Dear Dave,
I am having really a tough time... as most of the vendors we have are from long time... and my company had not asked such documents from vendor in past.. i joind the company few months ago.. and now that i am trying to get this info and getting such kind of answers..... I know i am not the only one who faced this problem but i am also bound by deadlines for SQF audit..
I sympathise, have had some experience of this situation (but not SQF) before. I used 2 stages, initially with gentle (ie polite) request to managing director, eg current requirements for our approval to XYZ standard demands that our suppliers provide us with abcd documentation ( stating your necessary kind of input, best illustrated with an example IMEX, [minimises wriggle factor
]). Add time frame for response (eg 1 month)plus promise to give full assistance in case any difficulties then wait. IMEX this will work for the decent / more organised suppliers and not for the "don't cares" or simply unorganised (unsafe ??). There is a temptation to ask for un-necessary data, it is critical to mimimise / simplify one's request as far as possible IMO.
Some responses rapidly appeared but were technically useless. These were immediately followed up by phone to relevant QA (who normally were immediately "burdened with replying" of course) with suitable expressions of appreciation for response followed by an explanation of difficulty. Results then achieved were across the whole knowledge spectrum as you can expect. Occasionally, extraordinary patience is required.
After 1 month I upped the pressure one more (written) notch for non-respondents, eg have noticed that we hv not yet received a response to our request of ...... Please be informed that we are obliged to include a list of approved suppliers for our shortly to be submitted application for certification to XYZ. This requires our having documentation as requested ... on file. Please act accordingly.
I then allowed 1 more week after which you hv to make some decisions.(eg telephone calls for final demands)
The tricky (and personally dangerous part) IMHO is what latitude you actually have vis-a-vis yr own company / senior management. I had backing to simply eject people who didn't respond (or were proven totally incapable) in above scheme (initially 50% response, ultimately 80% pass after considerable sweat, coaching and deliberation
). But, if management are actually happy with the current status quo and other circumstances are dictating the new action (eg Group Policy), very careful treading indeed is required. This depends on the exact situation.
Rgds / Charles.C