CV-Balasaheb Khairnar

Multi-talented leader, well-versed, and highly effective at developing, executing, and directing continual improvements in food quality, food safety, manufacturing excellence, vendor management, auditing, and cost of quality.

Ensures organizations meet regulatory requirements for domestic as well as export always. Played a key role in Snacks NPD until its commercialization.

Customer-centric approach

• Ensure to deliver quality and safe products to consumers.
• Lead the process of handling customer and consumer complaints and resolutions
• Lead to ensure corrective actions and relevant customer feedback lead to improvement in product quality and consistency, and plan to avoid the recurrence of quality issues
• Conduct monthly analysis of market samples
• Product Quality Index verification through daily sensory and physicochemical analysis at the Central Lab of products manufactured at different locations, including TPOs
• Conduct one monthly market visit to identify current gaps
• Quarterly benchmarking of existing products
• Ensure that our products are traceable in the market, and 100% recall shall be achieved in case of any quality or legal issues with the product

Quality, food safety, and operations requirements and compliances

• Develop and implement quality assurance strategies, policies, and procedures to meet regulatory and customer requirements
• Ensure quality, food safety, and regulatory compliance of products manufactured at all mother and contract manufacturing sites.
• Develop quality and food safety management systems for the organization, lead the implementation, verification, and continual improvement of QMS and FSMS
• Build the quality culture throughout the organization, from procurement to the distribution level, and develop awareness about the cost of poor quality across functions
• Ensure compliance with national and international voluntary standards like c-GMP, HACCP, BRGGS, FSSC, Halal, 5S, TQM, etc., as per the organization's needs
• Lead internal audits to assess compliance with company policies, industry standards, and regulatory requirements, and develop internal auditors
• Lead all kinds of 3P audits and certifications, and government inspections, and ensure compliance with their requirements proactively
• Identify areas of process improvement, and drive improvements along with stakeholders, ensuring to standardize process improvement with respect to customer and product requirements, and support improving process capability across plants
• Work to reduce production waste through process standardization and optimization
• Ensure RM, PM, WIP, water, FG compliance with DBL quality and food safety standards through developing and verifying activities of incoming QC, process QC, and lab, QA systems, and PRP’s
• Ensure the Integrated Pest Management Programme is in place at all manufacturing sites
• Conduct a risk assessment for critical business processes
• Coordinate the recall at all levels
• Develop and ensure the implementation of a crisis management plan for an organization
• Lead the continual improvements for function across all levels
• Tracking MIS and reviews of the function as per the frequency decided
• Develop the QA and QC team, and maintain their competency level
• Set goals, KPI, and OKR for the Quality team, and also ensure the team achieves them

NPD and regulatory compliance

• New product and packaging development until commercialization, coordinate with other functions to ensure quality is incorporated in each function while developing and delivering new products
• Lead the product quality and cost optimization projects
• Drive improvements in existing product and packaging quality as per market needs and demands
• Conduct shelf-life validation of new and existing products annually and as needed
• Conduct legal vetting and validation of packaging labels and artworks, ensuring labels comply with FSSAI, LM, and PWM rules and regulations
• Validate export-related artworks along with customers
• Ensure that you implement and meet statutory requirements about food safety, FSSAI, legal metrology, export, and waste disposal, and handle the government visits like FSSAI, legal metrology, Halal team, etc
• FSSAI annual/six-monthly returns filed as per requirement
• Coordinate with the Finance team to ensure EPR is filed as per requirement
• Direct coordination and licensing with government departments like FSSAI, FDA, LM, and PCB lead to the legal battles with government departments on behalf of the organization, ensuring that all legal issues are resolved on a real-time basis

Vendor development and improvement

• Develop a vendor management program, ensuring vendor selection, onsite and offsite vendor audits, assessment, approval, classification, and evaluation are in place
• Six-monthly vendor evaluation, along with the purchase team
• Efforts to improve existing vendors' performance
• Conduct a risk assessment of materials and vendors (VACCP)
• Develop an alternate vendor base
• Crisis management with respect to supply and quality
• Ensure 3P manufacturers meet organizations and legal requirements always

Financial goals

• Prepare a functional budget, and ensure overall expenses are within the budgeted values
• Monitor the cost of quality across functions
• Keep control of the cost of poor quality, and never exceed budgeted values
• Proactively support Sales, Marketing, and Supply Chain to achieve their goals
• Proactively support to meet Organizational Revenue targets by leading Quality and Cost optimization projects.

Safety and social ethics

• Responsible for ensuring employees' safety
• Employee awareness about safety is at the desired level
• Participate in mock drills and follow safety rules
• Legal and ethical practices were in place at all times
• Practice unbiasedness, fair assessment, Fair feedback at Function.

Few achievements at DBL

• Developed and commercialized 10 new products during 2023 to 2024
• Corrected legally noncompliant labels, artworks – 109 SKU
• Alternate vendor development and improvement in existing vendor – appreciation received from top management
• Established quality systems at DBL Factories, including first-time BRC certification, and starting export from the new factory
• GSP improvements at all CFAs and warehouses to reduce damages to less than 2%
• Developed nine training modules for an organization
• Develop a competent quality team across locations that can also handle operations

Few achievements at Food Service India, VKL Group

• 50% reduction in the number of customer complaints at FSIPL
• Consistency in quality compliance at contract manufacturing facilities
• US FDA-approved facility
• Conducted more than 21 RM/PM vendor audits for selection and development
• Set up and develop the Central Lab and Central Micro Lab at the new factory
• Passed customer audits from McDonald's, Yum, IKEA, Licious, TFS, Swiggy, Jubilant Food Works, Akshay Patra, etc

Key achievements at Inbisco India Private Limited, Mayora Group, Indonesia

• Developed and implemented QMS and FSMS for the Indian business of Mayora Group at the new factory of Inbisco, and replicated the same at another factory
• New factory: Set up IQC, FQC, QC, micro, sensory, and calibration labs
• Contributed to factory design and setup – 22 acres of land, 500 crores investment plan
• New vendor base: 92 RM/PM vendor audits and development done
• HACCP certification
• Halal certification – JUM, MUI for export (most stringent halal)
• Train the supply chain and sales team on handling finished goods and recalls
• Train and develop nine management trainees

Key achievement at Parle Biscuits Pvt Ltd

• Set up the Agro Lab for potato analysis at the Nashik unit for the first time in Parle
• Reduce snacks pouch leakages from 3 to 4 percent to less than 0.5 percent
• Develop a potato defects identification manual for an organization
• Started ETP operation by self instead of a third-party contract to reduce operating costs and ensure MPCB compliance
• FSSC certification of the Nashik unit
• HACCP certification at the Khopoli unit, new unit
• Corrected the Parle-G wrapper declaration mistake throughout the organization
• Achieved first rank in the National Convention on Quality Circle, Bangalore, in 2009

• Date of Birth: 11/01/82
• Gender: Male
• Nationality: Indian
• Marital Status: Married