NC against 4.8.3 Segregation of personal items from work clothing
We received the following non conformance against clause 4.8.3:
A cellar staff member was observed storing personal clothing inside the cleaning chemical store and not in the designated locker in the staff area as required.
I'm having a hard time with the RCA. The staff member know the rules and new it was not the right thing to do, but he was late and didn't have time to go to his locker.
How do I address this, since human error is not accepted as RCA.
You'll need to go through the full process, but at face value this looks like training is the likely root cause - that the staff member knows what to do but didn't do it suggests that the training perhaps hasn't sufficiently emphasised that the food safety systems and controls take precedence over pretty much everything, including being late.
Edit: without full details it's just a guess though, and not meant to be overly critical - we've all experience these types of things in audits at one point or another. If you're sure he knows the correct process then that is at least part of the battle won...
In this case (without knowing the full story), I'd issue a re-training and have this employee sign-off that they understand the policies. If this is caught again, it would be grounds for disciplinary action. If you're late, you're late. No reason in rushing around and not following food safety and employee safety policies because of it.
It's not human error if it was a choice to ignore trained procedure. RCA: Employee knew the procedure but didn't follow it. CA: Re-train, lay out future expectations and results of his failure to comply, get his signature to that effect and monitor.
Our biggest enemy during our audits has been ourselves. One point for one case of product sitting on the floor. One point for one light shield missing in one of 470 fixtures in the plant. One point for correction tape used on a shipping document (pick ticket). One for leaves sitting against the outside of the building wall (harborage) just before the snow hit. We're usually our own worst enemy. This year we kept it together and finally got a 98%.