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Woolworths makes a commitment to our customers that the products we sell in our fresh food departments and under our brands are safe and of the highest quality. Over many years, Woolworths has developed world class quality assurance programmes for food and general merchandise. We conduct extensive testing both independently and at our own Quality Assurance labs at our Sydney support office. The Woolworths Quality Assurance (WQA) scheme now involves more than 2,000 suppliers who must adhere to extensive and rigorous auditing. The WQA standard encompasses food and consumer products supplied by local and international trade partners. The standard encompasses process control, product specifications, good manufacturing practice, cleaning procedures, product identification and traceability, corrective action, evidence of commitment to continuous improvement and other aspects of product supply. The WQA Certification Audit process is ongoing and associated audits are carried out on a regular basis. To ensure that the WQA quality management system is functioning effectively, the system is audited on a six monthly basis for all trade partners, unless approved in writing by the WQA team. Special audits are conducted unannounced or announced at the discretion of Woolworths. Additional audits are conducted with any major change to the product or processes used to supply Woolworths. Woolworths also conducts an Ethical Compliance audit of suppliers’ operations. If the results of an audit indicate non compliance with the requirements of the WQA, or a critical non conformance is found, or certain other aspects of the standard are not satisfactorily met, the trade partner may be suspended or deregistered. Woolworths has nominated an agreed range of certification bodies based on Woolworths’ ability to administer accreditation checks and maintenance. We continue to enhance our quality assurance requirements through continual review and updating of our WQA standard. BIG W In the past year, BIG W has increased its commitment to quality assurance. QA inspectors are now employed at both BIG W Distribution Centres which allows us to check production stock prior to it being delivered to stores. A programme of monthly store visits is also helping us to implement a stronger QA inspection process at store level where we focus on particular high risk categories such as toys. Within the buying team, we have introduced specialist coaching sessions in order to help develop their understanding of QA compliance. | |||||||||||||||||||
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