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Quality Management Essay

Decent Essays

Description of how Woolworths manages quality and determine how effective Woolworths is at managing quality.

Under the strategic objective of protecting customer trust, Woolworths has a defined policy that applies to all its business units to ensure quality is maintained at the highest level and is consequently a positive reflection of the overall Woolworths brand.

This policy is entitled ‘Woolworths Quality Assurance Standard “protecting customer trust”, version 6 June 2009’. Woolworths has identified that a key element to its quality management strategy for its business is a priority focus on its suppliers. Suppliers are defined as trade partners and as such elevate them to share the responsibility with Woolworths to achieve the …show more content…

Woolworths demands that HACCP plans are based on ‘Product Specifications’. The fact that it regularly assesses products’ compliance to specification is another factor towards maintaining a high standard of quality management.

WQA has sections which specifically cover ‘Good Manufacturing Practice’ (GMP) as well as ‘Document Control’, ‘Cleaning Procedures’ and ‘Pest Control’. In terms of GMP, the WQA lists approximately 22 policies and procedures which must be adhered to and records of verification of adherence which must be kept. These policies and procedures cover just about everything from ‘Personnel Hygiene Policy’ to ‘Packaging’. As with most sections of WQA it is very comprehensive.

Training of personnel is another area which has detailed requirements in WQA. All roles relating to ensuring quality must be undertaken by suitably qualified staff. Training schedules are linked to employees’ job descriptions, training records are kept and training needs are regularly reviewed.

Under the section called ‘Calibration’, WQA specifies that procedures are put in place to ensure that all equipment used for measuring, testing and inspecting gives accurate readings. The next section is ‘Product identification & traceability’. Clear identification of grade, inspection status and description of all material, whether

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