Deming circle and Certification management

Certification management

As a food company, you have to take food quality standards into account.
Both business-to-business customers and retailers often require a supplier to be certified to a standard recognized by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI): BRC Food, IFS Food, FSSC22000 or SQF. It is therefore important to make managing this certification part of the business: certification management (CM). When we apply the Deming circle to certification management, the following steps apply:

Deming circle: Plan

Ensure that the certification process is agreed upon according to audit protocol:
The scheme owners impose an audit protocol on the certification bodies, which they must adhere to. In the certification process with the customer, the resulting agreements are recorded in the contract and the planning of the audit.

Deming circle: Do

Ensure that the certification process is carried out according to audit protocol:
The auditor must be qualified to perform the audit, and thus needs the qualifications for your products and processes. By this requesting qualifications prevents situations such as” “Hey, you are also heating the product, I am not allowed to check that”. The audit planning also states how long an auditor must be on site and in production. When the auditor deviates (in practice) from this protocol, the certification is jeopardized, but also establish the certifying body’s right to audit a scheme and eventually even the worldwide accreditation of such a certification body. Make sure that the non-conformities found from the audit are resolved and reported on time.

Deming circle: Check

Check whether the certification process has been reported according to audit protocol, so that you can be sure that there are no surprises. Read the audit report yourself and check the report for consistency with the implementation. Are the number of days on location correct and were all people mentioned in the report actually present? Are all HACCP and raw material hazards listed that customers want to see coming back? Also check the audit process again with the concluded contract, do you see the agreements reflected in the report and the invoice? Incongruities in visit registration, reporting and invoicing are still a year later observable and therefore potential time bombs for certification.

Deming circle: Act

Reports issues in the certification process that have not been carried out in accordance with the audit protocol. And make sure all of this is put in writing. In the end, you are responsible for purchasing the certification service from the correct certification body. It’s just like with your company’s financial reporting, the accountant might make a mistake, but it is your report and in this case: your certificate.