Introducing a quality management system into your bakery

Quality management in the bakery industry is key to making sure your products are produced to the best standard for customer satisfaction. As part of this process, bakeries and other food manufacturers might look at implementing a quality management system (QMS).

This can be a daunting task for many businesses but one that is worth the investment. Having such a system in place will improve product quality and general bakery management.

In this article we look at what a quality management system is and how it might fit into your bakery or food business…

In a food production setting, a quality management system refers to the processes your business has in place to manage the various elements of your production process to ensure your products are made to meet your business standards and the expectations of customers.

A QMS generally consists of business policies, processes, documented information and other resources that might be needed to ensure product quality.

Having a QMS in place ensures colleagues and operators are working to the necessary standards as set by your policies. It can also help to prevent liability claims or trouble with your regulators by ensuring standards are met and customers are satisfied and safe.

When implementing a QMS in your business, it’s important to recognise that there is not one size that fits all. Each business, industry, or market will have their own requirements and standards to manufacture so it’s imperative that your system meets the correct needs.

For example, in the bakery industry, there are various methods of managing and verifying production quality, these are the following…

ISO 9001 is an international standard that is set out to help businesses document and maintain their quality systems. The ISO organisation explains that ISO 9001 “is based on a number of quality management principles including a strong customer focus, the motivation and implication of top management, the process approach and continual improvement.”

It is the only ISO 9000 standard that can be certified to, with over 1,000,000 companies and organisations across the world certified to it.

The BRC is a UK trade association that supports businesses across the retail sector, including setting standards and requirements for how suppliers and manufacturers should produce food products. The British Retail Consortium Global Standard (BRCGS) in particular sets out these standards for manufacturers wanting to implement a quality management system in the retail industry to demonstrate commitment to product quality and food safety.

Adding a QMS to your business will be of huge benefit for your bakery operations for a number of reasons, including:

• Improved stock management process
• Guaranteed consistency of products
• Reduced risk of errors leading to waste production
• Platform for automation and improved efficiencies
• Easy evidencing of compliance and due diligence
• Improved documentation structure for quicker audit preparation

How can Stevens help?

If you’re looking to implement a quality management system in your bakery or food business, we can provide electronic traceability and recipe management systems to support and enhance your production processes from goods-in through to despatch.

Our system provides businesses with comprehensive traceability and weighing capability to produce the best quality products with accountability and digital record keeping throughout.

Integration options available with any existing systems in place like Sage, SAP, Tropos and more, as well as electronic production reporting making documentation available in a matter of seconds.

Speak to our team today to get started, or to find out more information on how we can help your business.