Your biggest challenges?

With ever increasing demands from customers, standards and regulations; managing and maintaining an effective FSQMS can be very demanding...

This month we're asking Food Safety Leaders about the challenges you face in your organization.  The hope is that we can share ideas and perhaps support each other in overcoming these challenges.

Select all poll options that apply to you.

To many customer requests. At least half of my day is spent chasing specs and certs. That being said, I'm only 6 weeks into a new role for a company that has never had a QA Manager in the 12 years it's been running so nothing is up to date... But we'll get there  :spoton:

Thankfully we don't get many customer audits.  I agree that the GFSI schemes were supposed to reduce customer audits, but it appears that it has not worked well "across the pond."  Here I'm seeing more customer validation requests from US/Canadian companies that are saying that if we go to GFSI, we won't even have to fill out most of the forms.  Hopefully, the trend will spread.

As a small company that is growing, the resources available to move the FSQMS forward are limited.  We have to budget and pick and choose.  We also have people who are of the "we've always done it this way" and "we've got to meet production quotas" mindsets.  It's not always easy to convince them that doing things the quality way solves problems that waste time in the long run.  I do have visions of people asking me what more they can do to help, but they are only in my dreams.

Martha

 Here I'm seeing more customer validation requests from US/Canadian companies that are saying that if we go to GFSI, we won't even have to fill out most of the forms.  Hopefully, the trend will spread.

That hasn't been my experience.  It seems no matter what you have somebody wants something different and now with big companies wanting to specify CB's the nightmare may get even bigger. 

As a small company that is growing, the resources available to move the FSQMS forward are limited.  We have to budget and pick and choose.  We also have people who are of the "we've always done it this way" and "we've got to meet production quotas" mindsets.  It's not always easy to convince them that doing things the quality way solves problems that waste time in the long run.  I do have visions of people asking me what more they can do to help, but they are only in my dreams.

 

Martha

Having worked with both big and small companies think this is challenging no matter the size as bigger often means more to cover.  It is not a good situation for anyone. 

The only firm I ever worked for that supported food safety and quality with a commitment ran out of money because of poor business practices, e.g., no mission, no plan, placing trust in consulting groups that delivered bad advice, not being aware that the book keeper was absconding with a half million dollars. All the rest only wanted to give the appearance of food safety and quality without any substance. I think the resources that might otherwise fund the implementation of programs for food safety and quality and keep them going get skimmed off by the few at the top.

There seems to be a disconnect between the science based individuals drawn to QA/QC and the people who are drawn to business and make the steering decisions for a company. One of the most hopeful advents I see in recent years is the call for management commitment in the GFSI benchmarked standards. When a facility has to actually have a written plan that demonstrates a devotion to food safety on the part of the company officers with the checkbook, it ups the probability of more robust and substantive food safety. I would like to see the requirement go even further. There is still too much subterfuge behind the veils of ownership groups, board of directors, parent companies and all the legal entities that let a few individuals hide and cheat food safety for profit.

If you kill or sicken people because you do not care about food safety, there is not much point in pursuing profit. You won't have any long term.

While I agree with your general point, I don't see a wanton disregard for food safety in the pursuit of profit by large or small business, and I have worked for both.

At a previous employer (family owned, 100 years plus in business), we were setting up systems for BRC certification. The constant drumbeat of "why do we have to spend money on this" was loud and clear.

A couple of presentations of "what happened to Company X" when they disregarded food safety was enough to change that mind set quickly. Are there bad people? Yes. Are there bad companies? Yes. Are there bad people and companies that don't care about food safety in the quest for the almighty dollar? There might be. 

Said company was not "bad" per se, the culture just needed to be changed. It's not like they ignored food safety, I got everything I needed. They just did not understand "why" the requirements were necessary. Not their fault, actually. They are not food safety and quality professionals. That's why they hire people like you and me.

Marshall

If you kill or sicken people because you do not care about food safety, there is not much point in pursuing profit. You won't have any long term.

While I agree with your general point, I don't see a wanton disregard for food safety in the pursuit of profit by large or small business, and I have worked for both.

I have to disagree here. The last company I was with was the same, small family owned business, except they really didn't care about quality. I was there to ensure they stayed certified so they could continue to sell and that was it. They wanted the bare minimum, anything I tried to change was fought tooth and nail to the point that I went on holidays for 2 weeks and when I came back they had reversed half of the changes I had implemented to "save time". And I wasn't trying to be hard-arse, I was just trying to implement the basics like recording cook/chill times, temping high risk products prior to dispatch, stuff like that. They would rather waste money on replacing poor quality or warm product then ensuring it was sent out properly to begin with. It was a nightmare of a company and in the end they offered me either 2 days a week or redundancy! Guess which I took. And I know they still haven't got a new Quality Manager yet and that was back in November. I can't wait to hear the outcomes of their next audit  :cool:

 

We also have people who are of the "we've always done it this way" and "we've got to meet production quotas" mindsets.  It's not always easy to convince them that doing things the quality way solves problems that waste time in the long run.

This is not a food industry only problem, and exists in just about every organization I have ever done business with.

Biggest struggle for me is finding time to do good, effective training. And at a small company holding production employees accountable is hard when there's so little staffing that succession planning is hard.

As a small contract packager we have a wide range of items, some of which are only in house for a short period of time. My challenge has been keeping the FSQMS current with the rapid influxes of new items, and convincing upper management that Yes, we really do need to review every single item, even if it is only in the building a couple of days and then never again. No, this is not a waste of time or "busy work", this is food safety.