8 replies to this topic

[Agnieszka]

Hi,

 

We had recently been audited on behalf of Lidl. 

Third party auditor told us that they are auditing against BRC requirements and specific guidance from Lidl, but they are not allow to share it with us. 

Has anyone experience similar ?

[Simon]

Hi,

 

We had recently been audited on behalf of Lidl. 

Third party auditor told us that they are auditing against BRC requirements and specific guidance from Lidl, but they are not allow to share it with us. 

Has anyone experience similar ?

 

Let me get this straight the auditor was auditing you against specific Lidl guidance, but they could not share with you what the audit criteria was.

 

How does that work?

[chilly]

Very true, a sister Company had the same take - Audit, but no criteria - "unannounced Audit" was the veiled answer. IMO most manufacturers are now "hostages" of their Discounter/Supermarket giants - "Tesco Syndrome".

[Vladimir Surcinski]

Dear all, 

 

I am also auditor for supplier audits performed in behalf of Delhaize Serbia. Here is obligatory to share the report at the end of audit, and all suppliers got there requirement in the beginning of cooperation with Delhaize.

 

So you can perform two things:

1. Check with persons or department responsible for communication with LIDL, did they get the requirements maybe

2. Send the question to LIDL responsible department for food safety or quality and ask them about requirements, and i am sure that they will send you that.

3. You can also check on web next things GFSI Global Markets Capacity Building Programme Basic (B) Level Assessor Guideline and GFSI Global Markets Capacity Building Programme Basic (B) and Intermediate (I) Level Assessor Guideline, since this is primarily guidelines used by retailers for defining audit requirements. 

 

Hope i helped :)

 

VS 

[Agnieszka]

Let me get this straight the auditor was auditing you against specific Lidl guidance, but they could not share with you what the audit criteria was.

 

How does that work?

We had unannounced as we are due our first production for Lidl. auditor told us we are being audited against BRC7 requirements + for some of the closes he has guidance notes from Lidl.

During the audit auditor has asked some questions and we have answered them to certain level but he has checked the notes from Lidl and they were quite specific about the risk assessments and testing we were required to have in place etc. 

 

The scoring system was different as well and some of the questions could be only scored as compliant or critical (!) but getting critical NC dwould not affect supply etc. There was no grading of the audit as well. 

During the audit we have asked several times about the specifics but we have been told that we will not receive it. On the closing meeting we have received the list of NC and we should receive the report soon.

 

We have contacted our technical contact at Lidl and have been told that they do not share this information with their suppliers.

I have never been in this kind of relation with the customer and have wondered if anyone had similar experience?

[Ian R]

Hi

Try this one

 

We had an audit in which we got a non conformance for not having a specific procedure in place.

 

When we challenged the auditor that this procedure was not mentioned in the standard the reply was:

"You are correct, it hasn't been added to the standard yet, but we have to give you a non conformance to remind you to put it in place once you know you need to put in place"

 

At least Lidl have guidance notes, that you can't see, rather than being audited against clauses that don't yet exist

 

rdgs

[moskito]

Hello,

 

the fact is true. Auditors are performing unannounced audits on the basis of IFS in Germany. But the assessment is done on Lidl requirements which customers does not receive before - no transparency. Only the text with NC is visible in the report. After several audits you are able to combine the informations....

There is a difference in working with Tesco, ASDA, M&S etc and Lidl.

 

Rgds

moskito

[IzzyP]

I recently had a Lidl audit (2 weeks ago), and it's not that bad.

 

They do make a lot of GMO and GMO risk assessments / testing, which to be honest, any good technical manager will have already done.

 

I had a non-conformance because I hadn't done a trace exercise back to source. Bit difficult when the raw ingredients hadn't yet arrived, and it is supplied by our customer as free issue, who then took 6 days to do a trace! The auditor was very apologetic and to be honest, I can live with 1 non-conformance!

[SBS Can QA]

Hi,

 

We had recently been audited on behalf of Lidl. 

Third party auditor told us that they are auditing against BRC requirements and specific guidance from Lidl, but they are not allow to share it with us. 

Has anyone experience similar ?

Just had the same experience here in Alaska. :) Still hoping to get a copy of their standard and product specifications relating to our particular products.

Cheers! <*)))><