Is it Mandatory to include Company Name on Documents?

There is a debate that is on going currently whether or not the company name should be placed on all forms/documents used within the plant.

An auditing company (SQF) said yes during an audit because of document control. 

The concern is that someone could remove a document and give it to a media outlet or send it to a customer.

Any thoughts?

All of our documents are branded with our logo (which is our name).  In the footer, all are marked "Confidential - Do Not Distribute Externally", staff is trained not to release controlled documents without authorization.  Short of someone intentionally giving away our documents, there is little chance of them being taken out.

One way to get around this is to use watermarked paper with your company name/logo with personnel control on use of the paper.  No company name would then need to be on the electronic copy.

Technically, no.  You do not have to do that.  That is the auditor's OPINION.  Ask them to show you in the standard where it says you have to have the company name on all documents.  They can't because it's not there.  If you can show you are properly controlling your documents, it should be a non-issue. 

One of our sister company's went through something similar where the auditor said they must have bulk trucks sealed with a number and name on the tag because in their opinion, that was the only way to ensure product safety, when in fact, there are other ways.  No where in the standard did it say they must use seals with numbers & logos. 

My company seems to change it's name more often than I would care for.  I now refer to it as "the Company" within the text of all our documents.  Most procedures have our company logo, but aside from that not all instructions or forms do.  If you were written up for this, you would be well within your rights to appeal it, because that requirement doesn't exist in the standard.

The standard does not call for company name or logo to be used. As long as the requirements are met then the opinion of the auditor does not stand up in regard to specific requirements.

G

The standard does not stipulate that,  moreover having the name of the company placed on all the forms/ documents does not ensure document control.

Document control ensures that current documents are approved by the competent persons, distributed to the places where they are used, and that old and obsolete versions are removed and achived. Document control has to do with the content of the document versions of the document and distribution records of the document.

I choose to use the company name and site (since we are a multi-site facility). However, there is no requirement to do so.

In addition we watermark our documents to say Printed documents are not document controlled.. or words to that effect.

Marshall