All companies, regardless of their size, have a certain number of suppliers, who must ensure quality standards, food safety and compliance with legislative aspects.
Suppliers are responsible for supplying raw and auxiliary materials, directly influencing the quality and safety of the final product. For this reason, to guarantee consumer safety and satisfaction, it is advisable to carry out supplier audits.
What are supplier audits?
The supplier audit is a continuous improvement tool in order to evaluate the supply chain. They provide transparency to companies since the way of working, infrastructures, systems and processes of the suppliers is exhaustively controlled.
The audits promote trust between the supplier and the customer. They also ensure compliance with quality standards and regulatory requirements relating to products, thus reducing risks that may arise in the supply chain.
For the proper functioning of an audit, an established order must be followed. The phases that make up this type of audits are the following:
- 1. Preparation. Prior to the audit, checklists are developed that will help to point out the strengths and weaknesses of the audited company. For this, check lists or standards developed by entities such as GFSI or the client's own can be taken as a reference.
- 2. Audit development. All information, evidence, testimonies are collected, and a report is prepared with all the findings found to draw conclusions and be able to present final results. Findings found in past audits should also be considered and verify that the necessary corrective actions have been implemented.
- 3. CAPA Plan verification. After delivery of the report with the findings found, the implementation of the corrective actions is verified. For an effective application of these actions it is necessary to understand what is the root cause of the problem. Only in this way will we achieve continuous improvement in our system.
How to develop your supplier audit plan?
Audit planning is essential. Thanks to them we have a global vision of the amount of work the company faces. To plan audits, the following aspects should be deemed:
- -Select providers. If the number of suppliers in a company is high, it is possible that they cannot all be audited in the same year. Factors such as manufacturing volumes, history, potential risks, number of incidents, etc. can be considered for this selection.
- -Schedule audits. Audit dates must be specified for each supplier. In the same way, an agenda must be organized with the schedule of the activities to be carried out for each audit.
What can provide supplier audits?
Carrying out supplier audits can provide a series of advantages that are described below:
- -Good manufacturing practices are guaranteed by the supplier.
- -Reduction of risks in the supply chain until it is received.
- -Transparency of supplier processes, encouraging trust between the supplier and the client.
- -Know the level of competence of suppliers.
How can we help from Repaq?
At Repaq we have expert technicians with high knowledge and experience in the development of audits according to different quality standards and food safety of the product. During 2020, a total of more than 50 system audits were carried out.
Thanks to our team we can offer our support in:
- -Development of the supplier management plan according to its risk criteria.
- -Carrying out audits to your suppliers according to:
- ISO or GFSI norms standards
- Customer's own standards
- -Development of customized standards for the client.
With a good plan you get great audit results. Are you sure your suppliers meet the necessary requirements? Repaq gives you the support you need. And remember: we are the only official BRC Packaging consultants in Spain. Contact us!
