1. Senior management commitment
Business performance reviews
What’s required to monitoring your business’ performance against the business plan, using performance reviews and at least one business review.
The standards
This article is written to meet the following sections of the Standards:
| BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 | 1.1.3 Food safety and quality objectives
1.1.4 Senior management review meetings 1.1.5 Management of product safety, authenticity, legality and quality 1.1.8 Technical knowledge and information 1.2.3 Reporting product safety risks and non-conforming product |
| BRCGS Packaging Issue 7 | 1.1.4 Product safety and quality objectives 1.1.5 Senior management review 1.1.6 Management meetings |
| BRCGS Agents & Brokers Issue 3 | 1.1.3 Setting objectives and targets 1.2.1 Review schedule 1.2.2 Review process 1.2.3 Documentation 1.2.4 Product safety alerts |
| BRCGS Storage & Distribution Issue 4 | 1.1.4 Objectives 1.1.5 Reporting of issues 1.2.1 Review schedule 1.2.2 Review process 1.2.3 Meeting records 1.2.4 Operational meetings |
| FSSC 22000 Version 5.1 | ISO 5.1e)f)g) Leadership and commitment |
| IFS Food Version 7 | 1.4 Management review |
| SQF Edition 9 | 2.1.2 Management Review |
Your solutions for business performance reviews
Everything you need to implement an effective and BRCGS compliant system is here:
- Senior management commitment eDocs (which include business performance reviews).
- Business performance reviews mini training.
- Senior management commitment super course (which includes business performance reviews).
To make it super simple for you we would recommend the eDocs and the super course – then you’ve got everything you need to comply with all of section 1 (including business performance reviews).
The requirements
End-of-year business review
Management must attend a business review, to ensure that business objectives have been met.
The review must be planned and must be carried out at least once every 12 months.
End-of-year business review agenda
This must include evaluation of:
- Results of:
- External audits.
- Internal audit programme.
- The corrective and preventive action system.
- The complaints system and any customer feedback.
- Assessment of systems which:
- Identify non-conformances such as returns, rejections, wastage, testing, inspection and non-conforming materials.
- Control product safety, product defence, product fraud and process control.
- Any incidents, including both recalls and withdrawals.
- Review of the business plan objectives and completion of the SMART actions.
- Root cause analysis of any objectives that haven’t been met.
- Culture plan.
- Information review, business plan and set objectives and SMART actions for the forthcoming year.
- Resource requirements.
Performance reviews
To ensure that the business plan is achieved, performance reviews must be scheduled and carried out:
- At a set frequency for BRCGS Packaging.
- At least quarterly for BRCGS Food and BRCGS Storage and Distribution.
- At least 6 monthly for BRCGS Agents and Brokers.
It’s essential that performance reviews are carried out at all levels within the business, to allow information to effectively flow up and down through the reporting channels.
Reporting of issues
Staff must be aware that they need to report any issues relating to product safety, legality, authenticity and quality, to a designated manager, so that immediate action can be taken where needed.
This must also include a mechanism for proactive suggestions for improvement.
Records
Meeting records must be available for audit and include:
- Review of the business plan and objectives, including evidence that SMART actions have been verified.
- Root cause and preventive actions where objectives haven’t been met.
- Documentation of the forthcoming business plan and objectives.
Communication of the business plan, objectives and SMART actions to those who need them.
Updates to the requirements for BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9 are shown in bold italics.
BRCGS Food Safety Issue 9
There are two key changes to Issue 9 that impact performance reviews, which are:
- The term authenticity has been added, which means that both performance reviews and the end-of-year business review must now monitor progress to authenticity objectives.
- The culture plan must be reviewed at the end-of-year business review.
BRCGS Packaging Issue 7
There are no signficiant changes from Issue 6-7 that affect the clauses in this article.
Your next steps
To make the process as quick as possible, we would recommend you complete the senior management commitment super course and use the senior management commitment eDocs. The eLearning and eDocs contain everything you need to comply with BRCGS section 1 for senior management commitment, which includes business performance reviews.
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