BETA+
Business Excellence Through Action - a one-day facilitated session. During this session a team (normally of between 5 and 10 people) from the host organisation carrying out a perception-based diagnosis of THEIR organisation. This is a structured process involving the completion of the BETA workbook. The team works together to identify and agree both those areas where the business does things well and issues that need to be addressed. These can form the start of their continuous improvement activities or support any existing initiatives.
BRC / British Retail Consortium
British Retail Consortium is a trade association representing retailers of all sizes. Whilst they offer a wide range of services they are probably best known within the Food industry for their ‘Global Standards’. These are accreditations that manufacturers can work towards and achieve, thereby demonstrating to potential customers that they have appropriate food safety and quality mechanisms in place. For more details see: www.brc.org.uk/standards/index.htm
Due Diligence Defence
Under the Food Safety Act of 1990 an individual or company can defend against prosecution by demonstrating what is termed "Due Diligence". The act states:
'...it shall be a defence for that person to show that he took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to avoid committing the offence.'
This typically means that all reasonably expected systems, processes, controls and equipment were in place to prevent the offence being committed. These were used, monitored/checked, and reviewed with evidence available to show that any shortfalls or failures were identified and appropriately rectified. HOWEVER... there is no legal guideline or document that spells out exactly what would be considered "reasonable" - that would be determined on a case by case basis by a court.
FastPort / FastPort+
FastPort is a flexible product developed by AQCT and was initially designed to support the food and drink manufacturing sector. This has proven to be a great success in assisting unemployed individuals gain the qualifications and experience sought by food and drink employers and those in other sectors.
NLP
NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) explores the relationship between how we think (neuro), how we communicate both verbally and non-verbally (linguistic) and our patterns of emotion, beliefs and behaviour (programmes).
NLP is a science based on the study of success. What do certain people do that allows them to tap into the capabilities of their whole mind rather than just the fraction we use consciously? Once studied the things that these people do so well can be modelled (reproduced) by others to create similar success! For more information see: http://www.simplenlp.com/index.php?id=1
Quality
The word quality broadly refers to the desirability of something, based on it characteristics, however it is a much miss used word!
Everything has a ‘quality’ what people often forget to qualify whether the product or service is high quality or low quality.
There are many definitions of quality however we quite like this one…
“Fitness for purpose at the right price, in the right place at the right time”.
This is an adaptation of Joseph M Juran’s (a famous quality Guru)
“Fitness for Purpose”.
The key thing to remember that this is always very subjective; what is perfect for one person may not be right for the next.
Safety Pass Alliance (SPA) Scheme
The SPA passport scheme helps contractor companies gain work within various specialist sectors. AQCT offer the Core and Food & Drink days, which have been established as a minimum requirement by a number of the key players in the food and drink sector for all contractors who need to access production areas unescorted.
Aimed at contractors who work in food and drink manufacturing, the SPA Passport food and drink training programme focuses on hygiene and food safety, specific environmental issues and health and safety practices. The following is abstracted from the SPA web site.
"The Passport's food and drink module is the product of a collaboration between major clients in the sector, including Northern Foods, Geest, Kelloggs Europe, Nestlé UK, Cadbury Trebor Bassett and Bass Brewers. In addition, contractor organisations such as the Processing and Packaging Machinery Association (PPMA) played an invaluable role in validating the training material.
The food and drink Passport training takes a day. Trainees should first undergo the core training - this one-day session ensures that delegates grasp the basics of general good practice in health and safety."