Unfortunately , audits are changing, and I'm not sure if its for the better.
In principle, I agree with an unannounced audit scheme. But for everybody to do it??
I've now signed up, against my better judgement, to unannounced BRC & ASDA. I already have a couple of unannounced customer audits. I don't mind doing an unannounced audit, we've nothing to hide.
Last year, 1 of my customers conducted 12 audits. 12 I hear you say! 4 from my technologist , 2 of their customers came on 2 consecutive days (then I had an unannounced from one of their customers on the 3rd day), and the rest were their customer visits. And to top it, after conducting 4 audits, my technologist asked me to complete an SAQ!!!!
This has taken out 12 days of my time. Never mind the time it takes out of my peers days. Those are 12 days I'm never going to get back.
Now, by signing up to ASDA unannounced, I'm sure I can expect a CIP audit, a HACCP audit and a FB audit. On top of this, I have just paid for the (un)ethical audit. The costs of all these audits and for my time, far out weight any profit we are making on the product.
I keep a rag report of all of our non-conformances, from all of my audits (BRC, customers etc) and last year, that barely made it into double figures.
I'm passionate about this (as Simon et al will probably agree with), apart from the costs , I'm almost inclined just to employ someone to conduct audits (internal , 3rd party etc); so I can actually get on with the job I'm employed to do!
So yes, they can have my bloody BRC report if it means they aren't going to darken my door!
Caz x