in other areas such as condition of manufacturing and storage space , sufficiency of training programmes etc . A deviation to requirement 1.2.7 is issued in the case of accumulation of problems in these areas showing that the real problem is insufficient allocation of corresponding financial resources .
Requirement 1.2.10 is rather hard to meet , especially for companies exporting their products to countries outside the European Union . As for the legislation of the European Union , a database free of charge shows legal documents available on www . eu-lex . europa . eu .
The situation is much more complicated in the area of export where the company must prove knowledge of and compliance with requirements for food in the country of the export destination . It is necessary to consider goods declarations on the package in more languages . Even if such a company does not export the products itself , it needs to provide compliance of these declarations
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