According to a recent Food Processing magazine e-survey, food safety is the number one concern for food and beverage manufacturers. Specifically, their concerns include control of plant GMPs (good manufacturing practices), increasing use of food safety audits, keeping HACCP plans up to date, and more closely monitoring raw materials, finished products and production processes.
Managing these issues is not always easy. Manufacturers are typically decentralized organizations with facilities geographically dispersed worldwide. Quality assurance (QA) departments are struggling to efficiently collect and maintain massive amounts of data with limited financial resources and manpower. This, coupled with the growing need to increase standards and tighten accountability controls, makes everyday tasks more complex and time consuming than necessary.
So why not automate core business processes? Many functions-from raw materials specification adherence to actual and mock product recalls-can be effectively and efficiently managed by Seneca's Virtual Quality Assurance (VQA™) support program.
VQA Support Program Description
Software. The cornerstone of the VQA Support Program is IncidenTrax™, Seneca's web-based software program. The system, which is accessible in real-time simultaneously by authorized users worldwide, is offered as a monthly service used to manage:
- Supplier audit results and product specifications.
- Crisis events such as product recalls/withdrawals.
- Product complaints and inquiries.
- Distribution and service issues.
Support. Professional staff are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide general system administration and management, helpdesk assistance for trained users, and optional outsourced contact center services.
Services. Our team of food safety and subject matter experts are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to provide technical guidance and onsite support for escalated QA events. Located in more than 30 countries, they have detailed knowledge of:
- Domestic and international regulations, culture and food safety issues.
- Quality assurance (GMPs).
- Food safety (HACCP) and food safety training.
- Vendor management.
- Crisis management and response.
- Lab testing.
- Public health and medical concerns.
- Food/beverage and manufacturing operations.
Core VQA Package
Seneca's core package is specifically designed for manufacturers that will benefit from an automated program for central reporting and management of five to 10 types of basic QA-related incidents or inquiries. Typical costs are less than one FTE (full time equivalent) for a QA professional and standard implementation is within 90 days from contract signing. The package, which is flexible enough to manage everyday QA, food safety, crisis management and customer service functions, includes:
- Customization of software to QA best practices.
- Access to Seneca's food safety and subject matter experts for additional per incident fees.
- Receipt of periodic, timely food safety alerts.
- Development of reports and trend analyses.
- 7x24x365 system administration.
- Ongoing administration and expert review.
- Helpdesk support.
- Use of software by multiple concurrent users.
Add-on Services
Seneca offers manufacturers additional comprehensive programs tailored to meet specific operational needs. We can help you:
- Establish an outsourced 7x24x365 contact center for processing phone calls and web forms.
- Develop or refine QA and food safety plans.
- Assess and evaluate risk.
- Allocate funds to support QA functions.
- Integrate food safety into corporate culture.
- Design and deliver food safety training programs to management and hourly workers.
- Design customized audits.
- Outsource all or some of your entire QA and food safety functions.
- Develop and implement a vendor management program.
- Arrange comprehensive lab testing services.
- Develop and implement a crisis management and response plan.
- Develop and conduct crisis response drills using IncidenTrax.
- Manage customer complaints.
VQA Program Features
- Use of IncidenTrax software.
- Support from a 24-hour call center.
- Customization of workflows to best practices.
- Escalation of incidents or inquiries to experts.
- Access to additional manufacturing-specific consulting services.
VQA Program Benefits
- Improves and automates manual processes.
- Creates auditable action trails.
- Captures data for reporting and trend analysis.
- Global access to onsite food safety technical expertise.
- Frees up time to concentrate on core duties.
Quality Assurance Applications
Seneca's VQA Support Program establishes and maintains controls for monitoring, tracking and reporting on the effectiveness of QA/food safety programs. Specific applications include:
- Product recalls/withdrawals.
- Product contaminations.
- Escalated corrective actions from internal/ external audits.
- Product complaints.
- Regulatory compliance.
- Employee injuries.
- Union and labor-related issues.
- Fires or natural disasters.
- Physical security.
- Return on Investment.
Automating everyday QA functions can provide significant return on investment by:
- Increasing profitability by controlling food costs, reducing labor costs and increasing employee retention.
- Protecting brand equity by assuring the quality of food served and decreasing negative media coverage.
- Mitigating business risk by enhancing supply chain management, managing claims more effectively, and enhancing internal and external communication.
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