Document Control Training

Prepared for Vert Ltd.

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 Terms Of Reference
 A requirement
– This is a statutory, customer, ethical, moral or legal
undertaking needed in an organisation in order to be
allowed to operate smoothly
 A Document:
– This is a hard copy of a controlled form of a requirement,
standard, instruction or formats for records used as part of
the due diligence of a system.
 A record:
– This is a complete written account of an observation done
in the course of executing an activity
 A procedure:
– This is a set of steps that are predefined with the sole
purpose of standardising the way to do a particular activity.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Terms Of Reference Cont’d
 A manual
– This is a document that states the company’s intentions
(policies) of operating within the confines of all the
requirements guiding its operations.
 An audit:
– This is a systematic check that in the cause of operations,
all intentions required and mentioned in the manual are
being achieved, and that corrective actions exist for all
actions that contravene these requirements and
intentions.
 A policy:
– This is the position the senior management of a company
holds about how to go about a particular issue in the
daily running of a company.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Types of documents
 Requirements:
– These are the standards for which policies,
procedures, records and guiding documents are
designed with the purpose of fulfilling. Examples:
 The British Retail Consortium (BRC) Standard
 The Global Standard for Food.
 ISO 22000:2005(E) for food safety
 The Kenya Standard for Food safety
 The Ethical Trading Initiative Base Code
 The International Environmental Standards
 Local and International legal requirements
 The EUREP GAP Standard
 ISO 9000 Standard
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Types of documents Contd
 Formats:
– These are the preconceived and pre-designed
sheets in which observations are recorded.
Examples:
 The intake quality and quantity assessment record
 The online packing record
 The online quality assessment record
 The dispatch record.
 The crate tag
 The cold room batch tags
 The punnet and box labels

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 Types of documents Contd

 Procedures:
– Examples:
 The Intake quality assessments procedure

 Traceability Procedure etc

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 Where do documents come
from?
 The requirements:
– Can come from a local or international standard, a
code of practice, a company’s internal
requirement, a haccp team recommendation etc.
– The company understands all the requirement with
which it is supposed to carry out its business and
creates policies to guide all in the organisation to
achieve the requirements.
– These requirements should be thoroughly
understood by the senior management and the key
personnel in an organisation.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Where do documents come from ?
Contd
 The policies:
– These are guides formulated by the senior
management with the intention of directing the
workforce to achieve the requirements.
– The policies should be held in a manual for ease
of referencing and reviews.
– These policies dictate what kind of procedures
shall be in place at all levels that they control.
– The policies should be clearly and thoroughly
understood by the people who safeguard them.

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 Where do documents come from ?
Contd
 The Procedures:
– These are formulated by key personnel in areas
where operations are carried out.
– They are usually found in an operations manual,
but the policies manual clearly states where this
manual is to be found for ease of referencing.
– They dictate what kind of records shall be filled in
as observations of the actual activity when the
procedure is in effect.
– They should be clearly understood by the people
implementing them, and also the other interested
parties in the food and operational chains.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Where do documents come from ?
 The records:
Contd
– These are designed by people supervising the particular
activities for which they are intended.
– They can be designed as a result of a need raised by the actual
implementers of the procedures.
– They prove that the procedure is working as is, and that the
people know what they are doing.
– If they are incomplete, it could be that the procedure is not
working or that the people are not completing the
observations.
– The people responsible for approving records before filing
should be well equipped to be able to criticize the entries in
order to continue the due diligence as per the requirements.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 The Document Control Procedure
 The intention of the document control procedure
is to make people aware of the flow of
documents in an organisation
 People learn about:
– How documents are arranged in the hierarchy of
importance,
– Where they are to be found,
– Who is authorized to review them,
– What happens when a need for review is identified,
– What happens when the records are misused,
– The timing for filling of records and training about
documents etc.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 What is a document control panel?
 These are the tables that consist of:
– Information of how the document was formed
– The reason why the document was formed or reviewed.
– The date the document was issued or reviewed.
– Who issued or authorized the document.
– Who the document was issued to.
– The document number
– The version number
– The number of pages the document has.
 They appear as headers or footers in every controlled
record in the system
 Most document control panels in most records are not
complete.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 What should records consist of?
 The title of the record
 The date(s) and times the record was filled.
 The scope of the record (i.e. the shift, the products, the
packhouse section etc)
 The actual accurate observations during the monitoring
period.
 The signature of the person who filled the record.
 The signature of the supervisor in charge of the person
who filled the record.
 The signature of the departmental head (For critical
documents).
 Corroborative comments for corrective actions or
instructions in the next step in the food chain.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 What should records never have?
 Erasures that are not legible:
– People should ensure that all erasures are done
through a clear strikethrough line, and countersigned
by the person who is filling the record next to the
erasure. Never white out or blot out mistakes on
records.
– This tends to look as if it was done to hide an actual
non conformance that was earlier recorded in order
to pass an audit or escape responsibility after flouting
a policy.

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 What should records never have?
Contd
 Observations meant for other records:
– For example a quality comment found in a
production record or an ethical trading comment
found in a traceability record.
– this shows disorganization in the flow of process
control and makes it very difficult to retrieve the
relevant records for due diligence during
investigations of customer complaints and audits.

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 What should records never have?
Contd
 Handwritten adjustments to the authorized
formats:
– This shows lack of dynamism in document review
with emerging need for changes.
– It is a loss of document control.
– It leaves auditors with a sense of lack of confidence
in the whole system since due diligence is lost.
– It could mean that the document control procedure is
impractical or that resources meant for the procedure
to operate is not available for the people
implementing systems.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 What should records never have?
Contd
 Signatures of unauthorized personnel:
– This shows reckless delegation and possible flouting
of procedures without the authorized people noting
and preventing problems.
– All signatories should be documented inside the
procedures to necessitate good flow of authority.
– Signatories should know the course of actions as per
procedure so that they can act accordingly after
assessing the observations in the records.
– They should also be able to challenge the accuracy of
the observations based on common knowledge and
personal observations.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 What should records never have?
Contd
 Lack of appropriate signatures:
– This shows that the authorized people are not
bothering with whether the system is working or not.
– It also could indicate that the people not signing are
not directly related to the activity for which they are
required to sign.
– This means that some necessary corrective actions
can be overlooked, and the next level of management
should decide whether the problem is with the
procedure or the person.
– Auditors should highlight this fact during audits.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 What should records never have?
Contd
 Obsolete versions still in circulation:
– This represents a gross lack of training on the people
filling the records regarding document control.
– It may be an indication of lack of seriousness of the
custodians of the systems if they are signing obsolete
versions.
– There should be a procedure for rescinding old
versions. This should ideally be the document
control procedure.
– Sometimes people use obsolete blank formats for
other paperwork e.g. reprinting. It is not allowed in a
controlled system, and senior management should
understand and uphold that fact.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 What should records never have?
Contd
 Lack of observations at prescribed times:
– Records should be filled as and when the activities
are happening.
– This therefore means that all records should always
be up to date, completely filled, free of excessive
erasures.
– Incomplete records either show that the person filling
them is lethargic and not responsible, the data to
observe is unavailable so procedure is not working.
– It could also show that there is no clear and
uncompromising way of dealing with incomplete
record filling on the part of the custodian of the
system.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Standardization in Horticulture
 The industry has unanimously embraced the British standard for
standardizing operations in the packhouses.
 The standard is now being called the global standard for food after
being embraced by the EU member countries.
 This means that for us to grow, we have to tailor our systems to
eventually attain the requirements of the standard.
 The standard is a set of requirements that are agreed upon by
retailers in the UK and around Europe that an exporter has to meet
in order to trade with them.
 It is a sister standard to EUREP GAP in the sense that it is
formulated by the same retailers to continue the chain from the
farm to the packhouse.
 Our documentation has to therefore follow that of the BRC
Standard
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Flow of documents in a BRC
Packhouse
The BRC Standard

The Quality Manual

The Haccp Manual The SOP Manual

Documents

Records

Audit
Reports

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 Types of Documents In BRC
Packhouses
1. Training schedules for such issues as:
– Hygiene: Both Personnel and Environmental hygiene
– Haccp Training
– BRC Training
– Products training: ingredients, grading, defects etc
– Audits handling Training: for internal and external audits
– Supervisory skills trainings
– Ethical Trading Initiative trainings
– Strategic management trainings
– Planning trainings
– Pest control surveillance trainings

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 Types of Documents In BRC
Packhouses
2. Bacterial Surveillance Schedules:
– Product swabbing schedules
– Water microbial testing schedules
– Environmental swabbing schedule
– Personnel hand swab schedules
– Validation of decontamination processes

3. Pest Control Schedules:

– Annual pest control contractor visits
– Insectrocutor bulb change schedules
– Pheromone trap replacement schedules etc

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
 Documents In BRC Packhouses cont’d
4. Internal Audit Schedules:
– Self Audits: where one criticises the systems under his or her
own watch
– Independent Audits: where one audits operations that are
independent of his role in the organisation.
5. Cleaning Schedules:
– Equipment cleaning schedules
– Environmental cleaning schedules
– PPE cleaning schedules
– Tools cleaning schedules
– Machines cleaning schedules
– Vehicles cleaning schedules
– Tanks cleaning schedules.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Documents In BRC Packhouses cont’d
6. Glass Audit Schedules:
– Packhouse glass audit schedules
– Front office glass audit schedules
7. Maintenance Schedules:
– Particular machine maintenance schedules e.g. for generators,
cold rooms, computers, vehicles g-trucks etc.
– General Schedules for packhouse, external structures etc.
8. Material Safety Data Sheets
– For Detergents
– For Packaging Materials

Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality

Manager
Documents In BRC Packhouses cont’d
9. Lists (or Masters):
– Products Lists
– Assets Lists
– Farm inputs lists
– Clients’ Lists
– Contacts’ Lists
– Approved Suppliers’ Lists
– Packaging Lists
– Chemical Lists
– Packhouse produce lists
– Workers’ Lists
– Activities Lists
– Documents lists (Master file content list)
– Procedures Lists
– File Lists.Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Documents In BRC Packhouses cont’d
10. Company Organograms:
– Company organogram
– Packhouse Management Structure
– Agronomy Structure
– Administrations structures
11. Certificates:
– Personnel internal and external competence certificates
– Packhouse site audit certificates, international and local
– Farm audit certificates
– Certificates of participation
– Social accountability certificates
– Calibration certificates for scales, probes and weights
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Records In BRC Packhouses:
1. Quality Assessment Records:
– Intake assessment records
– QC Online assessment records
– Dispatch assessment records
– Knife dip Decontamination monitoring records
– Sharps issuance and monitoring records
– Personal hygiene assessment records
– Visitor’s hygiene checks
– Contractors’ hygiene checks
– Toilet wash check records
– Laboratory microbial records
– Production Output Records
– Daily depot maintenance check sheets
– Facility temperature monitoring records
– Product cold chain management records
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Records In BRC Packhouses Contd:
2. Audit checklists:
– Daily hygiene checklists
– Daily Glass audit checklists
– Daily Glove control check sheets
– Daily Plaster check sheets
– Internal audit checklists
– Daily production start-up check-sheets
3. Internal Calibration Records
– Scale Calibration records
– Temperature probe calibration records
4. Pest Control Records
– Weekly Bait activity Internal checks
– Weekly Pheromone activity Internal checks
– Second party pest control site visit records
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager
 Records In BRC Packhouses Contd:
5. Shelf Life Records:
– Daily Shelf life attributes assessment Records
– Daily Sensory evaluation records
– Shelf life notification records (both internal and customer)
– Weather alert records
6. Traceability Records
– Production Reception Traceability records
– Product Intake batch tags
– Online Traceability and production sheets
– Product dispatch traceability records (Usu. on dispatch records)
– Produce and Reject Crate tags.
– Labelling records
7. Maintenance Records
– Scheduled Maintenance records etc.
Trainer: Johnson Nderi, Quality
Manager