We just had a BRC audit and have received a minor for not having current supplier quality certification on file. I manage the vendor and supplier approval process and as part of this process at the end of each month I run a report for expired documents. I then email each vendor, supply them with a list and a copy of the expired document and request a copy of their updated documents. So each month we will always have expired docs on file and it may take a week or two to get the replacements and update our data base. Now I did request these expired docs on the day of the audit (they would have fallen in the report I was to run at the end of this month) but the vendor didn't provide (not sure why - maybe away from their computer) so we get the minor non-conformance.
Now I know the BRC has a clause about doc control and docs being not more than 3 years (internal site documentation) - but what about doc control as part of our vendor and material approval process? I've had a look over the BRC but couldn't find anything specific, can anyone point me to a specific clause? I did have a search here as well but couldn't find a specific topic.
The alternative is to run my report in advance for docs due to expire the following month - either way of running a report we are always going to have expired docs on file. If I ask vendors for copies of docs yet to expire they may not even have copies available yet and they'll file the email away to follow-up and it gets forgotten so I still don't have the most current version on file.- I cannot see a way around this so the minor could wind up being a major as we have not "fixed" our process.
