Flagship poultry site wins NCSI Chairman’s Award
Every year, NCSI auditors are asked to nominate one of our 2,000 clients for our NCSI Chairman’s Award. In 2011, Inghams Enterprises Edinburgh Park facility in South Australia emerged as the clear winner and the entire staff was presented with the award on site in January.
The Chairman’s Award is the highest recognition we bestow on our clients and their staff. It’s public recognition for those who strive to manage risks and demonstrate the highest standards of excellence in continuous improvement.
In presenting the award, NCSI’s CEO Greg Jewson acknowledged the level of staff engagement in the way management systems and associated practices had been implemented, and the way the management system in an integral part of every thought process at the executive level of the organisation.
Setting new standards in quality poultry production
The Edinburgh Parks facility is just five years old, and is considered the flagship production facility for Inghams. It’s a realisation of their commitment to raising the bar on fully-cooked poultry production with truly world-class facilities. 160 staff work onsite in separate raw, packing and dispatch areas, preparing fully cooked poultry products.
Daryl Holl, Plant Manager at Edinburgh Parks, says fostering quality culture in a new site can be easier. “We started with a clear vision of what we wanted to do, and how we would engage staff to achieve it. This award is a testament to the commitment of everyone involved.”
He explains that the key to true engagement is helping staff understand why they do things a certain way, rather than just telling them the process. “Food safety is hugely important. For the first two years, we focused on raising standards by completely removing the risk of contamination. For example, we eliminated plastic from the site, using metal pens, clipboards, stainless steel surfaces and so on – so any elements could be picked up with a metal detector.”
Likewise, the freezing and packing room is unique when it comes to handling fully cooked chicken “Every equipment detail is designed to absolutely minimise the risk of product contamination.”
Proof of quality in performance
The Inghams site is currently certified to Woolworths, Coles and McDonalds standards, as well as SQF and HACCP. Over the past five years they’ve had just one non-conformance across every audit and every standard, and they’ve never had a negative testing outcome.
“These standards, along with our monitoring systems, give our customers a huge degree of confidence that we’re working to their requirements, with a high level of compliance,” says Daryl. “During the audit process, individual NCSI auditors also provide valuable feedback about the management team and staff.”
“The real measure of our quality is in our conformance and customer complaints. We’ve never had a poor product micro result, which means everything we’ve produced here has been saleable.”
The NCSI Chairman’s award is now on display in the foyer of the facility, along with a number of other awards for building design and technology. “It’s definitely something our potential clients are interested in, and it gives them further confidence that this is no ‘run of the mill’’ production site,” Daryl concludes.
Previous winners of the NCSI Chairman’s Award include FK Gardner, IP Australia, Bidvest and South Eastern Area Laboratory.
