Expired Vendor Certification

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.

Hi Liberator,

Do all the "documents"(?) actually change every month ? Do any ?

Offhand monthly  sounds a rather Draconian frequency compared to, say, a typical HACCP system review protocol if no major changes/events have occurred.

Hello Liberator,

What docs pertaining to vendor/suppliers that expires every month? Is it a contract? or Letter of guarantee? If CoA, it must be sent along with the product, If that monthly expiration is in your control which no regulations, standard has been violated, why make it longer lets say bi-annually.

regards, 

redfox

Most audits take place a couple of (or even 3) months before the certificate expires. Our system flags up 3 months before expiration, so I wait a while before contacting the supplier. It works well, but I would admit that I'm not as much on top of it as I should be. However, we've just had our BRC with only 1 minor (not countersigning all SAQ/approval docs).

Hey all,

thanks for your replies. I have a vendor and material data base which has well over 5,000 documents. On average ~10% of these expire each month so it is a huge task maintaining this data base. In this case a few of our vendors quality certificates (ISO, FSSC)  had expired and I was yet to chase up. As I've noted I typically run the report at the end of the month to capture the docs that expired over the month and then I chase these up from our Vendors. I have to do this manually as we don't have an automated system. I dump all of the data out of our database into excel. Sort it by date expired and then flag the docs that need updating and chase these up with our vendors. Id actually had a couple of the certificates sent back via email to me but hadn't yet uploaded them to our data base. gave these tot he auditor and he was ok with that. However the ones that had only expired at the start of this month, 2/10, I hadn't yet requested because they wouldn't have been in my report until the end of this month. I'd requested copies from our vendor on the day of the audit but I'm still waiting on their reply. I'm going to change my methodology for my expired docs report. When I run it I'll run it at the end of the month I select the current month and the following month so I can be more proactive in asking for certificates that have expired as well as ones that are due to expire. I don't like asking for certificates that are due to expire as if the vendor doesn't have them at the time the email is received it can be set aside and missed. It won't matter how I do it I know I'm going to always have some expired documents in the database. That's the nature of the beast but then I'll have evidence that the docs have been requested.

Hi Liberator,

It all sounds like a classic case for applying some commercial tracking software to "Liberate" QA.

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Hi Liberator,

I would run your report and requests a month earlier. Normally I would expect a supplier to have a new certificate before their old one expires. 

Kind regards,

Tony

Can you change the report so it lists which documents will expire in a month or two?  That would give you time to get updated documents before the current one expires.

Best you can do is have the report run a month or two before they expire and send before expiring.  Even then you won't get it 100% of the time.  Yes, a tracking software tool is great if your company wants to foot the bill....many do not and in my opinion they are more of a PITA.  I've dealt with over 5,000 materials and 400 vendors and a software program is more of a PITA.

I can't believe you got a minor...sounds very picky since you are proactive in getting the documents updated, but then again it makes me wonder how you drafted your vendor approval process.  If you drafted in such a way where you do not allow any expired documents then I suggest you rewrite your vendor program to give you more flexibility.

In ours, I even provide a statement, "If documents are not renewed prior to any specified expiration date a risk assessment is completed."  The risk assessment is very simple:

1.  Is this document required to ensure continued safety/quality of the ingredient/material?

2.  Have there been previous vendor safety/quality issues?

If no on both then no big deal.  If yes on one or more further assessment required.