Have you experienced an Unannounced Audit?
Please answer the July 2014 member poll and add your comments below.
Read Tony C’s latest blog post on the growing trend towards Unannounced Audits
Yes, this year I have had 3 so far!!
Totally farcical!!
Caz x
I like unannounced audits in theory though I have not yet had to deal with them.
Honestly any certified company is supposed to be always inspection ready. And as such they should be prepared for an auditor to knock on the door at any moment. Certified companies, for that purpose, are supposed to have backups for all positions to ensure that should any issue arise there is someone at the plant who is ready to take care of that situation.
However the truth of the matter is smaller places that have a low numbers of management staff may have a hard time dealing with an audit should a couple of their members of management leave for something work related or if one is on vacation and one has to leave for work purposes. It could cause places to fail that aren't really substandard suppliers.
I think in the end it will be a dual edged sword that will strike some down when they least suspect it. It could end up being the undoing of some of the food safety standards if some people leave SQF and BRC and look to find refuge under FSSC or other standards that don't require unannounced audits... We'll have to see how it goes.
Not yet, but I imagine when we go for/get BRC we will go that route.
None so far.
Yes, many times. It comes down to are you living audit ready, are you living the plan and the process? We in in QA get it, but too often those in production or upper management don't. :headhurts:
I've experienced two unannounced audits from regulatory vendors
But never from a 3rd party...yet. So I voted No.
At one facility, we had renters for one of our warehouses, and the auditor demanded to explore it, despite it not beign in our scope. Then he said it looked like shit. And I know it's gonna censor me there, but auditors cuss! That one did, all the time. He wasn't mean so much as eccentric, a quality which all auditors must have.
I'd imagine auditor hiring interviews go something like this :
Can you climb 50 ft in the air?
Sure
Can you tell the difference between red and green?
Sure
Are you comfortabel with 85% travel time?
Sign me up
How long have you worked in the food industry?
8 bajillion years
Do you have an eccentric quality that will make spending 8 hours with you hell on earth, or at the very least, trying on the nerves?
Yes
He wasn't mean so much as eccentric, a quality which all auditors must have.
Do you have an eccentric quality that will make spending 8 hours with you hell on earth, or at the very least, trying on the nerves?
Yes
While I have had a few nice auditors they have been the exception and not the rule. All of the travel must warp them.
What if there're no activities in plant when they come? Just looking around for a few minutes and write down on the report : " NO ACTIVITIES "
No surprise audits yet but when dealing with multinational corporate clients they have this clause covered in contarct that they may conduct on short notice , if systems are implemented in true sense than minimum acceptable level should be there all the time.
The intencity of compliance level shows Top Management Comitment !!!
At my previous employer all corporate audits were unannounced, and always at the most inopportune time. Also, AIB audits were treated as an unannounced audit. Corporate would schedule them and not inform the plants of the scheduled dates. I believe the Plant Manager would give blackout dates (usually around holidays when a lot of management would be on vacation) but other then that we had no idea when they would occur. It definitely made us audit ready at all times, although we liked to use the term 'tour ready'. On top of that, the regulatory audits that would take place throughout the year.
Current job we only do announced audits and are working towards the unannounced.
Four technical so far this year, one ethical, waiting for two more technical which I expect to be soon. It's the way of the world. Expect unannounced:
They're not half as bad as you think they're going to be
It forces operations to get more involved
Some might even happen when you're not on site, so get your team ready but also be happy when they do step up and you get to have a great audit while sitting on a beach. :-)
Yes,
serveral customer audits and a few weeks ago the first IFS Food Check
Rgds
moskito
Yep.
Also realised we will have another unannounced this year so we've had four technical, one ethical and waiting for three more technical.
The thing which gets me is why the EHO bothers coming round. We get audited to death!
Yes Simon
Or the Unethical Audit as we call it
Only wants to speak to the foreign nationals! how unethical is that??? Last time they were here, they were escorted off site by our MD for exactly that reason!
We're awaiting their next audit with interest!
Caz x
Yep.
Also realised we will have another unannounced this year so we've had four technical, one ethical and waiting for three more technical.
The thing which gets me is why the EHO bothers coming round. We get audited to death!
I'm considering having an open day, and inviting everyone, putting everything on power point, and saying "Go for it" let them ask their questions and be done with! :roflmao:
So fat I've had 3 unannounced, about a dozen customer audits , with about 4 already in the pipeline and 1 unannounced to come (but I sort of know when that's going to happen because of seasonality of our packing) , the unannounced ethical (if I ever agree their "window"). And it's only July!! :silly:
Caz x
I have not faced any so far. Neither do i see any client opt for it in my current position as an auditor!
FDA is always unannounced - we're on an annual schedule with them. Our AIB audits are also unannounced and I'm sure our next SQF audit will be unannounced (this will be our 4th 1).
last week we have announced audit from government intitution,
it was very screw up, because our security not experienced for this,
and auditor wait almost 1 hour, they very angry, because auditor camnderstande on break time and security doesnt understand how to manage such audit, so they make auditor wait until 1 hour, because security don't know PIC for this audit,
can anyone share SOP for announced audit,?
Our rule is, is that any auditor that shows up with a badge, the entire regulatory team is notified immediately. We all have cell phones, so if we don't answer the page over the intercom, we are called/texted/whatever to get the auditor taken care of. Don't want to be fined if we can't take care of an auditor. We have had auditors go so far (that were from federal agencies) as to threaten with calling the police if they couldn't start their audit within 10-15 minutes after arriving.
Yes, but only a minor council audit. We may as well have been showing a visitor around the factory it was that casual.
We had one audit when several key managers were off abroad, we just got other people involved, it may have taken the process slightly longer to get the information but it still worked very well and were awarded a grade A .
In my opinion the best way to know how well a management system is implemented is by an announced audit. I have been in both sides, being auditor and being audited. In both cases, when an announced audit in done, we all know, some changes are done in production and other department in order to avoid a hard audits days . For example, a deep cleanliness of the production and store areas just before the announced audit is a common thing . On the other hand, the system must be able to work properly even if the department director ( production or quality for example ) is on vacation. If you are client of a food factory and your product is done when, lets say, the quality manager is out, you want it done as he/she was at work, right? Regards
In the Wallmart ethical program anyone?
Hi Simon,
I have an incoming unannounced wal-mart ethical audit in the next 30 days. I'm concern about it specially I am not confident with the system and documentation practices. Any advice is highly appreciated.