Quality At a glance in AWP

 

Since its establishment before more than a quarter of a century, the vision of its founder – Sheikh Sulieman Al-Rajhi – of striving to make Al-Watania Poultry (AWP) the consumer’s first choice locally, regionally and worldwide was clear.

AWP mission is to support nutritional reserve and national economy by providing the local, regional, and international markets with the highest quality poultry products prepared according to Islamic legislation, through utilizing the latest technology and systems that protect the environment and achieve maximum safety, productivity and sustained development levels, and by employing and developing competent and committed human resources with the initiative to participate effectively in continuous improvement.

And since Quality was not only the ultimate goal for AWP, but a solid commitment on all levels, we dedicate all our efforts to provide our customers with a healthy safe food of a high value. AWP has employed since it’s inception the Saudi Specifications as a basic reference in regards to quality, and thus it has obtained the quality certificate.

Because of the huge organizational structure for AWP, and the resulting cross sectional administrative relations, AWP has taken the initiative ahead by utilizing an effective international management system in order to control the human, administrative, and technical factors thus controlling the performance that in turn contributes in building the consumer’s trust which is a main goal we aim to achieve, based on that AWP had started the preparation for that vital project of obtaining the ISO 9000 certificate.

 

 

 

This system has been implemented, and the certificate was obtained based on the following steps:

1. The high commitment and support from the top management in providing the necessary financial and human resources.
2. An external consulting company was employed to prepare for this project, where it defined the requirements and it made the employees aware of them.
3. A group of the employees were trained by the consulting company on how to prepare the quality guide and on internal auditing.
4. A representative of quality department was assigned.
5. The quality manual was prepared, and then it was reviewed by the consulting firm.
6. AWP contracted with Moody international – which is one of the biggest international companies that award quality certificates in KSA – as an external auditor to obtain the certificate.

 

AWP had obtained ISO 9002:1994 certificate in 1997, and the ISO 9002:1994 chain of specifications is a suitable model for our establishment with the exclusion of the product design criterion that does not apply on all production stages.

This system has been applied in most of the establishment departments, and although there were some weaknesses in the system, it helped us to build a framework to manage core business processes inline with Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) and record keeping.

And there had been another major achievement which was represented by the increase in awareness about the importance of quality which took place through continuous internal and external training programs.

The compliance with the systems was mainly and continuously observed in core business processes, the external auditing also concentrated on these core business processes. Where a significant progress was achieved in production departments, that has even reflected on the employees feeling towards the system where their perceptions has changed from considering the extra paper work  requirements as a burden to starting realizing the importance of that as a requirement of the system. And once the new series of ISO 9001:2000 specifications – which concentrated on continuous improvement methodology and giving the auditors more flexibility and freedom in inspecting all documents and processes - were issued, AWP had upgraded the ISO 9002:1994 in order to obtain the desired positive results, and this had been achieved in 2003 through Moody international company also.

ISO system is currently applied in all production departments in addition to Sales, Logistics and Material handling, Procurement, Maintenance, High tension, Poultry health, and quality departments, and all of the aforementioned departments have documented operational procedures that is approved and deployed, and we are working on preparing the operational procedures for: Human resources, Personnel, Legal affairs, and services including housing and catering. The external auditing is done regularly with an average of one visit a year conducted by Moody international, through which our quality certificate was renewed during previous years.

 

 

In 2003 there was an important development stage where AWP decided to obtain HACCP & SQF/200 certificates, where an external consulting firm was employed in order to prepare the needed requirements to obtain the mentioned certificates. SGS company – which is one of the biggest certifying companies - was selected to carry on external auditing where we got certified as per HACCP and SQF/2000 specifications in October 2003.

As a result of high commitment and support by top management and all other employees especially the main departments, we have reached an advanced stage in implementing the quality systems’ requirements the thing that had positively reflected on the output of activities in general. And since HACCP and SQF/2000 are specialized management systems in food industry, we achieved excellent results by the successful implementation of them that enabled us from identifying and assessing hazards and then control its sources in order to ensure the food safety. Those systems are considered as being among the best international recognized and widely implemented systems in the food industry with the objective of producing healthy safe food by identifying the sources of biological, chemical, and physical hazards that may affect food safety and taking necessary precautions to control such hazards. HACCP system was built based on the terms and the criteria of Codex almentarius Commission developed by Food and Agriculture Oraganization of  the united nations (FAO).

HACCP system depends on 7 basic principles:

1. First principle: Hazard Analysis (identifying hazard sources and analyzing them and determining necessary preventive procedures)
2. Second principle: determining critical control points at which hazards can be controlled.
3. Third principle: setting critical limits for each control point.
4. Fourth principle: determining the measurement procedures to ensure control by tests or observations.
5. Fifth principle: taking corrective actions when control shows that a certain point is out of control.
6. Sixth principle: verifying the effectiveness and efficiency of the system.
7. Seventh principle: Record keeping procedures.

Definition of HACCP system: it is a preventive program used to prevent food safety hazards and ensure food safety, thus reducing food poisoning instances; it also means the healthy production of food through preventing potential risks from happening.

HACCP system depends on:

1.      Preliminary programs: in order to produce safe healthy food, food safety programs should be developed in advance.

2.      Preparation and training: the successful implementation of HACCP system depends heavily on preparing and training of concerned employees, where they should learn HACCP principles then they should be trained in order to gain the necessary skills to apply HACCP principles effectively, the training should include the skills of designing necessary processes and procedures needed to measure critical control points, the concerned employees should also be provided with necessary materials and tools.

 

1.      forming Control team: this team comprises of skilled experienced individuals in regards to products, and it includes different specializations.

2.      Product description: product data is gathered, the collected data includes: ingredients, preparation process, distribution method and storage method.

3.      The end usage of the product: here a description of how the final product will be used and the type of consumer.

4.      Drawing the process flow chart: where a flow chart of the process activities is developed.

5.      verifying the process flow chart at work location: where the business process is checked on site in order to ensure the accuracy of the process flow chart and amend it if needed.

6.      recording all potential hazards at each step of the process: here a list of all potential hazards that may cause harm or disease is developed.

7.      Defining critical control points: which are the manufacturing steps at which hazards are expected to occur.

8.      Setting critical limits for each critical control point: which are the measures or criteria that reveals whether a certain process is under control at a certain critical control point.

9.      Defining detection system for each critical point: whether detection and measurement procedures for each critical control point are set and implemented.

10.  Defining corrective actions at critical control points: where appropriate corrective actions are taken in order to prevent hazardous food from reaching the consumer.

11.  Defining verification procedures: where extra auditing is conducted by a higher job level in order to ensure the effectiveness of the system.

12.  Record and documents keeping: including all records pertaining to the system.

HACCP system was put under trial at AWP in 1999 and 2001 at the processing department, but it was not fully deployed due to lack of expertise and required level of commitment.

In 2003 the quality assurance department was assigned the task of building and implementing HACCP system with the help of an external consultant, and then the certification request has been submitted by AWP through SGS company as an external auditor and we got HACCP certificate on October 2003.

 AWP is considered as one of the first poultry companies who obtained HACCP certificates in the gulf area.

And as per the system the Salmonella microbe has been identified as the most important biological hazard that threats the consumer helath in the poultry industry, and in order to minimize those hazards and increase the emphasis on food safety, we set action plans to implement the system in seven departments effectively as per the system, where the system is currently being applied at: the parents department, the hatcheries, the broiler, the processing, the further processing, the commercial layer, and the feed mills departments, where there exists a documented HACCP plans in all of the mentioned departments with a total of 20 Critical Control Point (CCP) through which biological hazards are monitored and controlled, and those plans are reviewed from time to time as per the need in order to ensure its effectiveness.

 And by implementing HACCP we managed to significantly decrease the percentage of Salmonella  in our final products.

The external auditing is conducted regularly with average of twice a year by SGS company, through which we renew our certificate

And because of urgent need for a department who manages the aforementioned quality systems, the Quality assurance department was established in 2003 with the aim of assuring that business processes are performed inline with the mentioned quality systems effectively and strictly.

The quality department took the challenge and had built its implementation strategy as per the following phases:

1. First stage: Increasing the awareness about quality systems by vertical and horizontal communication channels starting from the quality department employees where they had been trained externally then they were assigned to train the establishment employees from supervision level and above on those systems through holding internal training courses in different languages in order to ensure the full knowledge in quality systems and its objectives. The core departments were addressed at first.
2. Second stage: in which all business processes were documented by work teams from each department separately, where the processes of six core departments were documented in 2003, and currently the processes of teen department has been documented and communicated to all concerned employees in the related departments.
3. Third stage: in which we aim to deploy ISO 9001:2000 in the remaining departments gradually.

Business processes are controlled in concerned departments by applying the approved quality systems’ principles and the effective implementation of the standard operating procedures and by securing competent qualified and experienced human resources who are continually trained through regular training programs and internal and external lectures across all departments. Aiming at improving business process management practices and results, local and international expertise were employed, and internal and external training programs were exchanged, internal lectures were held by suppliers, and international projects were visited.

 

Based on the establishment restructuring, a special quality department were created with the purpose of managing quality activities at the establishment, preparing the basis needed in order to obtain international quality certificates, and updating the current certificates and maintaining its continuity. the quality department is a new department where it was found as a separate department in 2004 and its scope of work is to manage and control  quality processes and activities, and it consists of:

1. Quality assurance department: which is responsible of the documentation and approval of the quality and bio-security manuals and standard operating procedures, and HACCP system plans and the communication of such plans to all concerned and then the follow up on the implementation of the set plans. The quality assurance department also prepares the needed infrastructure to obtain and sustain the quality certificates, it also audits all business processes through internal auditing neutral teams that conducts regular daily visits to all work locations and it submits the resulting reports to concerned departments, such reports highlights nonconformity points along with necessary criteria to correct them the thing that promotes and improves performance. The quality assurance department also follows up on the implementation of bio-security procedures, quarantine, and pest control procedures in addition to its role in making the employees aware about quality systems through training programs, and finally it contributes in key supplier evaluation.
2. Quality control department: which is responsible of monitoring the final product and ensuring its compliance with the required specifications, and follow up on customer complaints and solving them in coordination with concerned departments. The quality control department has been supported by highly qualified human resources from veterinarians and technicians in addition to necessary equipments and tools to execute its tasks of processes monitoring, inputs and outputs of the product –including temperature, moisture, lighting, and other measures.

And the duties of the Quality department can be summarized by:

• Obtaining quality specifications and measures from concerned formal and professional parties, and communicating it to related departments and verifying the implementation.
• Participating in the preparation and implementation of training plans pertaining to quality aiming at increasing employees’ awareness and spreading the quality culture allover the establishment.
• Examining the production inputs and outputs by lab tests and eye tests in order to ensure its compliance with specifications.
• Regular inspection for raw material stores and finished product warehouses in order to ensure compliance with quality measures.
• Continuously working in order to implement quality systems at concerned departments, and preparing the corresponding reports, and following up on them regularly through internal and external auditing programs.

In general all core business processes are regulated by ISO 9001:2000, HACCP & SQF2000, and through the implementation of theses systems we abide by the related specifications fully in all departments. And as per our perception the effective implementation of quality systems focuses on increasing the awareness of quality culture among the employees, where training programs were held for this purpose, and as a result of this the continuous improvement of business processes has become among the most important daily activities, where special teams have been formed in order to find and discuss improvement solutions on specific periods of time. Training courses, seminars and field visits to local and international companies have all contributed to enriching employees knowledge.

The effective implementation of business processes and procedures is verified through internal auditing program, which is conducted by a neutral qualified team in all sectors of the establishment, this team reports directly to Managing Directorthe thing that reflects our commitment towards the implementation of quality systems.

The external auditing is conducted through external auditors from certifying companies at regular periods of time to ensure the establishment compliance with the related specifications and measures based on which the quality certificates are obtained.

 

The sustaining of quality certificates during last years is the biggest evidence of the effective implementation of quality systems at AWP, we strive to continually improve our performance and this has reflected on key performance indicators like the decrease in customer complaints, the decrease in Salmonella percentage in final products, and the decrease of the percentage of returned finished products from sales branches.

Lastly AWP had been among the first organizations that obtained quality certificates after it met all required quality related conditions, thus it achieved the honor of being the first company in poultry products and value added products in addition to table eggs in KSA,

 the thing that enabled AWP from capturing the largest market share in the Kingdom, where AWP products entered almost every home in KSA and other neighboring countries. And this success is a result of continuous efforts towards promoting our products to the highest levels in order to maintain the consumers’ loyalty, where we will continuously to stress our slogan

 ((your food is in safe hands))