Be prepared, we were trained by an approved BRC trainer (April 2015)the audit we went thorugh after being pre-assessed by the Technical director of our CB (May 2015), and the audit did not fare as well as expected (end of July 2015). The time commitment is an issue to watch for, if the audit is 20 hrs, there is a + or - of 30% additional time allowed in the guidance documents on BRC Participate. The auditor is required to spend 50% of the time on the floor, which will take away from documentation reviews.
Be aware of during the audit that the Non conformances must be identified, our auditor provided a blanket statement that if it is said it may come up later, we had a rushed closing meeting due to extension of time.
During the course of the audit, auditors may identify non-conformities or areas for further investigation. Any such non-conformities must be identified at the time to the site representative accompanying the auditor(s). This is important as it:
ensures that the potential non-conformity has not resulted from a misunderstanding, for example by allowing the information to be discussed with relevant people in the area
helps to avoid conflict at the closing meeting.
There arr other issues involved at this point and it is not meant to be a horror show review, but things to watch for.
The auditors were also told to drill further down than previously.
5.4 Questioning style
The preferred style of audit questioning can be shown as a ‘question funnel’ (see Figure 2).
Figure 2 the question funnel