Quality Assurance

1. Introduction

Fresca Ltd was formed in February 2008 to supply and distribute water coolers to customers throughout Scotland and eventually throughout the whole of the UK. The service includes the sanitisation and maintenance of the coolers and provision of water and cups. The business has developed well and is expanding successfully. This Quality Policy relates to the full range of company activities.

2. Objectives

Fresca’s quality policy is to achieve continued, profitable growth by providing services which consistently satisfy the requirements and expectations of its customers.

This level of quality is achieved through adoption of processes and procedures that reflect the competence of the Company to its existing customers, potential customers and to independent auditing bodies. Fresca is fully committed to delivering the objectives of this quality policy statement within all its activities and work undertaken by the Company.

Achievement of this policy involves all staff who are expected to take personal responsibility for their own professional quality and standards in all their activities, resulting in a continually improving working environment for all. Staff will exercise this responsibility within a supportive environment where expectations and standards are clearly defined, continuous improvement and innovation are encouraged, development and training opportunities are provided and feedback is actively sought.

This policy is provided and explained to all employees by the Managing Director.

The objectives of the Quality Assurance Policy are:

  1. to maintain an effective Quality Assurance System leading to ISO 9001 certification.
  2. to achieve and maintain a level of quality which enhances the Company’s reputation with its customers.
  3. to ensure compliance with relevant statutory and safety requirements.
  4. to endeavour at all times to maximise customer satisfaction with the service provided by Fresca.
  5. to actively seek customer feedback and to use this as a format for continuous assessment and improvement.
  6. to work in close co-operation with customers and suppliers to provide the right quality work and service, first time.
  7. to carry out all our activities within our environmental policy guidelines, thus helping to ensure a sustainable environment for the benefit of the community.
  8. to continually identify improvements to existing working practices.

3. Authority & Responsibilities

All staff are allocated with authority to perform their responsibilities. All staff share the authority and responsibility of identifying non-compliances or possible improvements, and recording these instances so that corrective action can be taken, both to rectify the immediate situation and to prevent recurrence.

4. Management Review

Management review of the effectiveness of the Quality Policy will take place at least twice per year. The objectives of the review are:

  1. to establish that the Quality System is achieving the expected results, meeting the Company’s requirements and continuing to satisfy the customers needs and expectations.
  2. to identify any irregularities, identify weaknesses and evaluate possible improvements.
  3. to review any complaints received, identify the cause and recommend any corrective action if required.
  4. to review the findings of external audits and identify any areas of recurring problems or potential improvements.

5. Contract Review

Fresca offers standard products and maintenance services to meet each customer’s needs. Products are displayed both on the company website and in the company brochure for customer selection.

Once a proposal is accepted by the customer, or an order is placed, it is recorded and reviewed to ensure that the requirements of the order are adequately defined, any differences from the proposal are resolved and that the Company is capable of fully satisfying the customer’s requirements. If a customer requests additional products/services not specified in the original order, this must be clarified prior to the order being fulfilled to ensure that no ambiguity exists.

6. Purchasing

Suppliers of products, materials and services are selected on their ability to meet the company’s requirements given due consideration to the quality, statutory obligations, timescale and cost. A list of approved suppliers is maintained which is compiled on the following criteria:

  1. previous performance in supplying to similar specification and requirements
  2. stocking of high volume standard items conforming to a relevant British/European Standard or supplied with a statement of conformity.
  3. Recommendation by other similar purchasers
  4. A trial order and evaluation of performance

7. Customer Returns

Goods received from customers (i.e free on loan equipment or equipment being serviced) are always visually inspected at the receipt stage, with any un-declared non-conformance being immediately reported to the customer. Bottles of water, however, may be returned to Fresca but are unable to be reused for reasons of health and safety and due diligence. Therefore a customer would be unable to receive a credit on these.

8. Receiving Inspection

All stores areas are maintained as secure as practical. All items received by the Company are identified and verified in accordance with the requirements of the Delivery Note and Purchase Order, and are inspected for correct identity, quantity and any signs of damage.

All goods received are documented and, in the event of non-conformance, the items are placed in a reject area or labelled to ensure identification.

9. Inspection and Testing

Inspection and testing is carried out on completion of installation and maintenance activities, with results being documented. Should equipment/goods not be acceptable against the agreed contract criteria they will be either repaired or replaced. All repaired items are subject to a re-inspection to ensure acceptability.

On completion of installation and maintenance works, the customer is also invited to check the work performed to ensure full acceptability.

10. Sanitisation

All equipment requiring sanitisation is taken to a designated clean area within the warehouse and sanitised by using a Food Safe Sanitiser Spray. The WaterTrail™ is then replaced and the cooler sealed in a protective wrapping to avoid damage prior to issue to the customer.

Each time a cooler is sanitised the Sanitisation Record Card is updated.

11. Handling, Storage, Packaging, Preservation & Delivery

The location of each cooler is easily identified by the serial number which can be traced either back to a customer or to the warehouse if the cooler is still in stock. The water bottles have a batch number which is located on the bottleneck. Again the location of each bottle can be traced easily in case of product recall (Please refer to separate policy).

Materials and goods received, will, as far as practicable, be protected and their quality preserved until such time as they are transferred to a customer. The objective is to prevent deterioration and damage whilst in storage, or in the process of transportation, installation or maintenance.

12. Records

Records are held in storage facilities that ensure that they are easily identifiable and retrievable and the storage areas are free from damp and other agents which could cause premature deterioration. Where records are retained electronically, these are subject to back-ups at regular intervals with the back up data being stored in a protected location to ensure security from loss/damage of active data.

All customer records will be maintained for a minimum of 2 years. Cooler records will be maintained for the lifetime of the cooler.

13. Training

The policy of the company is to ensure that all personnel are trained and experienced to the extent necessary to undertake their assigned activities and responsibilities effectively. However, the company generally recruits employees capable of meeting the technical, skills, experience and educational requirements of the company’s activities.

All staff and senior employees are responsible for recommending the training needs of others, and for ensuring that all employees allocated specific tasks are suitable qualified and experienced to execute those tasks. Once training needs are identified these are provided under the responsibility of the Directors.

Full records are maintained of all training undertaken by employees.

Last updated November 2008