Site Engineer Competence

I have an issue where the business wants to get our recently employed site engineer to carry out services of food processing machinery. The engineer has a lot practical experience with his previous employer and has demonstrated good practice but does not have many formal qualifications (some electrical certification). I have confidence he can carry out the repairs/maintenance however will be deemed competent to an auditor? Any thoughts appreciated.

Most time an auditor may or may not request to see the specialized training documentation to show that the engineer has the expertise to work on certain types of equipment - consider it on-going continuity training.

The last audit I attended the Auditor requested to see documentation that showed the maintenance engineers were qualified to effect repairs on a specialized type of sanitary liquid fill carton machine.

When the equipment was installed the company that made the equipment sent in two techs to train the staff on routine PM - in this case the manufacturer of the carton machine provided training documentation for each member of the staff and that was accepted by the Auditor.

I don't have an engineer and our equipment is not incredibly complicated.

I expect you would be better served to evaluate the end results of the work completed and measure against hygienic design criteria to prove a competent repair has been affected.  A good work order form can flush out the measures to be met at the completion of the job.

By this, you can also hire a service contractor and measure their competence of duty the same way.

I may be missing something but measure the work not the person.

Dave

I have an issue where the business wants to get our recently employed site engineer to carry out services of food processing machinery. The engineer has a lot practical experience with his previous employer and has demonstrated good practice but does not have many formal qualifications (some electrical certification). I have confidence he can carry out the repairs/maintenance however will be deemed competent to an auditor? Any thoughts appreciated.

Logically, the expectations may relate to the specific type of food business/machinery involved. For example refrigeration engineering is a specialised topic.