Establishing a Quality Culture with the SQF Quality Code

Tammie Van Buren: Okay, I have the top of the hour. We are going to get started. Thank you all so much for being here today. I'm very excited about this webinar. the quality code is very near and dear to my heart. I'm very passionate about it.

so I just love talking about the quality code. So we're going to go ahead and get started. And we always put our antitrust statement up just so that everyone understands that you are here as a participant. we are here to talk about quality and food safety. Those are topics we can talk about. we're going to shy away from sensitive topics such as price fixing and allocating markets and boycotts, anything that would get us in trouble with antitrust law.

So, we're going to stay away from that. If you would like a copy of that, feel free to reach out to SQFI and we are always happy to provide you a copy. but with that, we're going to get started. I'm going to introduce our speaker for today. This is Harmeet. she comes to us from Kiwa ASI, one of our certification bodies.

And, Harmeet, I'm going to let you introduce yourself and, then just take it away.

Harmeet Kaur: Thank you, Tammie. Thank you. Good morning. Good afternoon everyone. I am Harmeet. I'm the director of training and consulting here at Kiwa ASI.

I've been in the industry for over 18 years. And today we will be discussing an important topic that impacts our food safety organization. The connection between quality food safety and the business success. ASI a little bit about Kiwa ASI actually offers a full suite of safety and quality solutions. ASI became part of KA and international TIC company in 2023 and we are officially rebranded to become a Kiwa ASI and even though we have a new logo we have a new name our dedication to customers remains same and we still stand behind our slogan which we say we make certification and now training easy let's talk about this presentation or the topic that we are here for. Firstly, we will discuss why quality matters and why customer expectations have changed.

then we will also look at the difference between food safety and quality because although they are connected, they are not the same. And then we'll discuss why some organizations have not adopted this formal quality approach and what quality code provides, how quality culture can support your business success. And we'll also talk about the role of leadership here, employee engagement, measuring their quality performance and what practical steps organizations can take to begin their strength their quality journey and then we'll summarize and in the in the in the end we will have some time for questions and discussions. before we begin I would like to understand a little bit more about our audience and where everyone is in their SQF journey. So let's start with a quick poll and see does your facility currently have SQF Quality certification. The poll question should appear on your screen.

Please take this poll for us. All right. Thanks for participating guys. So does your facility have a SQF quality certification? Majority said yes, some said no. Some of you guys are said planning to and some of you said I'm not sure.

Regardless of where your organization is today, this webinar is designed to provide some value to you guys for your organizations who have already implemented quality system. This discussion may help identify opportunities for improvement and the folks that are actually considering the SP of quality. This will provide you understanding of the business value and what will the journey going to look like and those who are not familiar with this code this session will explain why quality management is becoming increasingly important in our food industry. So one important point I want to I want everyone to keep in mind through this throughout this webinar. Quality is not only a certification activity. Quality is a culture.

A company can have excellent procedures but without employee engagement, without leadership commitment, these procedures may not deliver the intended results. So why are we talking about quality? When we think about food companies, the first priority is always food safety and it should be. Poor safety pro protects our consumers, ensure products do not create harm. But when we look at our successful brand, we notice something important and that is customers do not remember what a that product was safe. They remember whether the product met their expectations.

Right? Think about your own experience as a consumer. If you purchase the same product every week, what makes you continue buying it? It is it only because you know it's safe? Probably not. you continue to buy it because it taste is consistent, right?

You like it, the appearance is what you expect. The packaging is correct. the product perform the same way every time. And that is a quality. So quality is what builds the customer consumer loyalty. As a consumer, you may never know how much effort went into your HACCP plan, your verification activities or your audit preparation, right?

But they will immediately notice if your product changes. And that is why quality is becoming a critical business focus. Let's talk about food safety versus food quality here. Although they are closely connected but they do serve different purposes. Food safety I'm sure everybody knows is this the product safe for the consumer. Right?

We focus on preventing our biological hazards, chemical hazards. We look into our physical hazards, how to prevent these hazards and any other risk that can cause harm. But quality is does this product meet our expectations right? It appearance, taste, texture, consistency, packaging, customer requirements. So a product can be completely safe, but if it still fail from a quality perspective, you know, nobody's going to buy it or they will probably reject it, right? For example, a bag of chips may be safe to eat.

But if the seasoning level changes, the texture is different or the package contain the wrong amount, customers may complain. So food safety protects safety protects the consumer and quality protects the relationship between consumer and your brand. So this is a really good question. Why companies don't adopt SQF quality? Right? If quality is so important then why haven't all organizations adopted a formal quality approach?

Now one common statement is we already have SQF food safety certification. So why do we need one more? Right? And the answer is that food safety certification and quality certification address different objectives. Right? Another reason is that organizations may see quality as an additional cost or additional audit requirement and but the better question should be what is the cost of your poor quality?

Cost of your complaint, rework, waste, return, lost consumers and damaged reputation can be much higher than the investment required to improve your quality system. Others might say well may believe that quality is already part of their culture. Right? The question is the quality documented? Is it measured? Is it continuously improving?

Right? Or is it dependent on individual employee doing the right thing? So, SQF quality code provides you guys a structural approach. Structured approach to make quality sustainable. So, what is the SQF quality code? It provides organizations a framework to establish and maintain a quality management system.

It helps organizations move from simply reacting to the problems towards preventing issues and continuously improving the processes. So quality code actually focuses on the areas such as understanding customer requirements, establishing quality objectives, monitoring performance, managing product consistency, reviewing your data and driving improvement. Important point is that quality cannot be dependent on one department. Quality must be integrated across the organization. You know your production impacts quality. Your maintenance department can impact quality.

Purchasing also can impact your quality. Warehouse leadership impacts quality. Everyone influences the final product. So why SQF specifically quality sorry why SQF quality specifically and not a homegrown quality program? And there are four reasons for that. First is this is the only GFSI benchmark quality code in existence.

No other benchmark program has one. So early adopters own a differentiator competitors can't match. Okay. Second is it stacks on whatever GFSI food safety certification you already hold. Third, it mirrors the SQF food safety code numbering and is assessed by your existing licensed CB certification body. No more new vocabulary, no more new provider.

And the fourth is that you can combine it with your existing SQF audit and share work like risk assessments and annual program challenges only counts once. So the lift is very small guys. If you are all you know most of the sites that expect if you already have the food code food safety then quality code is not going to be much of a work. what the certification pro pathway going to look like? if you guys are planning to adopt this quality code. So let's walk through the certification pathway step by step.

Step one is you're going to start with the gap assessment comparing your current practices against your SQF quality code requirements, right? So you know exactly where you stand. From there you build your quality management system documenting your quality objectives. You're going to have your roles. you're going to have a procedures lined up and then the next step is going to be training and engagement building awareness and ownership at every level at the site of the site and not just in the QA office. Once you guys have the foundation, you run an internal audit to test the system yourself before the official review.

Then comes the certification audit conducted by SQF licensed certification body and finally you guys going to maintain it. So ongoing surveillance keeps both certification and your system itself active and important. The important thing to remember here most sites aren't starting from zero. This pathway builds on the food safety system you already run. So that is an important thing to notice. If you guys already have one code which is a food safety, you are already on that path.

You just have to implement what quality code requires and it'll be an easy journey for you. So what is this journey? So now we know the difference between food safety and quality. Let's talk about the quality journey here. Many organizations begin their food safety journey because of you know because it's a customer requirement they're asking you to have. It is a regulatory expectations or certification need right.

So the first step is always compliance. organizations establish procedures. They implement control. We always train our employees and then we prepare. We have documentation ready records ready and we prepare for the audits. But successful organizations do not stop there.

Next step is moving from compliance to culture of continuous improvement. Right? In a mature quality system, ask are our processes effective? Are we consistently meeting our customer expectations? Are we identifying trends before they become problem? Are employees engaging in the improving quality?

So your SQF code supports this evolution. It helps your organizations move from a reactive approach where problems are corrected after they occur to a proactive approach where the risk are identified, processes are improved and the quality becomes part of every everyday's decision-m. So the goal is not to simply simplif achieve a certification. The goal is to create a system for you guys that continuously deliver consistent products and protects your brand. Why quality matters to your brand? Now this is an important question too.

Why many organizations initially view quality system as a requirement or because it's a requirement that's why we have to do it. But again if you guys successfully implement quality practices you'll that recognize your quality creates business value. Some of the benefits include it improves your consistency. Your customers are expecting the same experience every time they purchase your product. And as you guys know consistency builds trust. It also helps in reducing waste and rework.

I'm sure you guys have probably in the you know in the past or you know or your current organizations where we have to rework we have to rerun the lines we have to we have lot of waste that we have created. So this will also help you when your processes are controlled your problems are prevented and organizations can reduce the unnecessary cost and you got to think about labor cost too. If you're doing a rework, if you're generating lot of waste and you're, you know, or you're calling another shift now to fix the product or to rerun it, that is an additional burden on the organization. Better employee accountability. When your quality expectations are clear, employees also understand their role in protecting the product. stronger customer relationship.

Customers are more likely to continue working with the suppliers who consistently deliver reliable products and again last is not the least brand protection. A company reputation can take years to build but can be damaged quickly by quality failures. So quality is not just about meeting your specifications. It is also about protecting everything your brand represents. The quality is an investment and not just a cost. Let's take another poll actually.

Why? Where does poor quality cost your organization the most? Please take this poll. Where does poor quality cost your organization the most? Is it a waste complaint labor rework and or eventually lost losing business? All right, so we got waste and rework and complaints the most.

Again, regardless where we at right now, we need to you know, we need to improve our quality and this is a really good one cuz if you are already noticing that this is where it's costing us a lot because we are creating a lot of waste here. We get customer complaint customer you know they are returning the product and then you guys have to receive the product. So again labor cost labor will directly tied with that too right and then of course eventually it can lead to losing our business. The four cost of quality let's talk about money because money is where the business cases lives right quality cost fail into four fall into four buckets. Two of them are investment you choose to make which is your prevention which is this is where your training will come in pro in place your process design will come in place supplier qualification and appraisal your inspection testing and audits. The other two spend themsel whether you budget for them or not.

Meaning internal failure, scrap, rework, hold, any external failure could be complain. Now you're getting a lot of returns back. You're getting withdrawals, right? And lost consu customers. So here's an number to remember. Every dollar you move into prevention can reduce appraisal and failure cost by $7 to $10.

So the quality code is structured in a way to shift your spend from the right column to the left column. Right? So again, I think it's easy to remember this. Every dollar you invested in prevention can save $10 or more in your failure cost. So again, the goal isn't spending more time on quality. It's about moving that spend from the right column to the left column.

Most companies only see tip of this iceberg where we see the scrap, we see the rework again. We've been noticing a lot of complaints coming back because they show up, you know, on your reports. But the extensive part is under the waterline, lost customers over time, excess inventory we have now, we can't find a buyer because we, you know, we produced a lot and because of poor quality, now it's just sitting there. turnover and your reputation damage that never gets a line item. So studies put a typical company's total cost of quality to about 25% of sales and some reach 40 to 50%. So and if you think about it from sales perspective at a 5% net margin recovering $10,000 lost to a poor quality can take $200,000 right in a new sales.

So your sale teams work hard for the growth but poor quality quietly gives it away and that's how I think most of us are having difficult or hard time approaching or even you know talking to our senior management as well that hey why we need quality code because they think that okay and this quality code can actually help with these the waste that we are generating and the money that we are throwing out and that's why we need to build a quality culture. A quality culture exists when everyone in the organization understand that they have a role in delivering quality. Right? Quality is not the responsibility of a QA department just because they are quality department. Right? So you want to make sure it's influenced in every employee, influenced by every employee and strong quality culture means employees understand their expectations.

They feel responsible for identifying issues. If they already they if they see anything they can you know comfortable raising concerns like hey I think we are out of specification right we are I don't think so this is right you know most of us in the manufacturing we do some put some kind of like pictures also what is a good quality look like what is a bad quality look like if you see these please go ahead and reject it right but that requires training that requires lot of time from the management to train to teach what is good and what is bad Right? So employees they understand their expectations they feel responsible for identifying issues. They're comfortable raising concerns and then they also understand why this procedure matters. Okay. So if a production employee notice a small process variation may prevent much larger problem if they feel empowered to speak up.

So a quality culture create ownership. So instead of asking who caused the problem, we should ask how can we improve the process and that shift in the mind shift is very critical. Management commitment and leadership role. Leadership commitment is one of the most important elements of a successful quality system. So employee watch what leadership prioritize right? We always say lead by example.

So you it starts with our senior management, senior leadership. If leaders communicate that quality is also important but only focus on is production speed or cost reduction. employee receive a mixed message that one on one time or one side you're telling me that keep an eye on quality but then you're also saying we need to pack this you know this order in a given time and you're now rushing us right. So that's important to set a clear expectations, communicate what quality means for us, provide the resources whether it's a training, equipment, system, you know, we need investment in our people. Then reviewing performance. Leaders should regularly review quality data and improvement opportunities and of course recognize the success because employees should know that quality focused behaviors are valid in our company and quality culture cannot be created through procedures alone.

It requires leadership behavior. We need to demonstrate. We need to show that yes quality also matters to us and it should start with the leadership quality objectives and performance measurements. What gets measured gets improved and this slide is really proof of that. So you want to track things like customer complaints per million unit ship, right? For example, product return by dollar value and the root cause and your first time rate.

How often product meet specs at a release. So on time in full delivery by customer is another key one along with internal failures like scrap that how much rework are we having or how many hours are we holding to correct that. So your corrective actions trends matters because it's going to give you the picture of repeat findings that are sign of your system gap not just a one-off. Round it out with the customer satisfaction scorecards and survey trend and the cost of qualified quality tracked across your four buckets monthly. You don't need to track everything at once. So I think the idea is that you can pick four or five metrics, trend them monthly and bring them to the leadership table and then see okay right the idea is to drive improvement here and not just to you know u assign the blame because data is giving you lot of story whether it's an internal it's could internal issues internal gaps.

So the idea is that we are not blaming but actually doing some something about from this data. Now this slide is actually for the technical QA folks. process control and SPC. statistical process control sounds intimidating. It this chart looks intimidating but it's very simple. Pick your critical to quality attributes your customers actually complain about it.

They can be net weight. You know your weight is too low or weight. Of course if they're getting more they're not going to complain that but it is a cost to you guys right? But if it is less than what you're saying then yes seal integrity color could be another one right. So set control limits inside your spec limit limits so you can so you react when the process drift before product fail. So put the charts at the line where operators can plot and respond in real time and train your employees also train your people to react to the trends meaning runs shifts drifts right not to chase just a single point.

So one bad point could be is a noise but seven rising points are all are a warning right? So start with one line one attribute one chart and scale what works. So this really helps you guys to improve your quality over in over time you know and again this trend this trend analysis is giving you a really good picture how is our quality is where is going is it going upwards and it's looking great and it's we are improving or is it consistent or is actually going the other way around either way it is telling you a story and then we need to interpret those results and make sure we are doing the right thing. This is about mind mindset shift from reaction reactive to proactive. Right? Most sites we start on a reactive side fixing the problem after they happen.

firefighting repeating you know deviations we are looking at the root cause that never really got addressed and we think what is what is happening but in reality it's not the right root cause right we have not done a proper root cause find the what is causing this. lot of effort spent figuring out who to blame instead of what went wrong. So your quality code moves you towards in a proactive side preventing problems before they happen. That means identifying your risk early and analyzing your trends, improving processes systematically and preventing recurring permanently and not just patching at a given time at this one time and we should be good. Okay. So the toolbox is to get there includes root cause analysis, corrective action, trend analysis, and employee feedback.

And here's the key takeaway here. This shift from reactive to proactive is exactly where certification stops being a compliance exercise and actually be starts becoming a competitive advantage. None of the this sticks without training. we need to make sure training we are providing training. I mean competency not just the awareness. So start mapping roles to the requirements meaning your operators your line leads your maintenance and receiving all touch quality differently right so train by the role more all of these departments are playing a different role they are handling things differently but at the same time we still have the same goal to make our product you know with a consistent quality.

So build the real skills. A line lead should be able to read a control chart and not just signing a training log for example, right? Verify on the floor, watch the task being performed and ask the why and refresh training when your metrics are slipping not just on the you know annual calendar. finally close the loop when the same deviation keep recurring. That's the training finding you know feed your complaint and deviation trends straight back into the training plan and make sure that everybody understand this why we are doing this why are we capturing the data what is it us is it telling us giving you know a big picture here and what can we do to improve now well return of investment because quality isn't just a cost it is a chain reaction so when you start with the investment which leads to the better processes is your better processes creates consistent product and your consistent products leads to satisfied customer and satisfied customers return into repeat business right and repeat businesses drives your brand growth. So each step funds the next.

The return compounds over time. So the way I would frame it for you guys that you can point it out, you know, you can point on a budget. typically we are looking at oh it's going to cost us a lot of money. But poor quality on the other hand is a percent percentage of your sales and that's much harder number to control once it's already showing up in returns showing up in your complaints on the last customers. So there is a definitely return on investment when we have our quality code and again if you have the right mindset you have right team then yes it will definitely benefit you. Well, this is also important and was this was also new for me because I wasn't aware and I don't know how many of you guys are aware the SQF quality shield and this is a really great u something that like I said the quality mark from the SQF that you guys can take advantage of the this is an added plus most people don't know about the SQF quality shield once you certify the shield appears on your certificate as we all know and your license to use on it your marketing material your website and your stationary but most importantly on your product packaging that's the shelf lever differentiator every other part of your quality system is invisible to the market so the shield is one piece of your buyer and consumers can actually see it's independent again third party proof of quality commitment not a self-declared claim so it's only GFSI mark of quality that you guys can put in your product and that can directly influence your purchasing decision.

Like I said, this was also new to me. Meaning again, I don't think so none most of us knew about that and I think this is a really good plus point and really great point for us that yes guys if we are certified we can use the Quality Shield and that can also put us a little bit ahead in the game meaning our c it will bring lot of you know trust between with us with our consumers and our customers. Common barriers to implementing a quality culture. So now let's be honest why organizations struggling with this and the most common one is quality is only Q is responsibility and ownership typically stops right there at one department door instead of spreading throughout the site. So right along with that side there's the lack of management involvement which sends employee mixed messages from the top right because we are rushing them we are running we're telling them finish the load or finish our you know this next shipment but we are compromising with our quality right so we need to do that add limited employees awareness procedure exist on paper but people really don't understand why they matter so we need to do a little bit more work in terms of training meaning and just not employee awareness just the surface level but actually deep dive into that and then say hey this is why quality also makes a difference please pay attention and then provide them the right tools then there's an audit trap focusing only on passing the audit which gets you the compliance without culture so we need to shift that mindset and then again as we said earlier no measurement of quality performance so what isn't measured can't be improved so The solution is to have all of these in the is the same make quality everyone's responsibility and not just one department meaning just not saying hey QA there's one more thing for you guys to do right so that's not the right way to handle this it's everyone's responsibility but let's let's look into this case study really quick a pack snack manufacturer fully SQF food safety certified they are passing every audit with no major finding Yet the so why were customers still unhappy and the problem is they had recurring complaints inconsistent product weight appearance month after month it came from to a head with retail returns key retailer partners sent product back citing quality issues even though site has passed their food safety audit nobody could explain the disconnect because there was no trending we they never looked at customer complaint Complaints were handled at one time and then they forgot. they never found the root cause.

They never tracked systematically and underneath all of it the teams were working in the silos. QA is working separate. Production is working separate. Customer service rarely comp compared the nodes and again frankly leadership goes back to that has started to see this as just a cost of doing business rather than something that could actually be solved. And again since if you are already in the food safety you know with the food safety code you guys are trending the complaints typically we do document the complaints as a food safety versus quality right because the corrective actions might be different and the react reaction time is could be different but again like I said I think most of us we are doing the work it's just a matter of handling this piece and you can have the SQF quality code as well and then again quality the complaints are already and I had actually personally felt and I have gone through this that complaints were coming but nobody there was no communication nobody was explaining anybody nobody was informing any department that hey we're getting lot of quality complaints they thought if food safety complaints are coming [clears throat] we will red flag it and we will flag it to the food safety department and then so I've seen that and that's why we always say guys quality is also makes a difference quality will also play a very important role control. So please keep in mind that if you receive any customer complaints even its quality let's trend it let's document it let's find the root cause and again internally let's improve it applying the SQF code if you guys are planning to go for the SQF quality code then first is assessment you map complaints returns against your gap assessment and that's what when you guys you might discover there's no shared quality metrics across the shift nobody was speaking the right language age meaning same language about quality.

Second is implementation. You build a real quality management system with defined objectives. What are our standard checks? What is clear ownership at each stage of our production? And then the third is culture. You guys train your frontline employees to flag issues early and not after the fact.

Because as just as important, you guys give supervisors authorities to act on the trends. you know not just again the mindset is to pass the audit when assessor showed up or the inspector shows up and again same plan people so what change was the system around them right so that's why again SQF quality code is not that far from what you guys have already you know have implemented and then in terms of audits so there here is what the system actually delivered complaints dropped because root causes were tracked and addressed instead of recurring month after month return decline and the key retail relationship actually strengthens as a result. You're also improving your consistency. You're getting less rework. You're getting less waste, more predictable out output and also ownership spreads across the site. Quality stop being seen as a just one department's job.

So the point I want to leave here with you guys is that your existing food safety certification was the foundation for all of this. Quality code didn't require you guys to start over. It just gave you guys a structure already to build on top of what you already have. So if you guys are planning to go for the SQF quality code, there's going to be really easy and it's going to be not a lot you know. so your road map integrating the SQF quality code. what does it look like for your site?

Here are five steps to integrate quality into product program that you already have. Again, assess your quality culture against your existing food safety programs. define your quality expectations that align with your customers, retailers actually require measure. Establish quality objectives within your existing system, not a parallel one. Engage employees at every level to build your real ownership, not just the awareness and improve. Review performance and make sure you keep improving continuously.

So five steps, none of them require you to start over. So again, if I were you, I will start with this. If you're planning to have a quality code or you're thinking about it or you probably already have quality code too but it's time of you know reviewing it looking at it and where we can improve our quality to have consistent product and where we can reduce our cost when it comes to you know returns holds rerunning rework scrap waste and of course employees as well employee retention too right with that said I think that's what we I all have for the quality code. if you guys have any questions, feel free to add in your Q&A in the chat. I am very thankful to SQF. I think Tammie thank you for guiding me on this quality code and it's very near and very close to you that it is

Tammie Van Buren: for those that don't know I started out in the automotive industry and so Q ISO 9001 that was where I started and so the quality code in a lot of ways align with the requirements in ISO 9001 you see that management view, you see that internal audit, you see that process control. so yeah, so for me it is something I'm very familiar and very passionate about. So feel free post your questions. We look forward to answering those. just a couple things to further enhance what Harmeet was saying is that there's no GMP module with this. So it's module two and it especially with Edition 10 we have further aligned the quality code with the food safety code making it even e even easier to do the quality code now.

And so, so for sure get in on edition 10 and, we've just made it as easy as we can, for you to get both of those certifications. a couple of the things if you all are already as we saw by the first poll SQF certified to the quality code over half of you I thought I could share some insights on the changes to Edition 10 cuz we you know hadn't really highlighted any of those. so we did add a backup practitioner for quality in Edition 10. That was something we had not previously had before. we did add change management which aligns with the food safety code change as well. we broadened the scope from just senior site management to site management to just further emphasize it's more than just the person at the top.

So your line supervisors, your leaders in the production area, they're considered site management too. So they should be included in that. So, we've got a couple questions come in. So, let's dive into those. so we've got one, is this a standalone audit as well? And is the quality code audited in Edition 10?

Is it mandatory? So, it is, it can be a standalone audit. Harmeet had a slide on that. It could be standalone if you want it to be. the major I will tell you the majority of our sites they do it as a part of their SQF food safety audit. However, if you are certified to one of the other GFSI programs, you can absolutely have a standalone quality audit to the SQF quality code.

so that is an option. It is not mandatory, but gosh, Harmeet as you said how many times it's the right thing to do, right? I mean it just makes sense for you to do it because it saves you in that cost of quality and that's the benefit. So for sure doing that and we do have Edition 10 quality out that was another part of that question. So check it out. There is a change document so you can see all the changes.

so the next question I'll throw this to you. What are some real life recommendations to get employees more involved in quality culture?

Harmeet Kaur: Great question Annie. when I was actually working in the manufacturing again we most of our focus is always about food safety food safety but as we know customer complaints returns were also coming and it's part of it you know it's usually happens the I would recommend starting with the engaging your employees their suggestions how can we improve also it's it's a starting point because typically what happen is that you know let's say we get a customer complaint that u color is an issue or size is an issue, right? And then we go back and investigate. But typically management gets in the conference room and they start doing a root cause without asking engaging the employees who are actually on the line right. So engaging them and asking them hey what happened that day or is it a consistent issue that we are overlooking right so going to the floor engaging your employees and asking them and involving them in the root cause that's a really good one I will start with that the other thing is that like I said when I was in the manufacturing when we were talking about the quality and then we were talking about the culture of quality we gave visuals to our employee what is good quality look like what is a bad quality look like right because it's a very subjective and there has been some instances where color to me looks okay it looks red but Tammie you might see as an orange right or it could be size to me right so there's quality is the depending on the product you have it can be very subjective especially when I was in nut industry what is a half what is a you know color what you know color it makes such a difference u and then it's so for them we want we want to Make sure we create a training which is consistent and we teach them this is a bad example this is a good example and we did actually that throughout our whole manufacturing whether it's a packaging department whether it's our QA department where we had this pictures of good and bad so then we can give them or they can make the decisions on their own rather than us going on the site meaning on the floor and telling them yes it is good or bad the other really good recommendation I have Annie for you when I was working in the manufacturing ing you know we have we do work in a silo production is on the other one hand QA is on the other side and QC is on the other side so we production always say you know what can you do another one more test can you check one more time can you check one more time because they don't agree with the results because now we're going to put place product on hold and it was a kind of like a war between production and the QA right so what we did actually production said that they said we going to take over QC's from you guys let us handle the quality from you. We are responsible for quality and if you don't make it on us it's on us not on you guys.

So that was the whole entire culture shift right there where production said we are responsible for making quality product not just you know because of course they had to finish it in certain hours or you know orders and then there's a sales team and there's bunch of other stuff you right you know how many departments are in the back in the be behind the scenes that is that is making this whole thing work. So when we did that meaning production took over oh it was like it was like you know you can just sit there and just laugh and just watch the show because now they understand why we were placing on hold they couldn't blame us anymore and they can't push my QC's you know can you do another sample can you take another sample because they were doing it pushing it to the point that we have to say okay pass [laughter] right so that was a huge for us in terms of culture

Tammie Van Buren: No, that's a great response. And you know, I like getting people involved. I like the idea of the visuals. you know, I worked in crackers and we actually learned how to take samples for like colors. And so we would take samples of the different range of color of the crackers and we put it into a block that you could sand and look through and it preserved the colors. And it was amazing that people could compare to see what range of color they were getting and they could make their own decisions as you said.

and didn't have to rely on the quality department to do it for them. So, yeah, absolutely. couple more questions. Chad, I would love to hear what product you make. You said you're a bulk manufacturer. So, if you could chat in what product you make, then I think that will help us address your question a little bit easier.

the other one is from SQF perspective. What evidence would an auditor expect to see demonstrating that quality culture is truly shared across departments and not just managed by QA? So, Harmeet, do you have thoughts on that? How can we what's an auditor going to look for? What kind of evidence are they going to see?

Harmeet Kaur: In terms of auditor, I think again the trend analysis, that's the first thing. Okay, let's look at your customer complaints. For example, not just the food safety perspective, but the quality side. How many returns you're getting? How many complaints you're getting? Let's say it's a taste profile or a color profile or whatever attributes you guys have.

Are we not meeting even specifications at all? Right? So, I will definitely start with a trend analysis and see is it moving in a positive direction or it's actually backfiring and if it is then why are we not doing something about it? I think right the root cause the corrective actions will come in place. How is your how is your cult quality looks like right now? Are you improving it consistently?

Right? I mean I can see maybe with in a month you have lot of issues but if you can track it and show month by month that yes slowly but surely we are moving in that direction I think your auditor will say that okay it's a continuous improvement but if you do not you're not able to show any trends you are not able to show any at all then your auditor might challenge you that okay how is your you know what you guys are how is it possible culture is actually going anywhere you do you have objectives do you even have KPI I right that to again to and I'm not saying every KPI has to be trends right but you should have at least objectives and KPIs about regarding quality and then manage it and able to show that yeah and then when SQFI trains auditors we train them to collect evidence in three ways records interviews and observations and so we have set up our guidance documents to align with that as well So at the very end you will see records, interviews and observations. And while we don't have a quality culture guidance document, I would definitely say take a look at our food safety culture document and that'll give you an idea of some of the things that the auditors have been trained to look at as far as records, interviews, and observations go. so and many of those involve a variety of departments and that going back to your question, how do you get everybody involved? So you know, one of the things I'm looking at especially is I'm I'm I'm asking for the capital project list. is the company investing money, time, resources into quality, into food safety?

We talked about that process control which is largely the biggest difference between the food safety code and the quality is that you have to have process control. Harmeet gave you an example of a statistical example. but there are many more process control tools out there. because really quality is a journey. That's the way we ask our auditors to look at it. and find where those sites are in their journey.

So some are going to have a lot of things to look at. Some are just kind of getting started. So, but definitely check out our guidance document on food safety culture and I think that will kind of give you an idea of what an auditor is going to be looking for culture in general. So, I think it has, so Chad came back with tomatobased sauces. Okay. So, I still think application of the quality code could still be done, you know, the same as if you were putting something in a box that you're shipping to retail.

so, it's just in bulk. So, you could still do process control. Harmeet talked about you know, you don't want to give away the product, but you want to make sure you have enough. So even in bulk that you know is a consideration as well or can be. So there's there's just so much there that I think can help with rework and scrap and all those things that Harmeet mentioned in the cost of poor quality. So I would spend some time there Chad.

I don't know Harmeet if you have anything to add but I'd maybe start with that cost of poor quality chart that you gave because the slides will be shared and just look at some of the examples that Harmeet had and I think maybe you'll get an indication of how you could apply it. Okay. And I

Harmeet Kaur: and to that point I have worked where we were also a bulk processor meaning you know everything is and it's not for the retail. Yeah. quality does also apply there because let's say if you had a weight limit of 2200 lb why would I give my product 2400 point pounds right I'm losing money right there but then I'm under that is another thing too so even if you're bulk you still have a weight that you are either by your customer requirements or it could be you know your country could be another one too if you're exporting your product and they want a certain weight limit right so just weight is just an example that if does it apply to the bulk processors the answer is yes you still have to maintain your quality ing.

Tammie Van Buren: Absolutely. All right, we have one more question that we will get to here. If a company does not pass its first quality audit, is that failure in quotation reflected anywhere in relation to the traditional SQF certificate? Well, Annie, I'm very confident that failure I for me I don't think that would even be an option for you because with the quality code it is pass or fail and so pass is based on you completing your corrective actions. So once you complete your corrective actions and submit those then you pass. So, so a failure I for me, I would just say is not even an option cuz I think you can do it once you get your corrective actions closed.

but to specifically answer your question, let's say you do go for the quality code, and for whatever reason you don't close out your corrective actions and you receive a failed rating, is that reflected on your food safety certificate? It is not. so there would be no harm done to your food safety. Now, in order to maintain your quality, you have to pass your food safety audit. but reflecting that failure of a quality audit is not something you would find on the food safety. So, I encourage you all to give it a try.

because I think once you get into it, I mean, I think Harmeet, you're going to find it's easier than what you think.

Harmeet Kaur: Yeah. Because it does align so much so with the food safety code. So, I think you're going to go, why didn't I do this years ago? you know, and, talking to your management about that cost of poor quality, you know, wouldn't you like to see us reduce scrap and complaints and, customer concerns and all that? I think I think you can get them to buy into it.

Tammie Van Buren: So, well, thank you all very much for joining us today. We are out of questions. so, thank you, Harmeet, for being with us. there is Kiwa ASI's contact information there. You can always reach me at compliancesqfi.com. if you have any follow-up questions, you can certainly share those with me.

so thank you all very much and we hope you found some very useful information. Thank you.

Harmeet Kaur: Thank you again guys and thank you Tammie and SK for this amazing session. Hoping to see you guys in the future again. You guys have a great rest of the evening. Thank you.