Transcript SAI Global Assurance Services

SQF Americas
Auditor Calibration Webinar
15 October 2013
Agenda: SQF Quarterly Calibration Call
• Introductions
• Recap topics from last meeting in July
• SQFI Quarterly Customer Survey Results
• SQF Professional 4 hr Update Webinar Summary- Sept.
• New Definitions of Exempt & N/A
• Take prof. update online: $150, by Dec. 31
• Common Tech. Concerns:
• Accept only thorough longterm Corrective Actions by Clients
• SAI and SQFI contacts for BCP and Recall Plans
• Auditor Response to Audit Review Findings- QTools
• Sign Off in QMI Direct for this meeting
• Next Meeting Call Wed. Dec. 11
Introductions
• Kristopher Middleton now Technical Manager for many food
programs: FSSC, HACCP, other 2nd party & SQF
• Welcome new SQF auditor Randy Gaiss
• Meet your fellow auditors- assignment
• Who on our team is the only auditor registered in Cat 32 for
Pet food?
• Who on our team used to be an Emergency Medical
Technician?
• Who on our team is also a tax accountant?
• Who is getting married next week?
Recap from July Calibration meeting
• Audit Process Flow, Timeline and Review Process
• Auditor required to notify Anne when corrective action review completed
and audit ready to close; please include SAI Audit #
• Added requirement to review entire facility regardless of scope of
certification
• Facility required to report all regulatory warning letters & recalls to
SQFI
• Common Technical Concerns on Audits:
1.
Incomplete corrective actions being accepted by auditor
Need to ensure facility does long term or root cause analysis of the issue to
prevent recurrence; per code 7.1
2. Inaccurate/missing information for 2.1.6 for recall & regulatory
notifications- SQFI contact and SAI contact
SAI ExpectationsDeadlines & Documents
Audit Completion Date= Day 0
Load Audit into SQF database Reliance by Day 5,
AND Attach Audit Documents in QTools
Corrective Action Acceptance: At latest, Day 14 (major); Day 30 (minors)
AND Submit Package in Qtools,
AND email Anne when ready
Certificate Decision Made by CB: Day 45 at latest,
and issued by cert team
SQFI Quarterly Customer Survey
• Kudos- Nadia, Dan, Ishtiaq- all 10’s!!
• “Very objective”
• “Very impressed with his/her professionalism”
• “He did a great job; did not cut us any slack!”
• “Fair findings that we recognized as gaps in our system”
• “Auditor was very clear during audit where deficiencies were found & there were
no surprises during exit interview”
• “She was very clear that her role was to challenge our SQF system and not to
provide advice”
• “Overall a very positive experience with auditor”
• “Impressed with how quickly auditor understood our business”
• “Non-conformities found were reasonable and will make us improve”
SQFI Quarterly Customer Survey
Room for Improvement:
• Communicating with Clients Professionally
• Audit Time Management : 80/20
 “Auditor should refrain from expressing political opinions unrelated to audit; it
is not fair to auditee to express personal opinions”
 “Auditor was condescending when reviewing our verification documents”
 Auditor did correlate well with other auditors from the same CB”
 “Auditor never reviewed our outside lab services in the 21 hours he was at our
facility and we did not know there was a minor scored until we got our report.”
 “Auditor had big time management problem during audit, and did not post our
audit until day 21 after the audit”
Communicating Professionally w/Clients
Concerns:
Client felt auditor was condescending
Auditor made off hand political comments
Auditor refused to follow facility’s procedures for guests
Best Practices:
Keep conversation professional, friendly (weather & sports)
Avoid controversial topics- politics, unprofessional comments
Always follow facility’s procedures as a guest
Show respect to the facility team
Focus on the audit standards
Facility Audit Time Goal: 80/20
Auditing: Collecting
evidence,
interviewing,
facility walk, record
& doc review
Report Writing
20%
80%
SQF Professional Update Webinar 2013
• Conducted on Sept. 18th
• Please enroll and take the webinar on your own, & expense
the cost $150. Deadline December 31, 2013 to complete the
webinar and short exam following it. (Those who are attending SQFI
conference in November and who already took update on 9/18 do not need
to enroll)
• To enroll, email Henok at SQFI, to pay and get the link to
webinar: [email protected]
• Take notes- there is an exam at the end!
• Please email evidence of completion of webinar & exam to
[email protected]
2013 SQF Professional Update- Key
Points
Q: What is the difference between the terms “Exempt” and “N/A”?
As defined in the SQF 7.1 code glossary Appendix 2, the term Exempt is used
when an element of the SQF code does not apply to the SQF system in the
operation and the operation has submitted a written request to the certification
body prior to the audit, to exclude that element. For example, if the operation
has no cold storage facilities then elements under 11.6.1 would be exempt.
(Note: In this example, facility would not have to submit a written request if they have no
cold storage; only if they want a specific requirement excluded due to an alternative
procedure; for example air dryers instead of paper towels at hand sink.)
2013 SQF Professional Update- Key
Points
N/A should be used when the element does not apply during the
audit due to a previous non-conformance. N/A indicates that the
operation is responsible for implementing those elements when
developing the corrective action plan for the element marked
N/A. For example: If the facility did not develop a business
continuity plan, element 2.1.6.1 would be marked as a Major NC
and the subsequent elements (2.1.6.2, 2.1.6.3 and 2.1.6.4 would
be marked as N/A. However, the facility would be responsible for
addressing elements 2.1.6.2, 2.1.6.3, and 2.1.6.4 in their
corrective action plan.
**However, within module 2 many elements are mandatory
elements that cannot be reported as ‘not applicable’ or ‘exempt’
and must be audited and compliance/non-compliance reported.
Common Technical Concerns
• Audit Review Findings Process Revised
• Reliance Database Challenges
• Fostering Thorough Corrective Actions by Clients
• SAI and SQFI contacts for BCP and Recall Plans
Auditor Response to Tech Review
Findings- Revised- in Qtools Only
1. Upon receiving automated email from Qtools/Navision, go in
to audit card and add brief note for each item you corrected
in the reason card, and enter date you acknowledge the
review findings.
2. Attach any corrected documents in Qtools as part of the
correction for the finding. Sync.
3. TM reviews & moves audit to Corrective Action phase in
Reliance for client to enter CAs, and completes the package
review in Qtools/Navision.
Reliance Challenges
• Reliance automated notifications not working for auditors & CBs
• Some clients (but not all) are receiving notifications
• Reliance support team working on issue; no short term fix
IMMEDIATE ACTION:
• Communicate with your facilities by email
• When rejecting a CA, email the facility to request them to attach
more evidence in Reliance
• Communicate by email with Anne when CA review complete
Fostering Thorough Corrective Actions by
Clients- Corrections only should be
rejected!
Issue
Correction
Corrective Action/ Root Cause
Unclean Machine
Machine Cleaned Pre/Post/PM checklist, Retraining,
Frequency, Internal Audit
Expired Product
Product
Discarded
Retraining, Policy/Procedure, Internal
Audit
Unlabelled
Allergen
Labelled
Retraining, Allergen Policy/Procedure,
Internal Audit
Holes in Wall
Repaired Wall
Facility Walkthrough Checklists,
Maintenance checklist, Internal Audit
Employee Jewelry
Removed
Jewelry
GMP refresher training frequency,
policy/procedure
Common Technical Concerns: Contacts
for SQF Recalls and BC Plans
When writing a non-conformity for 2.1.6, please ensure the
correct information is included in the corrective action. Many
auditors are accepting CAs with incorrect information for the
recall contacts.
• SQFI contact: Section A 5.3 of SQF Code:
[email protected]
• SQF CB contact @ SAI Global:
Anne Cooper
[email protected]
[email protected] (coming soon)
QMI Sign Off on Today’s Webinar
Participation
Log in to QMI Direct and find the SQF Quarterly Auditor
Calibration Training file and sign off and date that you
participated.
These slides will be there for you to review and save.
Next Meeting
December 11, 2013
8:00 PM Eastern
By Webinar
Questions/Comments?
Action Item Reminders:
• Send Anne email with Qtools Audit # when corrective actions
are all accepted by you and ready for closure.
• Sign off on this meeting in QMI Direct by Oct. 31, 2013
• Take SQF professional update webinar by 12/31/13
• Email Sharon Cornelius with professional update certificate of
completion
• Submit completed audits to Reliance within 5 days from end
date of audit
Thank You!
SAI Global
Anne Cooper
Certification Manager, Agri-Food- Americas
Phone: 1-704-726-8870
Email: [email protected]
www.saiglobal.com/assurance