ISSUE 03 | JULY 2016 Food Quality Magazine in all languages used . This is because an independent distributor still may take the product to a foreign country and sell it there without the manufacturer even knowing .
The issue of foreign legislation is usually addressed via subsidiaries or distributors in the given countries . If this is not possible then company uses advisors focused on these areas .
The last requirement of part 1.2 is new to IFS standard , but duplicates the requirement for crisis management . The company must inform its customers about all issues related to in compliance with product specifications including findings by state surveillance bodies . This area is described in detail in the crisis management chapter ( 5.9 ).
Examples of deviations and nonconformities :
• Non-transparent organisational structure ( with the site manager mentioned 3 times ) ( deviation )
• Obsolete organisational structure ; not including new positions of business representative and laboratory technician ( deviation )
• Unclear organisational structure , head of maintenance and invoice clerk are subordinate to the company director as well as to the head of production ( deviation )
• Job descriptions of warehousemen are missing ( deviation )
• List of legislative requirements includes cancelled items ( Decree 294 / 1997 Coll ., Decree 298 / 1997 Coll ., 49 / 93 / EC ) ( deviation )
• Procedure OR003 did not include definition of deputisation for shift leader function ( deviation )
• Job descriptions of shift leader and maintenance staff lacked clear specification of responsibilities for particular parts of HACCP system ( deviation )
• Packaging line operators lacked awareness of requirements for record keeping of manufacturing checks ( deviation )
• IFS representative was not appointed ( deviation )
• Company management did not allocate funds for fulfillment of the requirement for products ( reconstruction of the floor and the expedition ramp )( deviation )
4.1.3 Customer Focus
One word has been changed in chapter 1.3 of the standard , version 6 , namely that the procedure for identification of fundamental needs and expectations of customers must be documented , i . e . in writing . Until version 5 implementation of the procedure sufficed .
The procedure aims at ensuring the company knows requirements and expectations of its customers , assesses them and considers them in its processes . From the viewpoint of ISO 9001 standard this requirement is similar to the requirement for contract review . It is especially necessary to assess whether the customer has specific requirements exceeding the legislative scope . Frequent requirements include qualitative or quantitative requirements , particular types and frequencies of analyses , certifications according to the standard required by the customer , logistic requirements , specific packaging methods etc . ( e . g . one of the retailer does not accept the negative weight tolerance permitted by law ). Before approving such requirements the company must assess their feasibility and transfer the requirements to its documentation including specification of the relevant control mechanisms .
The needs and expectations of customers must be checked on a regular basis together with customer feedback related to the supplied products and related services . For that reason companies perform customer satisfaction inquiries either in the form of questionnaires delivered to the customers by post , email or filled out in the course of customer visits . There is a recent trend towards automation of this activity including the actual laborious evaluation of the questionnaires . There are internet questionnaires for that purpose , currently available to all organisations . The customer receives an e- mail with a link to the web site where the questionnaire may be easily filled out and sent by a click . The return rate of these questionnaires is higher than in the case of printed questionnaires . Another significant benefit over printed questionnaires is the fact that the program evaluates the results automatically in the form of diagrams and tables , allowing export of the results to the . csv format for further processing .
To meet the requirements of IFS standard it is necessary to define objectives concerning of fulfilment of customer requirements or customer satisfaction ( see part 1.2 ), and evaluate them at least annually ideally in the context of management review .
Examples of deviations and nonconformities :
• The company had no procedure for identification of customer needs and
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